The Ugly Truth About Dirty Carpets

Why You Should Never Neglect Carpet Cleaning?

There are plenty of things people, including you, probably take for granted. Things you walk all over without giving them a second thought, literally.

When’s the last time you thought about the carpet  under your feet? A month ago? A year ago? When you had it installed? Maybe you moved in with the carpet there? No matter your situation, your carpet is almost always way dirtier than you think. And that, while a little gross, is actually worrying for a whole other reason. Dirty carpets are dangerous.

The thing about dirty carpets is that they might not necessarily look like they need a cleaning. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, after reading these 10 facts, you might feel inclined to flip through the yellow pages to call the professionals from Pro Carpet Cleaning Sydney to get that soft floor cleaned asap.

Here are 10 facts about dirty carpets (you probably didn’t know)

1. Carpets attract greasy residue and dirt

Every day oily residue from the rooms in your home and your family pets (if you have them) is carried in from outside and dries onto your carpet. This residue attracts and “locks-in” dirt to your carpet fibers.

Given time, this dirt can actually change the color of your carpet and can be compounded. If left this can lead to unsightly traffic lanes and can become permanent.

2. Sandy soil is tearing your carpet apart

If you have ever got down close to your carpet and parted the pile you might have been shocked to find a sand pit of soil in your carpet that cannot be reached by home vacuum cleaners.

This dirt isn’t usually visible but is grinding your carpet and upholstery away every time you walk or sit on your carpets.

3. Your carpets could be harboring many germs and making you ill

Your carpet does a valuable job by acting as a filter, trapping damaging air pollutants like pollen, fungi, chemicals, bacteria, cigarette smoke, tars, and residues. Sounds terrible right? The trouble is once the carpet gets “full” it no longer traps or holds these air pollutants. These trapped pollutants can only be removed with regular professional carpet cleaning. It makes sense to clean them right?

4. Bad news for asthma, allergy, eczema and rhinitis sufferers

Carpets can become infested with dust mites whose droppings can trigger asthma attacks and can trap allergy-inflaming proteins which are known to trigger asthma, eczema and rhinitis attacks.

Quite often people are searching for a solution to their conditions and the problem may well be right under your feet. For those who have environmental allergies, this can be a serious health issue.

In fact, dirty carpets can lead to serious health problems in otherwise healthy people.

5. Carpets can get heavy with dirt

Did you know that your carpets can hold as much as four times their weight in dirt, and possibly even more? Carpets are a catch-all for dirt, with dust mites, pet hair, pet urine, dead skin cells, dust, insect feces, insect husks, bacteria, mold, volatile organic compounds, and many other types of allergens clinging to the fibers.

It is important that you clean your carpets regularly. While it is important to vacuum at least once or twice each week, this is just not enough.

You also need to have your carpets professionally cleaned, to make sure that all of these allergens are removed from the carpet fibers.

6. Forget the 5-second rule

You may not think that your carpets are dirty, but people openly admit to spilling food on the carpet and eating it. If your carpets are dirty, just think about what you are actually putting into your stomach. Forget that five-second rule. Bacteria can live for up to four weeks in carpeting

7. Remove your shoes before you walk in your carpets

Most people admit to walking on their carpets while wearing their outdoor shoes. This not only tracks dirt into the house, it also grinds it into the carpets, and vacuuming alone isn’t going to get rid of this.

It’s also common for people to move furniture around to cover stains in their carpets rather than clean the stains. Spills should be cleaned immediately, to prevent stains from forming.

8. The Norovirus

Also known as the Norwalk virus, Norovirus causes symptoms similar to food poisoning or even the stomach flu. It can survive in your carpet for four to six weeks, and it becomes airborne as people walk or roll across it.

9. More bugs than your toilet seat

Carpeting can be a great flooring option at home. It adds warmth, comfort and feels good on bare feet. But because of all the traffic it encounters, it tends to get pretty dirty over time.

It’s a germ hotspot and can be 4,000 times dirtier than your toilet seat and they can also have many different organisms living in them.

10. Regular cleaning

Let’s face it, we all wash on a regular basis. We all wash our clothes regularly too. Perhaps you wear a top once and then wash it? is it because it looks dirty? Or is it because it’s harboring germs?

Most of us overlook the amount of dirt and germs that exist in a carpet because it’s way down the list of jobs. If you want to remove dangerous bacteria and other pollutants from your carpet, you essentially have two choices:

• DIY Carpet cleaning
• Professional Carpet Cleaning

Professional carpet cleaning can successfully remove about 98 percent of dirt and pollutants from your carpets. However, if you only do it once every six months, a lot of bacteria could flourish on your carpets in between cleaning.