The carpet in your facility represents a significant financial investment. The appearance of the carpet also strongly affects the overall image of the facility. Proper maintenance of the carpet will both extend the life of your financial investment and contribute to a healthy and aesthetically pleasing environment for all building occupants and visitors. A comprehensive maintenance program is critical for ensuring that your carpet retains its appearance and that it won’t need to be replaced prematurely.
At first sight, implementing a comprehensive carpet maintenance program may appear a daunting task. This article will provide the basics to get you started. It will also guide you to more comprehensive, authoritative information on carpet maintenance. You will then be in a knowledgeable position to work with your janitorial service contractor in setting up a program that is right for your facility.
Carpet maintenance should be proactive, not reactive. We can understand this principle if we look at the nature of carpet soil. Carpet soil has two components: dry soil and oily soil. Dry soil consists of dust, clay, sand and other silicates. Oily soil includes resins, gums, greases and fats. Most dry soil can be removed with regular vacuuming. The problem is the oily soil. Oily soil not only adheres to the carpet fibers, it also attracts and holds dry soil to the carpet. Oily soil is the main reason for poor carpet appearance.
Reactive carpet maintenance implies that the carpet is allowed to become soiled and deteriorate in appearance before it is cleaned. This approach will result in shorter carpet life, and the appearance often cannot be brought back to an acceptable level. In a proactive carpet maintenance program, regularly scheduled cleaning removes soil before it builds up and damages the carpet fibers. Carpet should therefore be cleaned before the appearance deteriorates, which no longer seems paradoxical once the nature of carpet soiling is understood.
A comprehensive carpet maintenance program has three components: (1) Preventive, (2) Interim and (3) Restorative.
Preventive maintenance aims to prevent soil from getting on the carpet in the first place or to at least reduce the amount of soil that enters the facility. The primary method of preventive maintenance is the use of mats. Walk-off mats at entrances and other key points (inside elevators, in front of reception or teller counters, in vending areas, etc.) help trap soil before it gets tracked throughout the building. Entrance mats should allow for at least five steps across (about 12 to 15 feet) and should be vacuumed daily and changed regularly.
Other preventive maintenance steps include: (a) keeping outside areas clean, such as parking lots, garages and sidewalks, (b) restrict eating and drinking to specific areas of the facility, and (c) maintaining your HVAC system.
Interim maintenance includes vacuuming, spot removal and restorative cleaning of high-traffic areas. Regular vacuuming is the single most important procedure for maintaining carpet. Vacuuming removes dry soil before it abrades the carpet fibers and before it is bound to the fibers by oily soil. Vacuum frequencies can vary depending on the traffic area. High-traffic areas include entrances, lobbies, elevator landings and elevator floors, reception areas, lounges and primary aisles and corridors. High-traffic areas should be vacuumed daily. Moderate or light-traffic areas such as offices, conference rooms and secondary aisles and corridors should be vacuumed at least two or three times a week.
A good commercial vacuum cleaner should remove the soil and not allow it to recirculate and become airborne. The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) identifies vacuum cleaners that meet strict standards for soil removal and dust containment. These vacuums bear a green label that assures they meet the standards for effective cleaning and indoor air quality. Your janitorial service provider should be using a vacuum affixed with a CRI “green label”.
Another aspect of interim maintenance is spot removal. Spots and spills should be removed promptly. Building occupants can help by blotting spills with paper towels as soon as they occur. (Don’t rub the spot from center to edge as this can spread the stain. Simply blot as dry as possible.) Inform the cleaning staff of fresh spots and stains. They can use professional spot removal techniques before the stain sets.
Restorative maintenance is deep cleaning, intended to restore the carpet to near its initial appearance. Deep cleaning removes embedded abrasive soils and oily soils. Remembering our proactive approach, restorative maintenance should be performed before the soil is readily visible. There are several methods of restorative cleaning, but the most common method (and most recommended by carpet manufacturers) is hot water extraction. In hot water extraction, a machine sprays hot water and detergent into the carpet pile under pressure and then removes (extracts) the water, detergent and loosened soil with a powerful vacuum. Other methods include dry compound, foam shampoo, rotary shampoo and bonnet cleaning.
When considering interim and restorative maintenance, appropriate frequencies can be determined based on traffic areas. High- traffic areas should be cleaned more frequently than moderate or light-traffic areas. This provides the Facility Manager flexibility in designing a comprehensive carpet maintenance program. For example, all the carpet in the facility could be cleaned by hot water extraction twice a year and the high traffic areas cleaned quarterly or bi-monthly.
For more comprehensive and authoritative information on carpet maintenance, visit the Carpet and Rug Institute’s website, www.carpet-rug.org. The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) is the national trade organization for the carpet and rug industry, whose members are manufacturers and suppliers providing over 90% of all carpet produced in the United States.
Another useful website is www.antron.net This site contains information on the selection and specification of carpet as well as many other resources and tools. (Antron is a brand of nylon carpet)
Terry Patton
Operations Manager, ESS Clean, Inc.