Your home's carpeting helps make your home's interior more comfortable and less noisy when there is a lot of foot traffic. Caring for your carpeting can help it last as long as possible and look nice for just as long. Here are some recommendations to help you complete regular maintenance on your carpeting and to deal with any mold growth you may encounter.
Keep Your Carpets Clean
One of the main ways carpeting can look dirty and dingy is from a lack of or improper regular cleaning. When your carpeting becomes dirty from tracked in dirt from the bottoms of your shoes, the pieces of dirt act like tiny blades, which scratch the surface of your carpeting's fibers. As the fibers become scratched, it makes them look dull and dirty and actually wears off the coating on each carpeting fiber, which allows them to collect dirt more easily.
To prevent damage occurring to your carpeting, you should vacuum your carpeting regularly, especially in high-traffic areas. High traffic areas should be vacuumed every few days, depending on the amount of traffic in your home. Don't sweep the vacuum quickly over your carpets, but move the vacuum slowly back and forth making several passes. This will help to pull up all dirt and dust that has settled between the fibers of your carpeting.
Make sure your vacuum's brushes are set on the appropriate setting to pull up dirt, but doesn't damage your carpeting. To determine the appropriate setting, test your vacuum, setting the brush on progressively lower settings until you feel the bristles tug on your vacuum when you move it over the carpeting.
After you are finished vacuum, empty out the canister of your vacuum if you are using a bag-less vacuum, and replace or wash out your vacuum's filters regularly. If your vacuum has a bag, be sure to replace it before it becomes completely full. This helps your vacuum work as efficiently as possible to pull dirt from the carpet's fibers.
Remove Mold Stains
Mold growth on your carpeting should be cleaned up as soon as possible to prevent adverse health affects to you and your family. If the carpeting is an area rug you can move outside, take it outside for its cleaning. This prevents the mold spores from becoming airborne and spread through your home.
Use a broom to sweep the surface of the mold to loosen the spores, then vacuum the carpeting with your vacuum to remove as much mold as possible. Move the vacuum back and forth over the carpeting slowly to pull up the spores. Immediately empty the canister of your bag-less cleaner into the outside trash. If your vacuum is not bag-less, replace the bag with a new one and place the old bag into the outside trash.
Next, mix up a bucket of warm water and several squirts of liquid dish soap. Use the soapy mixture and a sponge to scrub at the mold, rinsing the sponge and rubbing the mold until it is no longer visible in the carpeting. Blot up the excess moisture in the rug with a dry towel and let the carpeting sit in the sun to dry.
If your carpeting is wall-to-wall and you cannot remove it outside to clean, you should use a steam cleaner to remedy the mold. Combine a cleaning mixture in your carpet cleaning solution bucket with water mixed with either one cup of Lysol or bleach, but not both, as they will create dangerous fumes when they are combined.
With your carpet cleaner, spray the cleaning solution over the mold in the carpeting and let it sit for 15 to 20 minutes. Then, suck up the solution and the bleach with your carpet cleaning machine. The Lysol or bleach will kill the mold spores before the cleaner sucks them up from the carpeting. Use fans to circulate the air in the room and also your home's furnace to help dry the carpeting and prevent a repeated mold growth.
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