This was a discussion we had this week with Mark Strum, principal in the firm Corporate Care, the Houston, Texas based commercial flooring and fabric care service company. Corporate Care is a unique company focused on specialty maintenance in the corporate sector serving some of the largest metropolitan markets in the US. Their client list reads like the who’s who of corporate America.

Why is it that carpet uglies out, a term coined by the way by Tom Jones, one of the founders of J&J Industries, many years ago when he said, “carpet doesn’t wear out, it uglies out.” Simply, the wrong carpet gets sold and installed into the wrong environment, be it commercial or residential. For example you can’t install a cut pile beige carpet in a freight corridor and you can’t use a bright yellow carpet in the family room of a home with four kids, a dog, cat and a husband who works as a mechanic that refuses to take his shoes off. These are environments that carpets are destined to fail in. Even when the correct carpet gets installed it can’t just be left to fend for itself without being maintained. You have to question how the carpet is going to be used and determine what will work best. This has to be done by actually going to look at where the carpet is going to be installed and seeing for yourself how the product that is currently installed has performed. I know I’ve mentioned this before but the issue of maintaining carpet is becoming a bigger and bigger problem for the industry.

Let’s take a look at the types of soil that will affect carpet. Dry soil, which is the majority of what comes in contact with the product, is most often tracked in from outside. This type of soil is sharp and jagged and if not removed it will cut, fray, abrade and mat the fiber greatly affecting the life and appearance of the product. Oily soil is also tracked in but can come from the air and HVAC systems. Oily soil attaches itself to the fiber making it more difficult to remove. It can cause darkened traffic lanes, matting and even discoloration if not properly attended to. Wet soiling comes from spillage of beverages and food stuffs, which if strong enough and not removed promptly and properly, can permanently affect the carpet.

The key to preventing ugly out is to install the correct carpet with the proper construction, fiber and color and maintain it religiously. Unless you do this you can count on having problems. The first line of defense in maintenance is to vacuum properly. Properly means not speeding over the carpet trying to break the land speed record and using a vacuum cleaner that actually picks up dirt. Most people just buzz over the carpet, actually it takes several passes in the same area to thoroughly remove dry particle soils. There should also be a “track off” system such as a walk off mat or some similar device to insure foot traffic coming into the home or business is free of the most damaging soils before it gets to the actual flooring material. This is true of not only carpet but hard surface flooring as well. The larger the walk off area the cleaner you’ll keep the carpet.

Vacuuming frequency should be based on the level of traffic flow and/or soiling in the area. Some people have a fetish about vacuuming but don’t fret because you can’t over vacuum a carpet. In addition to walk off mats and regular vacuuming, carpets require a planned maintenance program to remove all soils on a consistent basis. The question is frequently asked, “how often should I clean my carpet?” The answer is, “before it starts to show soiling.” Depending on the traffic load, type of traffic, degree of soiling, color of the carpet, the environment, inside and outside of the installation site, and conditions being experienced at different times, such as a construction or remodeling project, the cleaning frequency will vary. As a rule of thumb residentially, the carpet should be cleaned once a year with a cleaning system that uses cleaning chemicals that won’t cause resoiling. Commercially a schedule of continuing maintenance should be employed. It is possible to clean the carpet and make it look worse if the right cleaning agents aren’t used. Some of the best known, most aggressively marketed cleaning products are actually the worst things you can use on your carpets.

Properly cleaned and maintained, carpet will last long beyond what one might expect and it will stay looking good in the process, this is actually true of any floor covering material. It’s also important that manufacturers maintenance instructions be followed and all manufacturers should actually have maintenance instructions. Following care and cleaning instructions will maintain the warranties and keep the carpet looking good. There are a variety of cleaning methods available for use on carpet and not all of them work well on every piece of carpet. The truly professional carpet maintenance firm or cleaner should have an arsenal of methods, techniques, chemicals and equipment to properly clean and care for the end users carpet.

Keeping carpet from ugling out should be the goal of all users and suppliers of the product. It would be nice if this was the case but in reality we all know that it isn’t because everyone is not going to care enough to see this happen. You might think keeping the carpet looking good longer would hurt sales of the product, quite the contrary is true. Carpet that actually performs as expected is the best endorsement to keep buying the stuff and using it in more places.