Your carpet is one of the most important features of your home. It is not as eye-catching as any feature or furniture, but it can make a subtle difference to your home looking clean and fresh, or dirty and drab.

A simple but highly effective tip to maintaining your carpet is to use doormats at entrances to your home. It is also a good idea to have a mat at any transition from a hard surface onto carpet, as it greatly reduces the amount of soil transferred onto your carpet.

The most important piece of advice in carpet care is however, vacuuming. Vacuuming should be carried out regularly and thoroughly, particularly on areas where the carpet receives heavy traffic. Wear of carpeting is increased by the amount of soil that is trampled into it; oily soil being the worst offender.

Frequent vacuuming prevents the soil build up and thus giving you clean results each time. The longer you leave the vacuuming, the less clean you will be able to get your carpet. Slow and firm strokes with the vacuum will achieve more than hurrying, and should aim to complete four passes of the backward and forward motion over the same area for a thorough clean.

If the carpet has not been cleaned thoroughly in some time, it is likely that your home portable vacuum cleaner will not be up to the job. Hiring a professional machine can get your carpet back up to standard. It is recommended to maintain a long life for your carpet it should receive a deep clean every 12 – 18 months.

The hot water extraction system or ‘steam cleaning’ as it is known provides a good method of deep carpet cleaning. A solution of water and detergent is sprayed into the carpet pile, and then is sucked out by a powerful vacuum which recovers the water and the soil from the carpet. The receiving unit can either be a portable system which you can hire yourself, or an exterior truck mounted unit.

If you decide to opt for a home hot water extraction/steam cleaning system, it is important not to get the carpet too wet. The detergents should be chemically active enough and safe enough so as to not require a great amount of water. Wetting your carpet too much can cause it to shrink, to brown, lose its adhesiveness and all sorts of problems.

To help prepare your carpet for a shampoo or hot water extraction, sweep the carpet first. This will make the pile stand up and loosen any deep down dirt. If this itself can be improved by vacuuming, you may not need a shampoo.

To avoid dents and depressions from heavy furniture or large objects the best piece of advice is to move their position slightly from time to time.

In the instance where your carpet has already been grooved, brush the dented carpet or try to loosen it with a grooming tool. Then using a steam iron and holding it about 2/3 inches above the carpet, steam the area and tuft up the dent with your fingers. If the carpet contains any kind of acrylic, you can set a hair dryer to warm instead as steam could melt the fibres.

Quick Tips:
Test your carpet before starting any scrubbing, extracting or spotting cleans. Some carpets can be sensitive to acidic cleaners and some to alkalis and can lose their dye.
Always clean up spills and accidents as they happen. Most dirt can be removed if attended to quickly. Only when it left to react does it become a ‘stain’.
Never rub or brush spots; always work from the outside in and then soak it into a paper towel or cloth.
Do not overuse any carpet chemicals, or you will be left with residue in the carpet that cannot be vacuumed.
Wool carpet is ideal material as its texture and resilience means that it is easily cleanable, harder to dent and harder to get soiled.