You’ve been living in your brand new home for less than a year and already the carpet in the lounge is starting to flatten. What is going on? What can you do?
Carpet flattening or pile packing is caused by the loss of yarn resilience. When carpet starts to flatten it will start to lose its elasticity (or springiness). Different types of carpet have different levels of resilience. For example, nylon and wool have excellent resilience, Polypropylene (Olefin) is the poorest while polyester and acrylic fall somewhere in between. It is important to note that pile packing is unavoidable and over time a carpet (regardless of its resilience strength) will eventually lose some of its elasticity.
Unfortunately, a flattened carpet is a damaged carpet and may need the help of a professional carpet restorer to return it to its original fluffiness. You may be able to ‘hide’ the affected areas by strategically placing a potted plant or small furniture above it. But really, the best thing for any homeowner to do is to take simple measures before pile packing occurs.
The solution is not to keep its springiness forever but to maintain it for as long as possible so you do not have to spend more money recarpeting your home.
Why does pile packing occur?
Wear and tear is the obvious answer. The other is dirt, dust, grime and other pollutants that our carpets are constantly exposed to.
We live in a very dirty world – a fact we’d do well to remember for both new and old carpet. Acid, soot, asphalt, industrial gases, pesticides, herbicides, lawn fertilizer, dust, grit, food residues are all commonplace and every one of these elements can damage our carpet and harm our health and wellbeing.
We carry these pollutants (and a great many others) into our homes on the soles of our shoes, our clothing and even on our bodies. To these we add hair, skin cells, food crumbs, beverage spills, pet accidents, cooking vapours as well as a hoard of residues from a wide range of chemicals inherent in the products we use in the home including cleaning chemicals, disinfectants, deodorizers, air fresheners, polishes – to name but a few.
Obviously there can be many ingredients in the wide variety mentioned above that can cause these substances to stick to carpet yarn. The oil and grease we track indoors from streets and parking lots are among the worst. Once grease and oil have begun to adhere to carpet yarn, the gummy consistency not only attracts still more, but also provides the adhesive for would be vacuum-able soils that get pressed into the tacky substance under foot.
Likewise soil, dirt and grit we tracked indoors with our shoes can get trapped in the carpet fibres and become an abrasive agent to wear down the fibres when we step on them.
As the accumulating filth increases in both mass and weight, yarn resilience becomes progressively impaired. Eventually, continuous traffic over dirty carpeting will cause the pile to stick flat to the backing.
Will cleaning restore yarn resilience?
The more soil permitted to accumulate in carpet and the longer it is permitted to remain packed, the less likely cleaning is to restore yarn resilience. Continued traffic over soiled carpeting destroys resilience. Cleaning can loft the pile; but when traffic resumes the pile will lay down again almost immediately.
Oil, grease and stains on carpet can be removed with the right stain removal technique but if not done right they can cause more damage to the carpet. Ugly stains ingrained into carpet fibres are hard to remove with store bought stain removals.
How to prolong your carpet resilience
There are ways you can take to prevent pile packing and prolong your carpet’s resilience.
Here are list of things you can do:
- Don’t wear street shoes or work boots into the home. Leave the old gumboot outside the backdoor.
- Place a mat outside all entrances/exits and make sure you use it before you step into your house. The mat can catch most of the surface dirt, grit and soil on the soles of your shoe and minimises transfer indoors.
- Try not to eat and drop food or beverage all over the carpet.
- If you have to eat or drink and you spilled some of it on the carpet, attend to the spill immediately.
- If you see any signs of damage in your carpet, get in touch with a professional carpet restorer immediately. Do not let the damage increase with time.
- Avoid putting heavy furniture or appliances on your carpet.
- Rotate pots and furniture regularly so the carpet pile can have time to breathe and recover.
- Do not tolerate pets that are not house-trained in your home. If you are dog sitting your friend’s pooch make sure to check that the dog is house-trained.
- Vacuum your carpet regularly. Use a vacuum with a HEPA filter for the best results.
- Get your carpet professionally steam cleaned at least once a year.
- Get stubborn stains professionally treated by a carpet cleaning company.
- Make sure to ask for a deodorising service and stain protector application when you book your next carpet steam cleaning job.
- Be careful what you put on your carpet when you are trying to remove a spill or stain. Chemicals can discolour and damage your carpet.
Remember: Carpet is a textile product just like the clothes in your closet. If it is not maintained properly it will ugly out before it wears out. The longer you leave your carpet in a dirty state, the faster it will wear out. Replacing a carpet is an expense most homeowners would not like to deal with. Not only is it a very expensive venture. It is also time consuming and disruptive to your everyday living.
For reliable carpet clean and care services, call DryTech Carpet Cleaning Sydney today.
DryTech Carpet Cleaning is one of Sydney’s best domestic cleaning and carpet cleaning companies. For more information about our wide range of services or a free quote call: 0408 578 918 or email: info@drytechcarpetcleaning.com.au