Berber Carpets Gifts are its Curse

Carpet cleaning professionals and carpet salesman will always agree that Berber carpet is a unique fiber that is great for reducing the appearance of dirt and stains. Berber carpet has a property known as adsorbance, meaning that it does not absorb fluids, pollutants, and any other contaminants that come in contact with your carpet. In the short term, this is a great thing--your carpet won't show any of the dirt that a typical carpet fiber would absorb. This arouses the question: where did the dirt and pollutants go? The answer is in the bedding of the carpet. Instead of being absorbed by the carpet fiber, all of the dirt and pollutants slide down to the base.

This is a great feature for short term cosmetic appeal of the carpet, but it creates challenges for the professionals who clean your carpet. Berber carpet is a very dense fiber. When professionally cleaned, it has a tendency to hold moisture. Sometimes this can lead to a phenomenon known as wicking. In other words, some of the dirt and pollutants seep up through the wet carpet fiber, making the carpet appear dirtier than before it was cleaned.

Professionally Cleaning Berber Carpet

There's no magic bullet in the carpet cleaning industry to clean the difficult Berber fiber. However, there are approaches carpet cleaners can take to aid in the cleaning process. The most important step is to educate the customer to vacuum the carpet thoroughly before the professional cleaning and regularly thereafter. It is always important to vacuum before a carpet is professionally cleaned. This removes large dirt particles from your carpet, similar to rinsing off a dish before placing it in a dishwasher. When a carpet has not been pre-vacuumed, the large dirt particles turn to mud and make the process of deep cleaning less efficient. On this note, it helps to have a quality vacuum. Typically, the saying "you get what you pay for" holds true. Nevertheless, ensuring that you regularly empty the vacuum bag is one way to improve any vacuums effectiveness. Vacuum cleaners lose up to 80% of their efficiency when the bag gets half full.

By regularly vacuuming and have your carpet professionally cleaned, as explained above, you can greatly extend the life of your carpet. It is important to have your Berber carpet cleaned frequently, even though it may appear to not be dirty. In fact, Berber carpet can hold up to 10 times its weight in soil before it actually looks dirty. For the sake of not having dirty looking carpet in the future, it’s important to invest in carpet cleaning now. It will most likely save you money down the road.