Wool carpets are some of the most luxurious and pleasant pieces of home decor that anybody can install in their home, with a certain flair that can only originate from organic materials. However, many people misunderstand how to take care of their wool carpets, especially as it relates to the cleaning and stain removal of wool carpets. Here’s a guide to some common myths about cleaning wool carpets, as prepared by the carpet cleaning experts here at Aladdin Oriental Rug.
One of the other fantastic benefits to coming warm weather is the anticipation of the beautiful Spring and Summer sun. While humans take this as an invitation to get their tan on, rugs and carpets aren’t so excited – they can be affected by sun fading during these months. Here’s a guide as prepared by the rug and carpet longevity experts at Aladdin Oriental Rug Services on what sun fading is, and how to prevent it in your rugs and carpets.
There’s a weird happening that occurs with wall to wall carpeting, usually in very high traffic areas. Nobody really knows what causes it, but improper carpet installation is often considered the blame. This phenomenon is called pile reversal, pooling, puddling, or watermarking. It entails the shading of a cut pile carpet, where some areas turn lighter and some turn darker. It’s called watermarking, as it makes it look like large areas of the carpet are wet. Here’s Aladdin’s guide to pile reversal.
What causes pile reversal is the changing direction of the carpet’s pile, which leads to a strange appearance as light then reflects differently on the surface of the carpet. Pile reversal, however, is not caused by the carpet cleaning process, and it does not mean that the carpet is really damaged structurally, and will fall apart. However, it’s appearance will likely not be able to be remedied.
Pile reversal used to be more of an issue in the past – nowadays, carpet manufacturers have made improvements in how they are created, so the incidence of carpet pile reversal has steeply declined.
Sometimes people blame a carpet’s changing appearance on pile reversal, when in reality it’s false pile reversal – a true phenomenon known as tracking. Tracking is a crushing down or flattening out of the carpet due to heavy traffic patterns over the carpet’s surface. Unlike pile reversal, however, tracking can be remedied by extraction based carpet cleaning performed by a licensed professional. Tracking can be avoided through regular vacuuming and raking of the carpet. Another phenomenon often mis-blamed on carpet reversal is footmarking, which, similar to tracking, is a result of heavy traffic or someone dragging a heavy object over a carpet – leaving localized marks or footprints.
The humidity and temperature changes of the variance of seasons can affect the flooring of your home that provides a set foundation for your rugs and carpets. In basic language, heat and humidity affects porous laminate and hardwood flooring, causing it to expand. During cold weather, laminate and hardwood flooring can contract.
If the humidity inside your home goes over 60 percent, you might be allowing moisture to make it’s way inside the wood, causing it to swell and expand. This expansion creates additional pressure inside and between the boards of wood, causing them to warp, cup, or lift. This is true for both solid and machine engineered hardwood floors that are subject to any sort of head or humidity.
When temperatures start to fall, these hardwood and laminate floors start to contract due to a depletion of moisture in the air. This causes the swelling experienced during warm seasons to lessen, and a reduction in any sort of distortions like cupping or warping. But just as the weather begins to heat up again, these structural changes will reappear.
Making a decision on when you need to get a new carpet can be hard since there’s a lot of time, effort, and cash involved in tearing out already in place carpets, safely removing it, and installing the brand new carpeting. Here at Aladdin, we want to make things constantly easier for our customers. Here’s our guide to when it’s time to replace your carpets – highlighting a few crucial issues that, if present, will tell you that your carpet definitely needs to be replaced.
The older a carpet is, the more tears and wear it will contain. Most regular carpet owners can remedy tiny tears and rips. However, even the most skilled professionals have issues fixing large rips and tears – so if your carpet has these, it might be time to get a new one. Polyester carpet fiber, especially, easily mats up and loses its form as it gets older – and nylon carpeting fiber is usually more resistant to this, and can retain its form even after being matted down.
If your carpet has a massive stain that can’t be fixed, you should replace it. Stains are probably the leading cause of carpet replacement. If you have owned the same carpet for many years, it’s likely that it’s been affected by a wide range of stain types – including dirt, food, or even animal waste. After a while, these stains can absorb down into the very padding of the carpet, causing it permanent damage. This will show you that it’s absolutely time for a replacement.
Carpets can absorb smells from stains that go deep into the fibers of the carpet. This can cause unpleasant odors to emanate from your carpet. If you don’t take proper care of your carpet, and have it regularly cleaned by a professional, it might transfer its odor to the broader room around that houses it. Nobody wants a smelly carpet, and nobody wants a smelly room – so if your carpet stinks, it may be time to get it replaced!
There’s tons of false information being spread about carpet cleaning, just the same as in in any other industry. However, it’s important to have accurate information if you want to make sure that your rugs and carpets are taken care of as well as they truly deserve. By understanding the common myths about carpets or rugs, you can make sure that they are truly taken care of.
Home carpet shampooing machines purport to be able to clean carpets just as well as a carpet or rug cleaning professional, but the truth is that they do not. These machines create unwanted levels of moisture inside carpets and rugs – and if this moisture does not get fully dried, even just a little bit, it can lead to fungus and mold growing throughout the entire carpet. Carpet manufacturers recommend getting your carpet or rug cleaned by a professional using water extraction equipment only available on an industry level. Next time you need your carpet cleaned, trust the experts at Aladdin.
Don’t ever wait till your carpet appears extremely dirty before having it cleaned. That approach actually incurs damage to carpets and rugs because the longer that dirt remains inside the carpet, the higher the chances it will rip the delicate carpet fibers. Don’t wait to clean the carpets or rugs, as dust can also affect the health of your family members or anyone inside your home. Some experts estimate that just a foot of the average carpet or rug can hold over a pound of allergens, dirt, dust, and other particulates – which are especially hard to spot when your carpeting is tan or brown.
Carpet protectors don’t really protect your carpets or rugs as well as they are known for. Scotch guards or any other protecting material that’s placed around or over carpets/rugs only provide a small amount of protection. Stains can still damage carpets or rugs when carpet protectors are placed down – however they simply won’t soak into the rug as quickly as they would without one in place. All stains even on rugs or carpets with protective materials should be handled as soon as possible by dabbing them up with paper towels, and then dabbing a mixture of white vinegar and water to blot out the stain from the carpet.
In this quick blog post, the experts at Aladdin will show you how to increase the longevity of your rug or carpet – whether it’s a long-existing family heirloom, or a brand new purchase from an dealership. By following these tips, you can ensure the longevity of your rug or carpet for years to come.
Set down furniture forms pathways of foot traffic on rugs or carpets that over years leave an impression on the material. By moving around furniture on the rug, you will change the natural pathway that people take. This will prevent a worn area from accumulating in a single spot.
By rotating your carpet, you will also affect the wear of foot traffic placement. If you rotate your rug on a yearly basis (or for more heavily trafficked areas, every half-year) you will ensure the even wear of the rug.
Place a high quality rug pad beneath your carpet or rug in order to protect it from wear, dirt, mold, or slippage.
By having your rug or carpet professionally cleaned, you will ensure its protection from bugs, mold, decay, rot, or any of the normal issues that usually affect rugs and carpets. The experts at Aladdin have special technology that can handle rug and carpet cleaning with far more success and efficacy than amateur operations.
By vacuuming your rug or carpet often you will remove any impacted dirt that can cause warping or slow damage, as well as restoring a sense of youth and life to the fibers of the rug. Make sure never to vacuum a rug’s fringe as that can damage it – simply use the end of a canister vacuum’s hose.
These special rugs have long fibers that can be caught and ripped by the swirling bar of most vacuum cleaners. It’s ideal for these rugs to clean them using a special safe attachment, but you can flip the rug over and clean off the bottom with the usual attachment.
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