Commercial Carpet Cleaning and Maintenance

How To: Commercial Carpet Cleaning and Maintenance for Commercial Environments

Just what is required of a comprehensive cleaning and maintenance program in a commercial environment? What works best for a retail store, or an elementary school? How do you make a plan that works?

In helping CRI President Werner Braun prepare several magazine articles recently that dealt with these issues, I became more familiar with the nuts and bolts of how to clean and maintain carpet properly.

The three most important tools to have? Effective cleaning chemicals and equipment (such as those certified under the Seal of Approval program), well-trained technicians to perform the cleaning, and a regular program of maintenance.

For resources, I relied heavily on CRI’s Carpet Maintenance Guidelines for Commercial Applications, a comprehensive document that can be accessed on the CRI website. I also was given access to an online learning program put together by Shaw Industries’ Technical Services Department.

Here is the first in a series of blog posts that summarizes what I learned from these two excellent resources.

Proper Cleaning and Maintenance Keep Things Looking Their Best

A correctly designed and implemented maintenance program performed by qualified personnel who are properly equipped and trained is absolutely essential to ensure the best long-term performance for carpet. It’s important to clarify terms: there are important differences between keeping carpet clean and maintaining it. Cleaning involves the removal of apparent soil, but soiling is a cumulative process which, if allowed to go too far, cannot easily be reversed, and can easily cause permanent damage to the carpet. Maintenance, in contrast to cleaning, is a scheduled and ongoing process of soil removal designed to maintain carpet’s daily appearance at a consistent level of cleanliness.

Several years ago, the Carpet and Rug Institute took a closer look at the issue of proper care and maintenance after it performed a nationwide survey of commercial and residential carpet users. Through the survey, CRI found that customers’ number one concern about carpet was cleaning – responders said carpet was too hard to keep clean; cleaning cost too much, and they didn’t know where to find the information they needed to maintain carpet correctly.

These responses, combined with some testing CRI performed that showed that not all carpet cleaning products cleaned equally well, led the Carpet and Rug Institute to start the Seal of Approval testing and certification program for carpet cleaning products and equipment. In the five years since the program launched, CRI has submitted hundreds of different cleaning chemicals, vacuums, extractors and cleaning systems for testing and has published the best performers on its web site, http://www.carpet-rug.org/. Certified Seal of Approval Service Providers are also listed on the site, organized by zipcode to make it easier to find qualified professional carpet cleaning contractors in any given area.

Carpet cleaning and maintenance is simple – when you use the right products and equipment, have a plan, and follow the four key steps of carpet care and maintenance.

Next post: the key steps!

~ Bethany