How Often Should I Clean my Carpets?

According to the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration (IICRC) the world leading authority of the carpet and upholstery, a family with children needs to clean their carpets a minimum of twice a year! And a family with pets will need to clean their carpets 4-6 times a year!

This is not just so the carpet looks good and performs well – the chart above was put together with the help of the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in order to help improve the indoor air quality in the home.

Traffic Soil Rating	Carpet Owner / Maintainer		Professional Carpet Cleaner / Restorer
Traffic Soil Rating	Vacuuming	Spot Cleaning	Heavy-Use Area Cleaning	Restorative Cleaning
Light Soil	1 x per week	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic areas every 12 to 18 months	Every 2 Years or per manufacturer warranty
Normal Soil(families with children, elderly)	1 to 2 x per week	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic areas every 6 to 12 months	Annually
Heavy Soil (families with pets, smoking)	2 to 4 x per week	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic areas every 3 to 6 months	Semi-annually (2 x annually)
Extreme Conditions (large families, multiple pets)	Daily	Daily or as soon as spots are noticed	Traffic Lanes every 2 to 3 months	Quarterly (4 x annually)

IICRC Reference Guide for Professional Carpet Cleaning (IICRC S100) Revised 2002

Your carpets act like filters in the home, but they must be cleaned and maintained regularly so they can perform well for you and your family!

Here’s what we recommend – take their advice!

Clean carpets look better for longer…

Below is a graph produced by one of the world’s largest carpet manufacturers showing the difference in appearance between neglected or well maintained carpets:

Neglected Carpet, you can see the carpets appearance level will drop off dramatically, causing you to buy new carpet prematurely.
Un-planned maintenance, this is where most people fall into. Every three or four years they get the carpet cleaned, this is better than never cleaning them, but by the time you call there is so much damage to the carpet fibres that it is a battle to restore them.
Planned maintenance, this is the best way to prolong the life of your carpets and keep you and your family healthy. When you have twice yearly or at least annual cleans your carpets will remain looking like new for far longer, they will be healthy and so will the people living there.

Graph

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How Often Should I Clean my Carpets?

Clean carpets look better for longer…