What ‘Trails’ Are You Following?

by Compass Cleaning Solutions • November 10, 2016
Carpet trails

Stop right now and look down. No really, look down. What do you see? If your office is like ours and you have carpet, you see ‘trails’. Trails to the kitchen. Trails to the bathrooms. Trails in and out of offices and trails down the main hall ways. Carpets can really trap a lot of dirt. This is both good and bad and sometimes ugly. On the one hand carpets trap all sorts of dirt that would ultimately remain air borne, which reduces allergens and other particles in the air. On the other side carpets can start to look pretty dirty if they are not maintained and this can cause loss of business and reputation. So what do you do? Well, before you rip out the carpet and put down hard flooring or spend huge amounts on replacing your carpet, there is an alternative.

Develop a long term maintenance plan

Initially if the carpet is really hammered and needs some extreme cleaning, extraction may be your only option. In fact the initial step for any carpet maintenance plan where carpet is more than a couple of years old and has not been serviced regularly, should be restorative extraction.

A carpet maintenance program is only as good as its starting point. Extracting as much of the soil as possible is the only way to be sure you have restored the carpet to as close to new as possible. The cleaning solutions used should be a low PH pre-treatment and should be extracted with a neutralizer to remove as much of the cleaning solution residue as possible.

Once the carpet has been extracted and restored a regular schedule of intermediate cleaning through an encapsulation process will actually extend the time period between extractions for as much as 12 months. Why is this important? Extraction by its nature uses large volumes of water which causes deterioration of the carpet adhesive. Once the adhesive is damaged carpets will lift and wear out much faster. By reducing the number of times a carpet is extracted the longer the carpet will last.

The encapsulation process uses low amounts of water and does not damage the adhesive, but it does encase the dirt in a crystal coating to allow for removal through the normal vacuuming process. The low moisture encapsulation process also has other advantages. Less water is used which allows for conservation and there is no waste water to be disposed of which is also preferable for the environment. The added advantage is the carpet also looks better because the encapsulation process lifts the carpet pile to help it retain its new look.

Having your janitorial cleaning company manage the daily vacuuming and the monthly or bi-monthly encapsulation cleaning will insure the carpets are kept clean and wear longer.

Won’t it cost more to have a more frequent cleaning?

Actually, no. The encapsulation process is faster, uses less cleaning solution and less water. In addition, by extending the life of your carpets the process is also allowing you to push the cost of replacement out further, which would not be true using only the extraction process. The caveat in all of this is that the schedule must be established and adhered to in order to keep the carpets clean enough to avoid additional extractions.

So here is the plan. Initially extract, regularly clean with an encapsulation system and vacuum frequently. Simple, proactive and effective.

If you would like to know more about Compass Cleaning Solutions or to talk to someone about service call (877)221-1213 today.