Spending your hard-earned cash on cleaning your home’s carpet and rugs is something we can only afford to do sometimes. It is a costly and arduous process that can really turn your home and life upside down.
Removing all of your furniture and ensuring you don’t need to be in your home for a day can be very difficult to organize. Therefore, it is even more frustrating when you realize you must wait countless hours for it to dry afterward.
However, is there something you can do to speed up this process? Vacuuming your freshly cleaned carpets and rugs may be a sensible option.
This article will outline the potential benefits of vacuuming your home after it has been cleaned, including speeding up drying time, keeping it clean for longer, and making it appear prettier and smell better.
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Drying Process
Most homeowners will save up and cherish the day they finally manage to get their carpets professionally cleaned. Although this is usually a joyful process, we derive great satisfaction from it, but it also comes with some concerns.
We all have busy lives, particularly those with young children. However, this is all the more reason to get your carpets properly cleaned. The concern is how long it takes before you can re-enter your home after the professionals are done.
There are some considerations regarding the drying time of your rugs and carpets. The material that has been used as well as the thickness. As you may imagine, the thicker the carpet, the more challenging the drying process will be in normal conditions.
Moreover, more organic materials are more likely to retain moisture for longer. The denser and more organic the material, the longer you will likely have to wait.
Nothing is more frustrating than being stuck outside your own home, particularly when you have adjudicated children and things to do. Luckily there is a very effective solution available!
It may come as a surprise but vacuuming your damp, freshly cleaned carpet may actually save you waiting for endless hours. Using a powerful home vacuum will very quickly speed up the drying process.
The vacuuming process will first allow residual water to be extracted, which will reduce the volume of residual water that you must wait to evaporate. Moreover, the suction will help raise and separate the tine fibers that make up the material.
Separating and expanding the fibers will stimulate additional airflow through the carpet or rug. This will easily reduce the drying time by promoting evaporation with a larger exposed surface area.
Final Touches
Professionally cleaning carpets is a very intensive and comprehensive approach to eliminating grime and removing unsightly stains. But remember that even the best cleaner will only sometimes remove 100% of the dirt particles.
What would you expect the most expensive and specialized cleaner to do? Can they realistically remove every single particle? However, it is fair to assume that there may be some residual grime that can be tackled.
This is assuming you can afford and book the best cleaner in town, which for many is not the case. Imagine how effective an average cleaner would be. Would they remove 80%, 90%, or 95% if you are lucky?
Realistically, giving your newly cleaned carpet or rug one last quick vacuum will never be a bad idea before you put back all of your furniture and belongings. This will ensure that you have the best possible results.
Fortunately, even if the cleaner has missed residual particles, they will have actually helped you with this final stage of cleaning. The intensive industrial cleaner will have likely agitated the carpet and rug entirely.
This means that it has loosened all of the remaining grime, which you can now efficiently finish off with an average home vacuum cleaner.
Carpet Pattern
It may seem silly to many, but a homeowner must consider how the carpet will look once it has dried. Not always how clean it now looks but also the patterns that form on the rug and carpet itself.
A bit like a meticulous mawn football field, you can see the alternating cutting pattern that was used uniformly to look like stripes. This is caused by the direction of mowing, which pushes the blades of grass one way or another.
This principle holds true for carpet and rug fibers too. Although most professionals will take care to make sure there are no un-uniform patterns in your precious carpet or rug, it is hard for them to ensure this before it has a chance to dry.
Vacuuming appropriately ensures that the patterns in your carpet look uniform and removes any eyecatching blemishes on your newly cleaned floor.
Make it Smell Fresh
Carpet cleaning is a labor-intensive and intensive process. It requires specialized industrial equipment that utilizes strong chemicals to remove the most stubborn stains.
The industrial cleaning instruments will use water to penetrate the deep compressed fibers in carpets and rugs. This process will effectively dislodge the most engrained grime that may have been accumulating for years.
During this process, the churning out of older grime can lead to some unsavory smells. In addition, if any of these tiny particles are not removed, they will leave a nasty odor. Obviously, this is not ideal if you have had it freshly cleaned.
Moreover, the potent, powerful chemicals employed during the cleaning process are much more effective compared to their store-bought alternatives. Unfortunately, they tend to also have a pungent smell as a consequence.
Although most industrial cleaning devices are designed to remove the chemically rich water they use, they will likely be present in the leftover moisture in your carpet or rug. This is one of the reasons you will often be asked to keep your home aerated for the duration of the drying process.
Fortunately, the best way to tackle these two issues can be done by simply vacuuming after the cleaning. Vacuuming will remove any of the older leftover grime as well as the tiny chemical particles that are causing a potent smell.
Reduce Future Grim Build-Up
It is optimal to ensure the periods between costly professional cleaning are as long as possible. The best way to reduce the dirt accumulation speed after thoroughly cleaning is to vacuum it after a professional cleaning.
Vacuuming after a professional cleaning is the best time to tackle stray grime particles. Unfortunately, this is the point that grime and other microorganisms are most vulnerable.
Removing the maximum amount of waste at one time will prolong the accumulation of dirt and grime. This is because these waste particles attract each other.
As particles congregate in an area, they will bind with each other over time. Therefore, the more particles in a space, the larger the surface area available, and the easier it will be for them to stick to each other.
The more particles that remain, the faster your rug or carpet will need to be cleaned again. Moreover, it will look uglier and older sooner due to the accelerated rate of dirt accumulation that has been allowed.
Ultimately, removing as much dirt as possible at once time will save you money in the long term. Professional cleaning can be extremely expensive, especially if you have a large portion of your home carpeted.
Therefore, vacuuming your carpet after it has been cleaned is the best solution for your home and your bank account.
Drawback
The critical drawback to vacuuming your home after it has been cleaned is that you can damage the water-soaked material. Directly after cleaning, the soaked carpet will actually be more susceptible to damage and to picking up dirt.
When the carpet is wet, you must be very careful to remove your shoes and clean the bottom of the vacuum. You can run the risk of embedding stains and dirt from your shoes and the vacuum itself if you are not careful.
Conclusion
Reviewing the benefits in the above article should give a clear indication of what the best course of action is after you get your carpet cleaned. Vacuum it! It has a plethora of benefits that any homeowner can capitalize upon.
Although there is some risk to the carpet when it is wet, just make sure you are cautious when you are going over it with your vacuum. Follow that advice in the article and reek the reward of a carpet that is cleaner for longer, looks better, dries faster, and overall enhances the professional clean.