The Importance of Planning

A successful maintenance program starts with the selection of carpet that meets specific performance requirements. Attributes include construction, backing, yarn, dye type, and color. Color and pattern are major factors in the perception of a successful maintenance program. The visual degree of soiling is measured as color contrast. The best soil hiding colors are usually medium to dark shades. These are best specified for known areas having severe traffic and soil.

Carpet maintenance must be established as a scheduled program, rather than being a random series of reactions to soiling conditions and infrequent cleaning. Virtually every complaint of poor appearance, rapid soiling and, many times, poor performance has been shown to be related to lack of planning and control of the maintenance program.

The most important consideration when planning a maintenance program is the budget. Like other expensive furnishings or equipment, carpet represents a substantial investment for any facility and requires adequate care to prolong its effective life. If the carpet maintenance budget is set unrealistically low, the carpet will need to be replaced prematurely.

Tailor the design of the program to the amount of traffic and type of soiling, which vary by area. Due to the higher traffic levels, entrance lobbies, elevators, and hallways will need more care than offices. Food service areas and entrances will require more effort due to the more difficult soiling conditions. Consult the chart on the following page for suggested maintenance frequencies by traffic levels.

 Maintenance Planning Chart

Carpet Maintenance Guidelines

Product Care

High Quality carpets are quality engineered to provide a long, useful life and enhance the indoor environment. Carpet offers many advantages over other flooring systems, such as reduced fatigue, sound absorption, and lower life cycle costs. From the start, the carpet maintenance program should be considered part of the carpet buying decision. If proper maintenance is neglected, the carpet’s appearance will suffer, shortening the carpet’s useful life and raising long tem costs.
A comprehensive carpet care program consists of four elements:

• Reduction of soil entering the building

• Removal of dry soil

• Removal of spots and spills

• Cleaning by high-performance hot-water extraction

For my next entry I'll discuss the pre-planning necessary for an effective maintenance program 

Carpet is generally sold in two forms, the most common is "broadloom". Broadloom is sold in 12 foot widths and is occasionally available in 13-1/2 and 15 foot widths. The second form of carpet is modular carpet-tile and is most often manufactured in 18 inch and slightly larger 1/2 meter square tiles.

Some but not all carpets can be transformed into carpet-tile. The face yarn on carpet-tile is tufted into a very low, dense face that is more desirable in high traffic commercial or "Contract" environments. The soft and plush carpets that are commonly considered for residential spaces don't have the density necessary for modular products plus carpet-tile will never be installed over a cushion pad.

The backing on carpet-tile is more noticeably different than that of broadloom carpets. Carpet-tile manufacturers will incorporate fiberglass into their backing to assure "dimensional stability", encapsulating it in a thermo-plastic such as poly vinyl chloride or polyolefin. Some manufacturers will also use polyurethane to create an integral foam cushion as part of the carpet-tile.

Carpet is cut into very precise squares to become carpet-tile for a number of reasons:

Quality of finished goods:

The application of the specialized high performance backings eliminate problems common with broadloom carpet, such as edge-ravel and delamination.

Ease of handling

12' rolls of carpet are difficult to load in elevators

A single man can bring hundreds of yards of carpet into a job

Surplus materials may be stored in a closet as opposed to a warehouse

Severely damaged areas may be replaced by in-house mechanics

Ease of installation

Using pressure sensitive adhesives, adhesive drying times are diminished or eliminated

Fewer mechanics are required to install because it essentially is installed one quarter yard at a time

Occupied spaces do not need to be completely vacated for installation. One quadrant of a space can be installed at a time.

With special tools, modular workstations can be left in place for carpet to be installed.

Ease of Disposal

Carpet tile may be removed by a single person, placing it on a cart for removal to be recycled or for disposal

Removal of broadloom carpets can create clouds of dust as its pulled free from its old adhesive. The latex used in broadloom carpet manufacturing breaks down with time and easily becomes airborne as the old carpet is pulled from the floor.