Carpet – ten facts you may not have known

Carpet is found in most homes throughout the world, but how much do you know about this popular floor covering?

1.Carpet facts ‘Carpere’ is a Latin word. Its meaning is to ‘pluck’. The word carpet is directly linked. The origins of carpet came from plucked or unravelled fabrics.

2. Many carpets a made using knotted wool whilst others are produced from processed plastics. Wool particularly can be an attractive home for beetles/grubs.

3.The acid chemicals in their intestines can change the fibres into sugary particles, this encourages the insects to eat through carpets and rugs.

4.Many kilos of skin cells, soil, sand, fuel dust and more can (and usually does) gather in your carpet fibres and backing each year.

Carpet bacteria facts

5.Bacteria can remain alive in your carpets for more than a month! Germ transfer can happen immediately. So forget the ‘five second rule!’

6.The phrase ‘to sweep under the rug’ was first mentioned in 1963.

7.Fitted carpets are not as healthy or hygienic as area rugs. Mainly because rugs can be removed for offsite cleaning.

8.Professional carpet cleaning should be booked at least annually. Indoor air quality will immediately improve after professional cleaning.

9.Carpet manufacturing has been a busy trade since early BC. A taught trade / skill that was passed down the generations. Fabulous floral styles and oriental styles are created to date.

10.Newly manufactured carpet can often emit pungent (sometime toxic) emissions. Try and get your fitter to us ECO fixing adhesives wherever possible.

Sometimes opening the carpet in an empty or infrequently used room can help.

Because of the lack of understanding and belief that carpets contained so much dust & debris made selling vacuum cleaners a difficult job in the early years!

What can you do to help maintain your carpets / rugs ?

A good quality vacuum cleaner (we always suggest SEBO cleaners) will help to keep levels of dust down.

With a quality upright cleaner a brush bar that beats independently and a powerful vacuum motor will remove good quantities of dust.

Filtering is important too. There’s little point in vacuuming if the cleaner is blowing lots of dust into your home atmosphere, this can be bad for asthmatics or people with respiratory sensitivities.

People that suffer with asthma often comment on the positive effects that deep cleaning of mattresses can have on their health.

Its an old fashioned way of removing dust from your rug that your grandmother may have used – but hanging your rug up outside and beating it with a blunt object really helps too.

Back to our HomePage