Is it Time to Schedule Commercial Carpet Cleaning?
Maybe you have twenty employees, or perhaps you have two hundred employees working in your building. Either way, you will, at some point, need to schedule professional carpet cleanings to ensure that your carpets are not hurting your business or your employees. Employees and customers alike will notice if your carpets are dirty. This can not only harm your reputation with customers and employee morale but also lead to the assumption that your business is incompetent. After all, if you can’t even clean your own carpets, how can a customer expect you to provide a reliable service or product?
This is why regular professional commercial carpet cleanings are so critical for businesses of all kinds. But how do you know how often to schedule these carpet cleanings? You do not want to wait until your carpet needs to be cleaned, but you don’t want to waste money scheduling cleanings when you don’t need them. Here, we’ll explore exactly how you can determine the right carpet cleaning schedule for your facility.
How to Create the Right Professional Commercial Carpet Cleaning Schedule
Unfortunately, while commercial carpet cleaning is a critical aspect of basic commercial cleaning services that all businesses need, there is no simple one-size-fits-all answer to how often your business needs carpet cleaning.
There is, of course, some essential maintenance — such as vacuuming and picking up spills before they set into deep stains — which should be performed regularly (ideally every day, but this is not always necessary for some businesses). But, commercial carpet cleanings are typically done less frequently. This is often on a schedule of two to six months between cleanings, though low-traffic areas may only need commercial cleaning once a year.
So, how often should you schedule commercial carpet deep cleaning? Simple. Understand your carpets’ needs by considering the following factors.
Carpet Cleaning Frequency Factors
To determine how often you should get your carpets professionally deep cleaned, you need to understand what type of wear your carpet is getting.
There are four primary factors that affect the overall wear and tear on a carpet, and they are as follows. Recognizing these factors will help you successfully determine how regularly you should schedule professional carpet cleaning services for your building — without risking the integrity of your carpet or wasting resources by scheduling cleanings too frequently.
1. Foot Traffic
The first factor you need to consider is how busy the area is. Areas with high levels of foot traffic will naturally require more maintenance, whereas areas with low levels of foot traffic can survive with less frequent care.
This is largely considered the most crucial factor, as it causes the most impact on the overall lifespan of your carpets. Areas with high foot traffic should be professionally cleaned at least once every three months. Conversely, areas with low foot traffic may be commercially cleaned only once or twice a year.
2. Type of Commercial Space
The second factor that determines how often you should schedule your commercial carpet cleanings is what type of commercial space your carpet is in.
Some types of commercial spaces require more frequent carpet cleaning simply because of the nature of the business. For example, restaurants or bars typically require at least quarterly cleaning sessions (once every three months) and may even need more frequent cleanings if they are especially popular. On the other hand, a typical commercial office building may need carpet cleanings every six months to a year — depending on the number of employees and the weather conditions of the area.
3. Regular Upkeep
Another factor influencing how often you must schedule carpet cleaning is the amount of regular maintenance or “upkeep” they receive between cleanings. Regular upkeep consists of vacuuming, addressing spills, and picking loose items up off the carpet.
These practices help keep your carpets tidy and lessen the dirt, dust, and bacteria build-up of daily use. Carpets that receive regular upkeep can go longer in between professional cleanings than those that do not receive this type of upkeep.
4. Climate
The final factor you must consider regarding the frequency of your commercial carpet cleaning appointments is the climate. Areas that are prone to heavy precipitation and harsh winter weather will require more frequent carpet cleaning than those that are sunny or warm.
Creating Your Schedule
Once you have assessed the previously mentioned factors, you can create the right carpet cleaning schedule for your building. However, not all the previously mentioned factors clearly indicate how often to get your carpet cleaned — for example, climate. This is because they impact the overall wear on your carpet but can be hard to quantify simply because they are so variable.
More often than not, buildings will have mixed cleaning requirements — meaning there will be carpet areas that require more attention than others. In these cases, it is critical that you schedule your cleanings for when the higher-attention regions need to be serviced. If you do not do this, you risk the integrity of these typically higher-traffic areas of your business, which can be more costly in the long run if you have to replace them more frequently. You may also be able to schedule more frequent carpet cleanings for specific areas if you have some areas with very high traffic and others with very low traffic.
You may also want to consult with the professional carpet cleaners you hire to get an expert opinion on when you should schedule your next cleaning based on your building’s specific needs.
Maintaining Your Carpet Between Commercial Carpet Cleaning Sessions
All maintenance really boils down to is performing regular upkeep practices.
Generally, areas with higher foot traffic require more frequent upkeep than those with low traffic levels. This basic guide is a good reference point if you need help determining how frequently to vacuum your carpeted areas.
High-traffic areas should be vacuumed daily.
Moderate-traffic areas should be vacuumed every three to four days, though daily is ideal.
Low-traffic areas typically only need to be vacuumed once per week.
All spills should be cleaned immediately to prevent or lessen staining, and items should be picked up when noticed, no matter the traffic level of the area.
Keep in mind that keeping up with regular maintenance can extend the period of time that you can go between professional carpet cleaning only to an extent. Since upkeep is only a surface-level clean, you must ensure that you are also scheduling regular deep cleans if you want to truly extend the lifespan of your carpets.
Wrapping Up
Knowing exactly how often to get your carpets professionally cleaned can be challenging; more often than not, it will require an amount of trial and error before you find the perfect schedule. Still, using the scheduling factors mentioned above, you should get a clear idea of how often you should schedule professional carpet cleaning services for your business.
If you are still unsure when you should get your carpets commercially cleaned or you think you are due for a carpet cleaning appointment, schedule a free consultation with American Facility Care today!
Tom Moore has been a part of the commercial cleaning and facility management industry since 2005. He co-founded American Facility Care in 2014 with the idea of bringing safety and aesthetics to buildings across central Indiana. He has an APIC certification in Infection Control and Prevention, and enjoys passing that knowledge on to his team using their exclusive Hygienic Training Method of cleaning. Tom co-hosts The Cleaning Indy Podcast, and would love a chance to connect with you and perhaps have you as a guest of the show.