Businesses and building owners are waiting too long to do the carpet cleaning required to keep their workplaces and properties clean and hygienic – and it’s costing them.
“The biggest problem I notice with carpets is that maintenance gets deferred and it ends up costing property owners more and taking longer in the end,” says Jan Lichtwark, CrestClean’s Regional Director for Tauranga, who has two CrestClean teams specialising in carpet cleaning and stain removal. “Sometimes the high traffic areas are so dirty they have to be gone over several times, which costs more in time and chemicals, plus it shortens the life of the carpet.”
Jan recommends businesses and property owners have their high traffic areas routinely cleaned every two months. “That costs one third the price of a major clean, so it’s not such a big bill in the end if you have a maintenance programme in place.”
In addition to saving money, routine carpet cleaning also improves the overall hygiene of the building, creating improved health conditions for the people inside.
It is well known that carpets not cleaned and properly maintained have the potential to cause a variety of health problems inside the building environment.
“Every time carpet and fabrics are emptied of their pollution build-up through professional cleaning methods, there is a health benefit,” writes Dr Michael Berry, former director of the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s indoor air research programme.
Carpets can act like enormous filters, capturing all sorts of microscopic contaminants and organic waste, such as dustmites and their feces, fungus, bacteria and viruses, skin cells, urine and pet waste, vomit, blood and perspiration residues. Carpet cleaning removes much of that, as well as dirt, which wears away carpet fibres and reduces their life span.
CrestClean carpet cleaners attend specialist training courses, and use up-to-the minute- portable hot water extraction carpet cleaning machines.
Owners of larger buildings shouldn’t be daunted by the size of the job and Jan recommends cleaning the carpet in sections, so that over the course of the year the entire premises is done.
“This is the approach that our schools take, which keeps the work flow more manageable for us and keeps the carpets cleaner and more hygienic for our clients,” says Jan. “And it saves you money.”