You’ve enjoyed the tile in your commercial building, but now it’s time to upgrade to something more aesthetically pleasing—carpet. Carpet gives your business a more comfortable look without detracting from its professionalism. It draws customers in and helps them feel welcome. Carpet also keeps your building warmer than hardwood, which benefits you, your employees, and your customers in the winter.

But you start to lose all of the carpet’s benefits as soon as it gets dirty. Stains from dirt or mud make your building look unkempt and unhealthy, which can scare customers away. It also contributes to an unwholesome work environment, which means unhappy employees and lower productivity.

Fortunately, when you know how to care for your commercial carpet, you can reap the rewards of clean carpet without suffering the drawbacks of dirty carpet. Read on to learn more.

1. Choose the Right Carpet

Most importantly, you need to choose the right carpet for your specific business and location. Consider the following issues:

Foot Traffic: More foot traffic means more wear and tear and a greater probability of attracting stains. For a traffic-heavy area, invest in a more durable, stain-resistant carpet. The extra cost will pay off with the carpet’s longer life.

Carpet Fibres: Most businesses choose synthetic materials for their carpets, including:

• Acrylic, which resists everything from stains and static to mildew and moths. Compared to other synthetics, acrylic lasts better in direct sunlight.
• Nylon, which has the strongest fibres. Nylon is particularly durable. It’s also mildew- and soil-resistant and non-allergenic. However, certain nylons can pill or cause static.
• Olefin/polypropylene, which resists water damage, pilling, and static. However, it can fade in bright sunlight.

Carpet Style: Carpets come in a variety of styles, and each style has unique benefits. Choose the carpet that works best for your building and business. Some of the most popular carpet styles include:

• Cut pile carpet, where the carpet fibres are cut evenly. These plush carpets offer more cushioning and work best in low-traffic areas or around the edges of rooms.
• Loop pile carpet, where the carpet fibres loop around and fasten to the carpet’s backing. These durable carpets offer less cushioning but stand up well in high-traffic areas.

Colour: Lighter carpets make your rooms brighter and more cheerful, but they can also attract more stains. Darker carpets look more durable and professional, but depending on your wall colour and overhead lights, they can make the room too gloomy. Choose carpet colours that complement your wall colours, disguise stains, and match your company’s persona.

Cost: How much can you afford to spend on carpet? Remember that the overall cost includes the carpet’s original cost, installation costs, and cleaning costs, including paying to vacuum the carpet daily.

2. Practice Preventive Maintenance

Once you choose and install your carpet, you can take certain measures to prevent stains before they become a problem. Take the following steps to keep your carpets as clean as possible:

Clean outside walkways: Keep the area outside your building’s entrance free of dirt, salt, sand, grass clippings, and other stain-causing substances. Clean sidewalks and entryways at least every morning. Whenever possible, shovel snow and ice rather than melting it with abrasive chemicals, sand, or salt.

Invest in an entry mat: Your entry mat should be large enough that customers and employees can take two steps across it before setting foot on the carpet. For best results, choose a mat at least 3.5–4.5 metres (12–15 feet) long. Choose walk-off tiles with a coarse texture and water-absorbent tiles to trap moisture and dirt. Place walk-off tiles in any transitional area where a hard surface meets the carpet, including in stairwells and in front of elevators.

Vacuum frequently: Vacuuming can remove more than 80% of the soil that settles on your carpet each day. Remember, carpet is meant to trap harmful particles—including dirt—until you vacuum it out. This helps preserve your building’s air quality, but it can also make your carpet look dirtier unless you vacuum it frequently.

Keep your air quality high and your carpet clean by vacuuming high-traffic areas at least once a day and low-traffic areas at least twice a week. Choose a vacuum with a High Efficiency Particular Air filter (HEPA filter) to remove more particles more efficiently.

3. Deep Clean at Least Twice a Year

Preventive maintenance will help your carpets last longer and stay cleaner, but to get the most out of your carpets, you still need to contact a professional company to deep clean them at least twice a year. To get the most out of your bi-annual cleanings, take the following steps:

Plan ahead: Pencil twice-annual cleanings into your calendar, and make your employees aware of the cleaning dates well ahead of time. Emphasize that they’ll need to take all their belongings off the floor.

Clean high-traffic carpets more frequently: High-traffic areas attract more stains and wear out quicker. To preserve your carpet in high-traffic areas, consider more frequent deep cleanings. Contact your commercial carpet cleaning professionals for advice on how often to deep clean your specific carpet type and style.

Now that you know how to take care of your carpet, enjoy the benefits it can bring to your company, including better air quality, more comfortable rooms, and a more welcoming persona. Contact your local carpet cleaning professional for more advice on cleaning and maintaining your new commercial carpet.