5 Steps to Cleaner Car Carpets

If you are anything like me, you have a car that gets a lot of use. I carry kids, dogs, and packages and every time someone gets in the car they manage to get the carpets a little dirty. Sometimes the people or animals that get in the car get it a lot dirty. When I go to clean the little bit of dirt I see it turns out to be much dirtier than I thought. Regular dirt I can vacuum up but occasionally I have to deal with some pretty tough stains. While dirt is easy to vacuum, the longer carpets are dirty, the harder to remove the stains. For example, organic matter (leaves and such) will rot encouraging mold and mildew growth, creating bad odors. Remember, if all else fails it’s not that hard to replace the floor mats in your vehicle.

Below are some simple steps how to clean car carpet and a few few supplies for tougher stains and for keeping your carpet clean.

Clean Car Carpet in Five Easy Steps

For a quick spot clean of some dirt a portable, battery operated vacuum will get the job done. If there is a lot of dirt then it’s recommended to pull out all the mats and use a more powerful shop vacuum. Periodically pull out the mats and get them a good shake or a beat them with your hand or a broom handle to get out some embedded dirt and dust. The more exposed the carpet the easier it is to see dirt and spots, clean, and dry.

Spot Cleaning

Shinerz Showcar Products

Stains should be removed as soon as you see them or as soon as possible. Stains that allowed to stay on carpet for a long time become more and more difficult to remove. Spot cleaning requires a few minutes of your time and a few supplies: carpet cleaner, a stiff brush, and clean cloths. You can try cleaning easy to remove stains with hot water, vinegar, and liquid soap but most stains are easier to remove with a commercial grade cleaner.

If you are using a purchased cleaner follow the specific directions for that product.

Hand Scrubbing

For general cleaning use upholstery cleaner, a stiff brush, and a damp towel or cloth. It is recommended that you test the cleaner over a small area to assume color fastness. Normally spot removers work something like brushing the cleaner into the carpet, then vacuum. Move to another section and repeat.

You may have to repeat, and you may want to spray clear water lightly onto the surface of the carpet, then vacuum out.

Steam Cleaning

If carpets are very dirty or have several stains it may be worth steam cleaning your car carpet. You can use commercially available steam cleaners or purchase small cleaners, like the little green cleaner pictured, that do a good job.  you can use a steam cleaner. Follow the instructions on the steam cleaner and work small sections at a time, being careful not to saturate the carpet.

Air Drying

You need to remove as much water from the carpet as possible. Commercial carpet cleaners make this easy but you can also use a shop vac do get most of the water removed. All damp areas need time to dry to reduce bad odors and prevent mold and mildew. If the weather is nice and no rain is expected, leave the windows open for a few hours. you can also leave your vehicle in the garage with the windows down and fans blowing on the damp carpet to speed up evaporation.

Prevention

By taking preventive steps as soon as possible you can greatly reduce the amount of work required to clean your car carpet. Clean dirt as soon as you see it. Spot clean spots as soon as you see them. Use the original floor mats, or, better yet, buy aftermarket floor mats with better floor coverage. Carpet stain guard spray is worth your time and money, as it makes your carpets more stain resistant.

Carpet Tile-What’s In it for You?

You’ve probaby heard of carpet tile. If you’re the typical home owner or business owner who is looking for carpet, you’re asking yourself why you’d even consider that. Isn’t it more difficult to install? Does it offer any advantages to “regular” carpet? What does carpet tile have to offer you and why would you even consider it? The answers to that question might surprise you.

church carpet tileIn fact, carpet tile, also known as modular carpet gives you some vast advantages over full width or wall to wall carpeting. It’s easier to install, requires less cutting and it’s also more cost effective in many cases than wall to wall carpet. In most cases, whether you’re a home owner or a business owner, you’ll want to use carpet tile for the easier care and the more rapid replacement it offers.

What’s the Big Deal About Carpet Tile?

If you get a tough stain in your carpet tile, it’s a great deal more easily accomplished to simply remove one tile and replace it than to try to clean or replace a piece of a full sized carpet. This makes it a good bet for either home or office. If one tile is damaged or stained, you remove just one piece and replace it. You’re saving time and you’re saving money over the cost of trying the same thing with a regular carpet.

There’s another advantage that you may not have considered. It’s easy to make your own fashion statement when you’re using modular carpet or carpet tile. If you’d like to have a checkerboard style in your business colors, or you’re trying to match a decorating theme in your home, it’s easily accomplished. The same style of carpet tiles are available in a wide range of colors. Mix and match those colors to make the room of your dreams. Checkerboard, or quilt squares are all within your grasp when you’re using carpet tiles. Imagine your quilt shop with the carpet tile pieced to look like a nine-patch quilt. Try that with a regular carpet and you’ll find out what true frustration is.

Carpet tile offers you the means to get easier repairs and a look that is uniquely you–something that anyone can appreciate.

Top Five Reasons to Use Carpet Tile

carpet tile installationCarpet tile is something that has been around for a while, yet many people are not aware of the array of benefits it can provide to the home or business owner. With such a complete line of colors and textures available to you in carpet tiles today, the ways to use them are endless. The top five reasons that you’ll want to try carpet tile in your own home or office over traditional flooring include:

** Carpet tiles are easy to install. They can be installed very rapidly using double sided tape or carpet adhesive and can be laid in a very short time. There is minimal cutting required to lay carpet tile no matter what you’re going to be covering, from the largest room to the smallest room.

**The Carpet tiles can be very easy to remove in the case of problems with stains or tears in the carpet. Removal is typically accomplished in just a few minutes per tile and replacement is easily accomplished to repair your rugs.

**Extremely Durable-carpet tiles are far more durable than regular wall to wall carpet. They are engineered to last longer and to wear better so that they can stand up to more traffic and more abuse than normal wall to wall carpeting.

**Carpet Tiles are Eco Friendly–Most carpet tile takes left over or residual carpet or is created from recycled materials. They require less material than a broad loom rug and there is far less waste in the installation of carpet tile over regular carpeting. You’re saving energy, saving resources and helping to create your own green living space when you use carpet tile.

**Carpet Tile is versatile. It can be used to create specific patterns on the flooring, including checkerboards, stripes and even quilt patterns that will permit you to create the kind of unique interiors in which you’d like to live and work.

Renovating a Basement laundry room with Carpet Tile.

carpet tile on basement floorThat basement laundry room just doesn’t have much style or flair does it? The concrete or hard flooring is one of the eyesores that you’d like to change. The floor is hard on the feet and legs and certainly doesn’t look the best. It isn’t often that you have someone from outside the home in your laundry room but you’d like to change the look and feel of the room to one that is comfortable and presentable. The question is how to accomplish that without spending the earth.

The level of damp that may be present in a basement is something that doesn’t work well with thick carpet. The chance for spills means that you want something which is easy to clean and will not hold the moisture as readily as traditional carpet. The chance for a fall on a laminate or vinyl tile which has been wet is ever-present and something you’d like to prevent.

Your answer to all of those things may be found in carpet tile. Carpet tile can help you to provide a more comfortable feel and more secure footing. It will also hide the unsightly concrete or hard flooring.

The installation of carpet tile in a basement laundry room will be superior to more traditional flooring in several ways.

Carpet tile tends to repel water more readily. This means that the floor below won’t be held in a consistently wet condition by the carpet. It tends to dry more easily and to provide for a more secure footing than standard floor tile which can promote falls when wet.

Carpet tile is easier to clean and when it needs to be replaced or repaired, one piece of tile may be removed and replaced as opposed to replacing the entire floor, making it more time efficient and more cost effective for use in high traffic and high risk areas such as the laundry room.

One tip-do try to purchase extra pieces of the carpet tile when you make your initial purchase as different lots of carpet tile, like any other kind of carpet may vary slightly in color.