The Health Risks of a Dirty Carpet

Cleanliness is King

Employers lose billions every year to worker absenteeism related to injury and illnesses. The pandemic has helped employers realize the importance of keeping a safe and sanitary facility. Clean facilities can make your employees more productive, cut down on illnesses, and make your workplace a more pleasant, inviting place to work at. With this in mind, keeping a clean workspace is critical in the modern age.

Cleaning things like dust, surfaces, and high-touch point areas is obvious. One area that is frequently neglected is your business’s carpet. Too many people think that simple vacuuming equates to carpet cleaning. While vacuuming is a critical part of facility upkeep, it isn’t enough.

Before we go into more detail about how you can keep your facility’s carpet clean, let’s break down why dirty carpets are dangerous.

The Effects of a Dirty Carpet

Dirty carpets can be making your employees ill. Some old carpet health hazards include:

Respiratory Sickness

Particles like dust, dirt, and mold frequently get stuck in carpet fibers. One square foot of carpet can contain up to one pound of dirt before it becomes visible. Things like skin cells, pollen, food, and other dangerous particles combine to make up that pound. This grime can aggravate respiratory issues and cause coughing, sneezing, or difficulties with breathing.

Weakened Immune System

Dirty carpets put a tremendous strain on your immune system by forcing it to work overtime. This constant stress on your immune system weakens it and makes you vulnerable to illnesses. This is especially dangerous to individuals with already weakened immune systems, like children, the elderly, and the immuno-compromised.

Skin Irritation

Prone to sensitive skin? Dirty carpets will exacerbate this issue and can make you develop more skin issues. This is especially common in fungi-infected carpets—fungal carpet growths are responsible for many contagious skin conditions including:

Rashes
Itchy Skin
Eczema
Athlete’s Foot

Even if your carpet isn’t the source of these illnesses, dust mites found in carpet fibers can exacerbate symptoms of these skin conditions and be harsh on your skin in general.

Stomach Issues

One of the most pressing issues a moldy carpet can cause is with your stomach. Moldy carpets harbor mycotoxins, which are a toxic compound capable of causing disease and death. One of the most dangerous effects of mycotoxins is that they cause severe stomach irritation and infection.

Mycotoxins are especially dangerous because the wrong cleaning processes can make the problem worse. Where many people consider simple vacuuming “carpet cleaning,” all vacuuming does is push the particles into the air, making them more likely to enter your respiratory system and aggravate your body.

Allergies

Do you struggle with allergies? A dirty carpet makes bad allergies worse. Carpets trap allergens and other contaminants like dust, parasites, and pet hair. These contaminants can seriously aggravate allergies.

How to Clean a Dirty Carpet

Now that you understand the dangers of a dirty carpet, how do you clean a dirty carpet? Follow these steps to keep your carpet crisp:

Start With the Basics

While vacuuming isn’t effective at eliminating germs and other harmful bacteria, it is a huge part of minimizing the amount of dust, dirt, and other contaminants in your air. We always recommend moving furniture and other objects and making sure that you vacuum the carpet underneath them. A mistake that many people make when vacuuming is not setting the vacuum to the proper height. Setting the vacuum too high or too low will make you much less effective at collecting dust and particles. Vacuuming isn’t as simple as it seems on the surface, follow these three key steps to make sure that you’re vacuuming right:

Vacuum Slowly
Vacuum in Two Directions
Empty Your Vacuum

Following these three steps will have you vacuuming like a professional!

Create Your Cleaning Solution

Now that you’ve gotten the dust and other surface level grime out of your carpet, you’re ready to create your cleaning solution. Be very careful with this process and don’t mix in any additional chemicals. Mixing chemicals is dangerous and can lead to respiratory damage or even death.

We recommend using a distilled white vinegar solution. Find an empty spray bottle and wash it out to make sure that it’s free of chemicals. Then mix one part of distilled white vinegar to three parts of cold water. Get ready to refill the bottle a few times depending on the size of your carpet.

Break up your carpet into zones that you’ll be cleaning. We recommend taking it one area at a time and keeping them at a small size from 2×2 feet up to 4×4 feet. Spray the vinegar solution over the area until it’s damp. Take care not to spray too much! If your carpet is soaked through, you’ve probably sprayed too much. Let the mixture soak into the carpet for about five minutes before applying a microfiber cloth to blot away the solution. Work your way around the carpet and let it air dry when you’re done. Make sure not to walk on your carpet while it is drying, as this could stain it and mess up the process.

Contact Commercial Carpet Cleaning Services

If you want your carpet clean and want it cleaned right, your best bet is partnering with a commercial carpet cleaning service. For the best commercial carpet cleaning services, turn to Carlson. We’ll customize a cleaning plan for you and keep your business sparkling for years to come.