Carpeted floors really make a home or space look beautiful and feel more comfortable. However, you need to take good care of your carpets to maintain their cleanliness and looks. One of the best ways to do that is to vacuum them regularly. But before vacuuming your carpets, you should use the best vacuum cleaner for your carpet type, and of course, you should also know how much vacuuming your carpets can handle.
It is important to understand carpet care if you want them to stay looking good as new for as long as possible. That is why today, we are going to give you some tips on vacuuming different types of carpet.
There are a lot of types of carpets, therefore, it’s important to know what you’re dealing with to ensure proper care and vacuuming. If you do not have adequate knowledge about how to vacuum the certain type of carpet you have, then you could actually do more harm than good to it.
The type of carpet and its material affects its durability and overall performance. So, for you to know how to properly vacuum them, you first need to know what type of carpet you have. Here are the different carpet types and how to vacuum them properly.
Cut Pile Carpets
These are carpets that are made by cutting the yarn loops to products an upright pile. They are more formal and luxurious-looking carpets. Under this type of carpet are different styles and here are some of them.
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Frieze
This style of carpet has a very high carpet twist level, giving it a curled appearance. It is one of the most popular carpet styles for over 20 years. This style is known to have the ability to hide footprints and vacuum cleaner track marks compared to other styles. It is a great carpet to place in high traffic areas.
If you have this carpet style, you will need a good vacuum cleaner to help you to deep clean its fibers. Since it’s a strong type of carpet, you can use a powerful vacuum cleaner on it at least twice a week.
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Plush, Saxony, Velour, and Velvet Carpet
These styles of carpets are different from one another, but they have a similar appearance and performance. These carpets vary from short to medium pile which are precision cut to provide a luxury style.
The drawback with these types of carpets is that they are susceptible to vacuum marks and footprints. Therefore, when you have these styles of carpets at home, you will need to use a vacuum that is specifically designed for plush carpets to keep them protected.
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Shag Carpet
This carpet style has very long pile tufts which are loosely packed. It has a more open construction compared to other carpet styles and it is a classic soft style carpet. There are a lot of vacuums that work perfectly on low and medium pile carpets to stick to shag carpets like a big suction cup. It is because this style of carpet is too dense for the air to circulate back into the intake of the vacuum, making it almost impossible to move. This means that if you have a shag carpet at home, you will need to find and use a vacuum cleaner that is best for shag carpets.
Loop Pile Carpets
Loop pile carpets are made using full loops of yarn to create a range of finish styles and patterns with different loop heights. When you vacuum a loop pile carpet, you need to avoid creating excessive fuzz. To do that, you can either turn off the brush roll or beater bar operation of your vacuum cleaner or change the vacuum head to one that does not have a brush roll. Here are some of the loop pile carpet styles.
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Berber Carpet
This carpet style is composed of tightly woven loops and it comes with a mottled or flecked appearance. It is one of the easier styles of carpet to clean and maintain because it has large loops, meaning, dirt does not penetrate too deep below its surface. You can use a powerful vacuum cleaner for this type of carpet because it can hide footprints and vacuum cleaner marks. You can vacuum this type of carpet at least twice a week to keep it looking good.
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Level Loop Carpet
This carpet style is composed of tightly looped tufts of equal height to provide a uniform finish.
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Sisal Carpet
This style of carpet is usually heavy textured. Its appearance is like a traditional plant fiber mat but it is more comfortable. Vacuuming this carpet style is the same as for the other loop pile styles but you need to pay attention to the type of fibers that your carpet has.
General Vacuuming Tips for Different Types of Carpet
Here are some of the useful tips you can follow to be able to vacuum different types of carpet effectively.
- If you have low pile carpets at home, it’s important to use a quality upright or canister vacuum that has either a power-driven rotating brush or a combination beater and brush bar.
- If you have thicker or higher pile carpets at home, it will be easier to vacuum them using a vacuum cleaner with an adjustable height brush roll or beater bar. There are also vacuums which height can be adjusted manually, which are perfect for high pile carpets. However, not all vacuums have adjustable heights, so make sure to check first as well.
- When vacuuming loop pile carpet styles, it’s important to turn the power brush roll or beater bar off to prevent excessive fuzzing. Not all vacuum cleaners have this option, so you better check the specification first.
- If you have super thick and luxurious soft style carpets at home, you need to use a specialist vacuum cleaner for them. Some of the important vacuum characteristics you should look for, to vacuum these types and styles of carpets are:
- Large wheels to move the vacuum around easier.
- Variety of brush roll or beater bar height settings.
- A controllable power level of suction.
Vacuuming carpets in your home is an easy task when you know your carpet style and the material it’s made of. How often you should vacuum your carpets depends mainly on the level of traffic and activity in your home. The minimum that any household should vacuum its carpet is once per week. However, if you have pets at home, or there’s always high traffic in your home, then more frequent vacuuming is needed, likely twice or even thrice a week.
Vacuuming your carpets regularly can help in releasing allergens like dust and pet hair from their fibers and will keep your carpets looking and performing its best. We hope the tips we shared gave you an idea on how to vacuum different types of carpet. If you haven’t bought a vacuum yet for your home, then you can also check out our post about the Things to Consider when Buying a Vacuum for Home Use to get some ideas.