Carpets are a great flooring option and have been for many years. A carpet adds much more than just comfort to your home or business. With a carpet, you also get to enjoy warmth and grip that a bare floor cannot give you.
But do you know what is lurking in your carpet? A scientific research conducted at New York University established that a typical carpet contains up to 200,000 bacteria per square inch, making it 4,000 times dirtier and riskier than a toilet seat.
In fact, a dirty carpet can have adverse effects on your health and the air quality of your house or office. In this post, we list some of the dangerous things that may be hiding in your carpet.
Dirt and soil
Did you know that the average Canadian house can accumulate up to 40 pounds of dust per year? Given the high traffic your carpet attracts every day, dirt and soil can easily be tracked in from the outside.
The dirt ends up in your carpet fiber. Fortunately, vacuuming regularly can eliminate up to 90% of dust and soil hiding in the fiber.
Bacteria
The soles of your shoes and pets bring a lot of bacteria to your house. The carpet fabric creates a perfect breeding ground for bacteria, which continue to multiply and form colonies.
Things can be worse if you don’t clean your carpet regularly because the bacteria find more time to breed and increase in number. Research shows that the soles of your shoes carry different types of bacteria, such as the E. coli and other members of the pneumonia family.
Pet dander, hair, and skin flakes
An average person sheds up to two million skin flakes per day. Minute insects such as ticks, mites, and fleas feed on pet dander and skin flakes. Therefore, when skin flakes land on your carpet, they, in turn, attract the insects.
Hiring a Montreal carpet cleaning company like CleanNet Canada to vacuum your carpet regularly can help reduce the overall amount of dead skin cells and pet hair dander lurking in your carpet. This way, you also reduce the number of microscopic insects attracted to the skin flakes and pet dander.
Allergens
Pollen grain, dust, and other allergens can also get stuck in carpet fibers. Seasonal allergens such as pollen find their way into your house through windows and may also be carried by your shoe soles.
If you don’t leave your shoes outside while entering your house, there is a high possibility you are depositing a wide range of these seasonal allergens in your carpet.
Food & Drink Residue
You need to clean any food or drink spills on your carpet immediately. However, taking care of the surface stain is not sufficient because traces of food particles that penetrate the fibers provide a perfect ground for bacteria and other bugs.
Vacuuming your carpet after food or drink spills will not only help in keeping your carpet clean but also prevents it from getting bad odor. It also reduces the risk of harmful bacteria turning the carpet into a breeding ground.