High traffic areas are the toughest areas of carpet to clean and maintain. The millions of carpet fiber filaments are constantly subjected to dirt being ground in to the fibers cutting like little tiny saws and this effects the way that the carpet fibers refract light. Over time, when the majority of fibers have become damaged, the light refraction gives the traffic areas a dull grey look that we call Traveling Grey.
As you can see in the banner above, the carpet fibers can be susceptible to the dirt's cutting action as it's driven from the service down to the bottom of the primary backing by the impaction and friction of being walked on. Imagine all of the particles in an average carpet times the number of people in your family times the number of times you walk down a particular traffic lane and you can start to see how the traffic lanes can become dull and matted. This is another reason that regular vacuuming is very important - to get the particles that are on the surface before they are driven down.
Luckily, we have a solution, an extra step that we can perform to get those traffic lanes as clean as they can be called Power Scrubbing. Power Scrubbing offers a very deep cleaning as well as uniform application and agitation of our emulsifiers. Anytime you can get agitation over the entire 360 degree area of the carpet fiber, you will have a better result in the cleaning. We charge a nominal fee for this optional service, but all of our customers are extremely happy with the results in the look and feel of their traffic lanes.
See the recommended carpet cleaning frequency chart below:
Traffic Soil Rating | Carpet Owner/Maintainer | Professional Carpet Cleaner/Restorer | ||
Vacuuming | Spot Cleaning | Heavy-use Area Cleaning | Restorative Cleaning | |
Light Soil | 1 time per week | Daily, or as soon as the spots are noticed | Traffic areas every 12-18 months | Every 2 years per manufacturer warranty |
Normal Soil (Families with children, elderly) | 1-2 times per week | Daily, or as soon as the spots are noticed | Traffic areas every 6-12 months | Annually |
Heavy Soil (Families with pets, smoking) | 2-4 times per week | Daily, or as soon as the spots are noticed | Traffic areas every 3-6 months | Semi-annually (2 times annually) |
Extreme Conditions (Large families, multiple pets) | Daily | Daily, or as soon as the spots are noticed | Traffic lanes every 2-3 months | Quarterly (4 times annually) |