New carpet care - old wive's tale?

MEGANJODELLE

I'm shortly to have some new carpet fitted, nothing fancy, short pile, 100 % man made. However, I recall hearing once that you should not vaccuum new carpet too strongly until it "beds in". Is this true? If so, what is the theory behind why it is necessary?

Also, I'm a little worried as I have an upright Dyson and have heard tales over the years of these cleaners chomping some carpets.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks

Doozergirl

I can only think you don't vacuum if the carpet isn't laid properly. If it weren't, if would behave like a rug does, iyswim, and get 'munched', lol! However, properly laid carpet won't be budging at all.

We've refurbished umpteen houses and I have personally hoovered a lot of new carpet with an upright Dyson and it's absolutely fine! Keep an eye on the 'bin' bit though because it fills up a LOT quicker with loose fibres etc.

tawnyowls

MEGANJODELLE wrote:

I'm shortly to have some new carpet fitted, nothing fancy, short pile, 100 % man made. However, I recall hearing once that you should not vaccuum new carpet too strongly until it "beds in". Is this true? If so, what is the theory behind why it is necessary?

Also, I'm a little worried as I have an upright Dyson and have heard tales over the years of these cleaners chomping some carpets.

Sort of - if it's a hessian-backed carpet, it is possible to pull the carpet by the suction and stretch it, so it's sensible to turnthe strength of the suction down for the first few weeks. However, you'll probably find you have to vacuum every day for the first couple of weeks; when carpet fibres are trimmed, you get loads of little bits trapped in amongst the long fibres, and they form lumps with walking, pulling furniture across it, etc so you should vacuum more often at first to get rid of these.

Snaggles

Our carpet fitter told us exactly the opposite - that the proper way to care for a carpet and keep it in great condition is to vac it every day without fail, so that the pile doesn't get compacted. Not sure if he's just hoping we will wear the carpet out faster and get himself more business though lol.

joey_2

Never heard of this. My oh is a carpet fitter, has fitted all ours and he always hoovers them straight after fitting as there's always stray clumps of carpet and fluff everywhere!

MEGANJODELLE

Hi all,

Just to say thanks for all your replies. I've definately had my mind put at rest over this issue.

Lord_Gardener

What a load of nonsense! Nothing will change if you leave the carpet for a few weeks! There will always be loose pile in the carpet from the manufacturing process. You just need to vacuum it out with a good strong vacuum cleaner - one which beats and sweeps! Expect quite a lot of fluff to be collected for the first few times that you vacuum the carpet - this process will not thin or wear your carpet.