For many centuries carpets have adorned people’s homes, hotels, resorts, palaces and many other establishments around the world. They add grandeur to the interiors and provide great comfort, but they are also a major investment and in order to protect this investment, one would want to take good care of them. Regular and scientific cleaning is key to maintaining a carpet as dirt, soil and pollutants accumulated on daily basis tend to settle in, deteriorating and destroying the appearance of a carpet. “The key considerations in carpet care are the cleaning of carpets using the right technique and the right chemicals to keep them clean for as long as possible and to ensure that they are not spoiled with the treatment,” says Thomas Schindler, Managing Director, Blitz Blank Building Cleaning Services.The company’s operations are mainly in Dubai, with some key clients in Abu Dhabi. Their clientele includes five Star hotels restaurants, offices and motor yachts.

“The toughest task in carpet care is stain removal, as it is most of the time unknown which substance is on the carpet. Furthermore the stain is often treated with wrong products or other methods which ruins more than solves the problem, before we can take any action,” Schindler states. On the stain removal techniques and best practices employed by Blitz Blank for proper care and protection of carpets, he says: “There is no single common technique that will work for all stains. There are many different methods in stain removal, which mainly depends on the quality of the carpet (wool or synthetic or Vinyl) and of course, of the stain. Methods vary from using only water to heat transfer, reduction and oxidation chemicals, salt splitting, etc – to name a few.”

 

Protection is recommended for new carpets and should be done minimum once a year by using Scotch Gard or DuPont immediately after cleaning, he adds, also stating that the company deeply cares about the environment. “Our chemical suppliers need to certify their products and as we buy our complete product range from Europe (mainly Germany). We have a proper environmental proof from these companies. For instance, our product for carpet cleaning is completely foamless, less than 5 per cent phosphate, tensile-free, enzyme-free and it is of ‘food quality’, so it would not harm you if you happened to swallow it.”

 

As in any other field, there are challenges involved in proper maintenance of carpets including cleaning frequencies, time window, drying time, AC adjusting, furniture, cooking stations and careless usage of carpet areas, says Schindler. He explains: “Some clients only want the carpet to be cleaned rarely and the stains remain for long periods. As a result sometimes you cannot remove the marks completely. Especially in public areas the time windows are very short or the area itself is difficult to block (i.e. lift landings) to get a perfect cleaning result, because carpets need to be 100 per cent dry to get them back in operation, otherwise they will soil again very quickly.”

 

“Some air conditioners are set-up too cool and the temperatures are not adjustable. This extends the drying time drastically, if the temperature is below 20 degrees centigrade. Again, clearing the furniture set-up to be completely empty is necessary for the cleaning process, and the area needs to be 100 per cent dry before the set up can get back in place. If this is not done before and respected after the cleaning, the effort becomes worthless. Many banqueting are using cooking stations on special occasions without protecting the carpet, which results in heavily spills of hot food, liquids on the carpet surface adding to the challenge. Carpets are sensitive like glass. If they are used or treated in the wrong manner, they get spoiled and cannot be repaired, so they need to be replaced.”