How Often Do You Need to Have Your Carpet Cleaned?

The carpets in your home may look soft and inviting, but they're often laden with dirt, mold spores, bacteria and skin particles. This doesn't sounds like the kind of surface you'd want to sit on or allow your kids to play on. Regular carpet cleaning can go a long way towards keeping your carpet free of germs and contaminants, but "regular" means different things to different people.

Having your carpets professionally cleaned once a year is a good starting point, but some homeowners need to have theirs cleaned more often--while others can wait a bit longer between appointments. Here's a closer look at the factors that influence how often you need to have your carpet cleaned.

Check with your carpet manufacturer or installation company to see whether their warranty terms require that the carpet is cleaned at a certain frequency. For instance, some carpet companies will not honor a warranty claim if the carpet has not been cleaned every 12 months or 18 months between the time of installation and the time the claim is made.

If your carpet warranty terms require carpet cleaning at a certain frequency, then make sure you have the carpet professionally cleaned at least that often. Save your receipts each time so that if you do need to make a claim, you have proof of regular cleaning.

If you have kids, you may want to have your carpets--at least the ones they spend a lot of time on--cleaned more than once a year. Many parents find that every 6 months is a good interval. Not only will this remove food spills, skin oils, and other debris that your children leave behind, but it will also keep the carpet more sanitary so that you don't have to worry about kids getting sick or contracting infections after playing on it.

Dogs and cats, in particular, leave behind dander and hair on the carpet. While vacuuming regularly will remove most of the hair and dander, some of this debris can work its way deeper into the carpet where only a professional extraction system can reach it. Have carpets that pets spend time on cleaned every 6 months so that the hair buildup does not become excessive. Make sure your carpet cleaning company uses a pet-friendly detergent.

If you live in an area where the air is often humid, and especially if you do not have an air conditioner or dehumidifier to remove moisture from the air, you may want to have your carpet cleaned every 6 months. Humidity leads to mold growth, and the mold spores can easily end up in your carpet, causing respiratory symptoms when you breathe them in. Frequent shampooing can help remove mold spores, keeping your indoor air cleaner.