Carpeting covers floors. First floors are walked on. Carpet does a lot more though than just lay there. Carpet is soft and warm to walk on, as well as an insulator to flooring underneath. When a carpet is installed properly, with the fuzzy side up, and power stretched. (Required by CRI on all stretched over pad installations. Unfortunately many are not, which is why we restretch carpeting all the time, see our services page for more info and video). Your carpet looks so beautiful when you purchased it. You chose the color to add to the decor of your rooms. You wake up in the morning, as you walk down the hall to the coffee pot and then to sit on the couch and your feet are so comfy. Your dog curls up by your feet. Your children come and sit down to watch TV next to the comfy dog. The cat comes in purring as it rubs against your feet, looks at the dog and rubs against the kids. This is one moment in a day of your carpet. Throughout the day “so much touches your carpets”. Soon art projects and dinner, snow, rain and mud happen to find their way on and into your carpet. By the end of the week a need to refresh has popped up. So now we begin to see a need for vacuuming.
Many folks just vacuum at the point when they can see stuff on the top surface of their carpet. Carpet actually has a lot more surface than you can see or was measured when your carpet was installed. Besides horizontal the fibers are vertical. This unique design gives carpet it’s plush, soft, and warm feel. Also it produces unique challenges unlike hard floor surfaces. A broom and a mop work well in your kitchen. A footprint or spill when you see it are swept and mopped. With carpet, sand and dust can be tracked in and with a few steps and gravity’s help, where it seems to disappear.
You probably have a filter on your heater that needs to be changed often at least once a month. Your carpet also is a filter in your home. The same dust you wipe off of your furniture and refrigerator collects in carpet. This is point that needs a little focus. A myth is that carpets and allergies can be a problem. Carpet does not create the allergens; it just collects them and holds them like a heater filter. Compared to hard floor surfaces where dust and allergens just fly around as you walk by and become airborne. Carpet just needs the filter changed or removed by vacuuming. A good upright vacuum with a HEPA filter, without all the bells and whistles is best. You don’t need to spend a lot of money. There are some from $100. to $200 that are fine just remember the filter or hopper needs to be changed each time you use it.
Since 85% of what is tracked in or finds its way into a carpet is dry particulate soil, much like the filter on a heater, and abrasives like sand. Removing it by vacuuming regularly is a must. Some studies have said it takes multiple passes over an area to remove adequate amount of soil from the filter or carpet. The other 15% is usually liquid spills or food.
This post is focused only on the why of vacuuming. Several topics were mentioned that will have a separate post on later like:
Proper vacuuming.
Allergies and carpets.
Hard flooring and carpet.
Maintenance and cleaning.


