Ask some people, and they will tell you that if you have a new carpet, you should avoid hoovering it for as long as possible. Is this really the case? How soon should you hoover a new carpet?
You should hoover your new carpet as soon as it has been laid. If you don’t, then you actually run the risk of treading loose bits of thread into the carpet, which can cause it to look rather tatty.
Let’s tell you everything that you really need to know about hoovering a new carpet which, honestly, isn’t all that much.
How Soon Should You Hoover a New Carpet?
As soon as you can, preferably right after the carpet has been laid. Contrary to pöopular belief, there is no need for a carpet to ‘settle’. If you don’t hoover the carpet right away, then you run the risk of making the carpet look rather hideous.
A freshly laid carpet is going to have loose threads on it. These need to be sucked up as soon as possible. The last thing that you want is to be treading those loose carpet fibers into the carpet. It will give the carpet a rather ghastly appearance.
What Happens If You Don’t Hoover a New Carpet?
As we said, there will be loose carpet fibers sitting on the top of a freshly-lain carpet. Right away, they aren’t going to make your carpet look all that great. However, you just wait. If you don’t hoover them up, then you are going to end up with a rather matted carpet.
If you do not hoover up the loose fibers, you will start to tread them into the carpet. The deeper they get pushed, the more chance there is of the carpet taking on a rather matted appearance. In some cases, you may even end up with the loose fibers cutting into the actual fibers which can, of course, cause even more fibers to come loose.
This is not to mention the fact that there will be dirt sitting on the top of the carpet which is going to do the same thing. Basically, that carpet needs to be cleaned right away. You have spent all that money on a brand new carpet, so why wouldn’t you want it to look its best?
How Often Should You Hoover a New Carpet?
Assuming that you have already hoovered your new carpet as soon it was laid down, you now need to hoover that carpet as little as possible but you should never wait for more than 3-days to hoover it.
The problem with not hoovering your carpet is the fact that dirt is going to start to build up on the surface of it. Eventually, that dirt is going to start to push its way deep into the carpet, effectively shedding the fibers. You never want to give that dirt the opportunity to build up on the surface of the carpet, and hoovering every 3 days should be fine.
Of course, if your carpet is in an area that gets a lot of foot traffic e.g. in the living room or the entrance hall, then you may want to vacuum every 2 days instead.
No. Hoovering is not going to damage your carpet. Not if you do it properly, at least.
How Do You Hoover a New Carpet?
Hoovering a new carpet isn’t different from hoovering an older carpet.
We suggest that you use a quality hoover. It should be switched to a medium or low suction if you have the ability to do so. While a new carpet should be more than fine dealing with the hoover turned all the way up, there is no sense in doing that. As long as you are hoovering your carpet regularly, then there is unlikely to be too much dirt embedded in the carpet.
Make sure that you run it gently over the carpet. A lot of people have an awful habit of ‘pushing’ the vacuum down quite forcefully. They think that it is going to suck up the dirt a little bit better. However, it isn’t. It is just going to damage the carpet fibers, and you are going to be removing the same amount of dirt. It is also going to require you to spend more energy while you are vacuuming and, let’s be honest, who wants to do that?
Make sure that you specifically target the areas that seem to get a lot more foot traffic. This is where the dirt is likely to be, and the whole reason why you are hoovering is to remove that dirt so it doesn’t damage the carpet fibers.
Remember, just because you can’t see dirt on the surface of your carpet, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t there!
Will Hoovering Damage a New Carpet?
As long as you not hoovering the same carpet every single day, multiple times, then no. Hoovering is incredibly safe for a carpet, and not hoovering is likely to do more damage to it.
Of course, when you are hoovering the carpet, you will want to be nice and gentle with the hoover. Don’t go forcing it along the floor. Let the wheels of the hoover do the work. Just run the hoover gently over the carpet. This should be more than enough to lift up any filth that has decided to call your carpet it’s home.
Final Thoughts
You can hoover a new carpet as soon as you have it installed. In fact, it is highly recommended that you have the carpet hoovered as soon as it is installed. If you don’t, then the loose carpet fibers will start to work their way into the carpet, and this can result in a rather tatty look to the carpet.
After you have hoovered the new carpet for the first time, you should hoover it again every 2-3 days after that. Don’t hoover the carpet more than once every two days.
