How often should you steam clean your carpet?

Depending on whom you ask, you will get different answers for this question. Some will say steam cleaning the carpet once every six months, others once per year, once every twelve to eighteen months, and every twenty-four months.  These answers could all be correct, depending on the conditions one’s carpet is exposed to. Foot traffic and how often the carpet is vacuumed are the main factors affecting the frequency of the carpet cleaning, more than the time. Vacuuming removes soil particles from the carpet, helping prevent soil accumulation, and thus keeping the carpet clean longer.

Once soil has visibly accumulated on the carpet, it’s time to clean it! If there is no visible soil on the carpet. 

 All things equal, a carpet that’s not vacuumed regularly will need to be steam cleaned sooner than a carpet that’s regularly vacuumed. There is no set standard for how often to vacuum, but a manufacturer, Shaw Industries, recommends “vacuum, vacuum, vacuum.”  Carpets with high volume traffic may need to be cleaned more regularly than a carpet which gets very little traffic, because soil will accumulate quicker with higher foot traffic.

 If you vacuum regularly and your carpet does not get much foot traffic, Shaw Industries recommends cleaning the carpet once every twenty-four months minimum. So, in summary, you should vacuum the carpet as much as possible, professionally steam clean the carpet when the soiling is visible, or definitely once every twenty-four months.