Five Step Carpet Care of Asheville NC provides rug and carpet cleaning services at the most affordable price in Asheville NC.

5 Signs You Should Invest in Rugs

/in /by

Is it time to update the look and feel of your home? If so, there are a lot of things to consider, and one of them should be whether or not to invest in area rugs! Would your home benefit from the addition of rugs? Here are 5 signs to watch for.

  1. Your wood floors are getting scuffed by furniture, feet, or pets. It’s an undeniable truth that floors are meant to be walked on. And over time, all that walking can cause residual damage to your beautiful hardwood or laminate wood floors! One of the great benefits that area rugs provide is protection for the bare floor underneath. If you’ve noticed scuffs, scrapes, gouges or staining on your wood or laminate floors, investing in area rugs can put a stop to the problem. And over time, it’ll save you money on floor repairs and refinishing.
  2. Your feet are always freezing. You get out of bed in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, and by the time you get back, your feet are so cold that it takes you thirty minutes to get back to sleep. Or you lay in bed after the alarm clock goes off, dreading the moment when your bare feet make contact with the frigid wood or tile. Socks don’t help, and even your fuzzy slippers let in the cold. Sounds like it’s time to insulate those floors with some nice, soft, warm rugs!
  3. The rooms in your home just seem to be missing something. Maybe it’s a lack of color or vibrant patterns that help to tie together the interior design of your living space. Or maybe your living room just feels stark and somber with all the bare hardwood. Either way, there’s something missing, and it can only be remedied with rugs!
  4. Guests don’t stay long. A home full of hard surfaces is an unwelcome place for guests. They might not say anything about it, and probably they aren’t even consciously thinking it. But somewhere in the back of their minds, they are subconsciously yearning for the lush, soft comfort that only rugs can provide.
  5. You have a new baby (or grandchild) on the way. Babies love to roll around on the floor. But hard, bare wood or tile floors are not conducive surfaces for infants to roll around on and explore! Introducing area rugs to your living space will make your little ones more comfortable and less likely to be injured.

 

We don’t sell rugs, but we do clean them! If you live in the Asheville, NC area and you decide to make the investment in rugs for your home, give us a call for periodic cleaning. And if you decide not to go with rugs for your floor covering, that’s okay—we clean hardwood, laminate, tile, slate, and carpet, too! You can get in touch by phone at 828.772.1824, or drop us a line using our contact form.

What Does Spring Cleaning Have to do with Rugs and Carpets?

/in /by

spring cleaning rugs

Imagine living in New York or Wisconsin before the modern inventions of electric heat, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners. It would have been quite a different life than what we enjoy today! These hardy folks brought their whole lives inside for four to six months while the cold weather raged outside. During that time, they would have had to adjust and modify their normal, warm-weather cleaning habits. Instead of carrying all of the dirty clothes and linens outside on “wash day” to launder in a big cast iron pot over a fire, they would wash their clothes in small batches in the kitchen and hang them to dry beside the wood stove or fireplace. They would leave the sheets and blankets unwashed through most of the winter. Heating with wood meant that the floors and rugs would constantly be covered with stray wood chips and pieces of bark, and by spring, everything in the house would be coated with a fine layer of ash. And the lack of light in winter would have made it hard to see well enough to clean in a detailed way.

So as soon as the days lengthened and the weather grew warmer, families did their “spring cleaning”. They spent a few days or a week cleaning everything that had grown dirty and neglected over the long, harsh winter.

One of the most important, time consuming, and labor-intensive tasks in the spring cleaning regimen was beating the rugs. People didn’t have wall-to-wall carpets back then, but they did have large, room-sized rugs woven of wool or reeds, and smaller rugs woven of old rags. These heavy, dirt-covered rugs would be hauled outside, hung up on a line in the sunshine, and beaten with sticks until no more dust remained. Then they would be left to hang in the sunshine and air out for a day or so, before being brought back in.

Thankfully, today, we have access to miraculous appliances like vacuum cleaners and washers and dryers. Though it still gets cold and dark in the winter, we no longer have to suffer through months of dirty living conditions and poor air quality just because it’s cold outside.

But, even though we now live in a time of comparative luxury, spring cleaning is still a tradition that many people uphold. Since spring is a time of renewal, it is nice to spend a few days tidying up, getting rid of the old, and making room for the new. And it’s as good a time as any to see to those household chores that only need to be done once a year. Like cleaning behind the refrigerator, changing your air filters, and, yes, treating your rugs and carpets to a thorough, professional cleaning.

Your rugs and carpets still need occasional, detailed cleaning, but nowadays you don’t have to spend all day hauling them out to the yard and beating them with sticks. Instead, you can just give Five Step Carpet Care a call. We’ll come and clean your carpets, or even pick up your area rugs, take them to our facility and return them back to you, impeccably clean and vibrant!

If you’d like our help with your spring cleaning this year, give us a call at 828.772.1824 or get in touch via our contact form today!

New Years Resolutions For Your Carpet

/in /by

new years resolutions

A new year is upon us! It’s time to reflect upon the successes and failures of the previous year and to form goals and resolutions for the coming one. Millions of Americans are sitting at the kitchen table, pen in hand, writing down intentions for personal improvement, from getting more exercise to reading more books to quitting smoking. While you’re listing what you’d like to accomplish in 2017, why not make some New Years resolutions for your home, as well? Particularly, your carpet.

The carpets in your home represent a sizeable investment in both money and time. They weren’t cheap to install, and taking care of them requires small but consistent amounts of effort over the long term. You want your carpets to last so that you and your family can enjoy them for a long time. You don’t want to have to replace them every few years.

So how do you maximize the life of your carpet? Well, we’ve composed a list of New Years Resolutions you can set to ensure your carpets remain beautiful, clean, and cozy for many years to come.

  1. Develop a Consistent Vacuuming Schedule. Regular vacuuming prevents dirt, crumbs, and debris from working their way down into the carpet pile. Without regular vacuuming, your carpet will eventually develop that dull, dingy look, and it can even start to harbor environmental toxins like fungi, allergens, and bacteria. You want your carpets to look vibrant and new, right? So commit to a regular vacuuming schedule. Depending on your circumstances and the room in question, your vacuuming schedule could be once every two weeks or once every two days. For tips on how to determine the best schedule for the rooms in your home or business, visit our blog post on the topic.
  2. Keep Toxins Out of Your Carpet. As stated above, regular vacuuming is the first step to keeping your carpets free of environmental toxins. But just as important is keeping harmful toxic products off of your carpet. Most carpet spot cleaners, shampooing solutions, and deodorizing powders are full of chemicals known to adversely affect the health of humans and their pets. So be very careful about what products you use on your carpet!
  3. Protection and Prevention. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure! You can extend the life of your carpets by preventing the types of abuse that send carpets to the garbage heap. There are many simple preventative measures you can take to avoid carpet damage—from putting out welcome mats at your home’s entryways, to learning how to remove small stains the correct way. For more information on protection and prevention for your carpets, click here to see the blog post we wrote about it.
  4. Have Your Carpets Professionally Cleaned. Most people don’t think about getting their carpet cleaned unless it is visibly dirty or has odors. But even if your carpet doesn’t exhibit any stains or odors, it’s still important to have it cleaned periodically in order to protect the health of your home’s inhabitants or your business’ employees and customers. Regular vacuuming goes a long way toward keeping your carpets healthy, but there are some environmental toxins—like bacteria—that your vacuum won’t touch. And for those, you need professional cleanings. Check out our blog post, “How Often Should I Have My Carpets Cleaned” for more information on creating a professional cleaning schedule suited to your circumstances.

Well, that’s it! Now you’re all set to step forward into 2017 with the confidence that you, and your carpets, will be happy, healthy, and protected far into the future.

If you live in the Asheville, NC area and are in need of high quality, professional carpet cleaning that is sustainable and non-toxic, give Five Step a call at 828.772.1824 or use our contact form to get in touch today.

And from all of us at Five Step Carpet Care, we wish you a very Happy New Year!

How Healthy is Your Home?

/in /by

Carpet bacteria mold mites

Does Your Home Harbor Carpet Health Hazards?

Everyone wants a clean home. That’s why Americans spend $168 billion a year on cleaning supplies, with the average family of five spending upwards of $700 per year, not including services like professional home or carpet cleaning. But as savvy homeowners know, true cleanliness goes deeper than the surface.

When you prep raw meat in your kitchen, for instance, you’ll want to clean up afterwards. You could just wipe up with a wet paper towel, or even worse, a dirty cloth—and that might make the prep surface look clean, but appearances can be deceiving. Beneath the façade teems an army of germs and bacteria. So we use antibacterial cleaning agents, whether they be commercial products or natural ones like a vinegar solution, to produce not just a clean appearance, but a healthy environment in the place we prepare our meals and spend so much of our time as a family.

The same applies to carpets. Carpet health hazards often go unaddressed, because they are invisible. Most people vacuum their carpets about once a week—more if they have pets. Vacuuming does its part to keep your carpet looking clean, and it also does a pretty good job of dealing with certain unwanted debris and particulates, like mold spores. But for a healthy clean you can trust, carpets require occasional deep cleaning.

A carpet that is overdue for a deep cleaning can harbor all kinds of microscopic carpet health hazards, from bacteria and viruses to mites and fungi. Vacuuming alone can’t tackle these undesirables. Some of these contaminants may be odor-causing, which will, over time, impact not just your health, but also your enjoyment of your home. A professional deep clean can eliminate those threats and leave you confident in not only the cleanliness, but also the healthiness of your home.

Five Step Carpet Care can help you maintain a healthy environment in your home with our unique, environmentally friendly process. We can consult with you beforehand about your carpet maintenance goals, whether you have stains that need addressing, or odors to be eliminated, or just want to get rid of any invisible health threats hiding in the fibers of your carpets. Our cleaning solutions are 100% non-toxic, so you don’t have to worry about additional health threats being introduced to your home in your effort to clean it.

Not sure if your carpets are due for a deep cleaning? Check out our blog post on how to plan a maintenance schedule for your carpets.

If you live in the Asheville, NC area, give us a call at 828.772.1824 or use our contact form to schedule a consultation. You can also keep touch by liking our Facebook page. We hope to hear from you soon!