Carpet FAQs

1. We’re thinking about carpet for our family room – kids play on the floor in there, we watch TV, and yes, food and drink occasionally find their way in there. Advice?

Carpet makes sense for the comfort and quiet. Ask your Macco’s Floor Covering Center associate for help selecting carpeting with a high rating for stain resistance. Another approach to consider would be luxury vinyl tile, along with an area rug. That would give you an easy-to-clean hard surface for the messier activities, while still providing the warm soft area.

2. The carpeting in our bedroom has a wrinkle, which is driving me crazy. What should I do?

Keep the lights off. Ha ha. No, seriously, a carpeting mechanic can make short work of that wrinkle. Your carpeting may have stretched or pulled away from the tack strip at one side. In any event, give us a call and we’ll help you forget you ever had the problem.

3. What’s the story with allergens and carpeting? I remember hearing something about this.

You are correct. This topic has gotten a lot of study. One aspect of this matter has to do with the carpeting, itself, as a source of emissions. Carpeting gets a clean bill of health on this, even the synthetic fibers. Carpeting generates very little in the way of emissions. With ventilation, newly installed carpet emissions are essentially undetectable after 72 hours. The other aspect of this has to do with carpeting’s capacity to harbor allergens. This is not a problem, but an advantage to carpeting, provided the carpeting is kept clean. Do not wait for visible soiling to trigger cleaning. Make your cleaning frequency appropriate to the amount of traffic and contaminants to which it is exposed. And between cleanings, having the contaminants trapped in the carpeting is actually healthier than having them loose and circulating through the indoor space. Be very careful about keeping carpeting and carpet padding dry. Do not let it get moldy.

4. Is wool still used for carpeting? Is it better than synthetic fibers?

Technically, yes, wool is still used for carpeting, but 99% of carpeting sold to day is synthetic – nylon, polyolefin/polypropylene. Wool gives the look and feel that the synthetics aim to duplicate, but wool is very absorbent – it holds on to water, so you have the risk of mold. The synthetics tend to wear better, resist staining and shrinking, and are more affordable than wool…nylon is about half the price of wool. Wool is better suited for area rugs.

5. I love carpeting, but I don’t love static electricity. Is there anything I can do about static?

Yes. All forms of carpet can generate static electricity. The problem is related to the form of the fibers and to low humidity. Humidify your home. Polypropylene is the least culpable in generating static. Shorter, tightly twisted looped carpets generate less static.

6. What should I know about having carpeting professionally cleaned?

We recommend that you have your carpet professionally cleaned at least every year and a half. And between professional cleanings, you can’t vacuum or steam clean too frequently. For high traffic areas, you should be performing hot water extraction cleanings several times per year, to prevent soil from building up to the point that it is damaging the carpet fibers.

7. If carpeting gets really wet, is it automatically ruined?

Assuming that you mean sopping wet, from some form of plumbing incident or flooding (rather than spilling a glass of water, say), the answer is not necessarily. The padding should be replaced in every instance, but if the water that flooded the carpet is potable water, there may be ways for a professional carpet care service to save the carpet.

8. Any tips for spot removal?

Yes: act quickly and keep this web address handy: http://www.carpet-rug.org/. That is the site for the Carpet & Rug Institute, an association of carpeting professionals with the best information available anywhere. They have an alphabetized listing of potential stain substances (from Acetone to Zinc Oxide and everything imaginable in between), along with the best approach for treating the spots.

9. Can pets and carpeting co-exist happily in the same home?

They can. Plan to clean more frequently and be vigilant about odors or accidents. You should take care of those as quickly as possible. Consult the carpet manufacturer's directions for you specific carpeting. Consider calling a professional in these instances.

10. Any advice on disposing of old carpeting?

Yes. Let us assist you with that. We’re committed to reducing the landfill burden by recycling whenever possible. Most carpeting can be recycled.