Are you noticing your carpet changing colours along the edges of your room? Grey or black lines appearing along walls, under doors, around air vents, or along your stairs? Unfortunately, you are most likely experiencing filtration soiling.
What is Filtration Soiling?
Filtration soiling happens when air is being forced into a room at a higher rate than it can escape through the ventilation system. When this occurs, the air must find an alternative route out. The most common place for the air to escape through is the gaps between the carpet and wall trim, as well as under closed doors.
The carpet then acts as a filter, as the air is forced through these gaps it passes through the carpet, which traps any pollutants that are in the air. These pollutants are what turn the carpet grey or black. The most common pollutants are smoke from cigarettes and candles, cooking oils, fireplace ash and dust. It should be noted that filtration soiling does not occur because of insufficient vacuuming and it is not a reflection of one’s housekeeping abilities. Filtration soiling can happen to the best of us and even in the cleanest of homes. However, regularly vacuuming, especially along the edges of the room can help reduce the discolouration.
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How do you Remove the Discolouration?
The particles from the pollutants that get trapped are extremely fine and embed themselves into the fibres of the carpet. This makes it very difficult and, in some cases, not possible to remove all of the discolouration caused by filtration soiling.
If you are experiencing this type of soiling, contact your local carpet cleaning company and leave it to the professionals! The most successful cleaning method will be hot water extraction or as it is most commonly known as, steam cleaning. The cleaning solution added to the water will help remove the soiling. Keep in mind, in some extreme cases, full removal of the soiling may not always be possible.
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How to Prevent Filtration Soiling?
Prevention is key because as we just mentioned, you can not always rely on cleaning to fully remove the soiling.
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HVAC System
Having your ducts cleaned regularly is one the first steps and one of the best ways to prevent filtration soiling. This is because the air in your home is forced through the HVAC system and as it is, it picks up all kinds of dirt and dust that is in your ducts, it then carries it into your living areas, and potentially into the carpet.
In addition to having your ducts cleaned it is important to change your HVAC filters as recommended by the manufacturer. The filters trap a large amount of airborne pollutants so your carpet doesn’t have to. In fact, the filters prevent the pollutants from even travelling in the duct system and thus into your living areas.
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Eliminate Gaps
The second way to reduce filtration soiling is to remove the gaps the air is able to escape through. Keep your interior doors between rooms open as much as possible. This allows the air to move freely between rooms instead of the air having to travel down to the carpet and out through the bottom of the closed door.
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Reduce Pollutants
To reduce pollutants in your home there are a couple of steps you can take. First, avoid smoking inside of the home. Second, if you love the ambiance and aroma of candles, consider switching to flameless battery-operated candles or an electric warmer to heat fragrant wax. And last, keep track of that dust in your home. Frequent dusting and vacuuming is crucial to ensure your home is dust-free and your carpets remain soil free.
