How to Deal with Commercial Carpeting Problems
Old style commercial carpets can be absolute nightmares in terms of the sorts of issues and costs they can involve. They can be real messes, impossible to clean and in some cases they can actually be public liability issues. The fact is that this type of commercial flooring is now well and truly on the way out, and mainly because of the expensive types of problems it causes.
There are many ways of managing carpet issues, but the bottom line is this – The new modular carpet tiling systems are infinitely better value, longer lasting and a lot cheaper to maintain. Best practice is now to rip out the old carpeting and replace it on a structured budget basis. This keeps outlays under control and deals systematically with problems on a prioritized schedule of replacement.
Carpet problems and fixes
The typical carpet problems read like an obituary for the old carpeting types:
- Heavy stains – Fortunately, new cleaning methods can usually deal with staining, but sometimes at the expense of colour. The solution is to recolorize the carpet. With carpet tiles, you can usually simply remove the damaged tiles and replace them without the preservation costs.
- Old, smelly carpets – The basic fix is a "carpet restoration" job, which involves deep cleaning and resealing the carpet surface to protect the carpet's weave, which has been contaminated over time and has absorbed odor-causing agents like fungi, chemicals, or spills. The fact, however, is that replacement will be required. Restoration does do a good job of maintaining carpets, but at this stage some level of structural deterioration has occurred.
- Torn or damaged carpeting – In public areas, these damaged carpets look awful and seriously detract from the image of the premises. Repair jobs usually involve re-stitching seams and/or replacement of damaged areas of carpet. The problem is that with traditional broadloom carpets this work also involves creating an exclusion zone around the repair job and may take hours of work. Modular carpet tiles can simply be removed and replaced in a few minutes.
- Pile carpet problems – These problems may involve deterioration of the pile, often in combination with the problems outlined above. Pile carpets are high-maintenance carpets, and the traditional weave, good-looking as it usually is, really shows signs of damage when it starts to deteriorate. Low quality pile actually fragments, literally losing material. The only working long term option is replacement when the pile itself has begun to show significant wear.
- High traffic area carpet issues – These are usually a combination of the basic carpet problems. Traditional old style carpeting can usually survive about four or five years before sheer wear and tear effectively destroys it. This situation is caused by impacting of the carpet by the weight of traffic, which compresses carpet fibers and the ground-in grit literally cuts the carpet to pieces. Fixes for this problem, other than replacement with the modern carpets, which can survive this sort of treatment, include special carpet strips, or even replacement with laminated flooring, which are expensive options.
Simplifying the issues – Modern carpet solutions
The new carpets are the new wave of commercial flooring. They don't have much in common with their predecessors except that both are carpets. The new carpet tiles are glued, not stitched, so they don't have seams. They also have their own independent backing, so there are no underlay costs. If you're looking for solutions to carpeting problems, look ahead. Check out the new modular carpets and see the difference.
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