How Often Should You Stretch Your Carpet? Maintenance Tips for extending carpet life

How Often Should You Stretch Your Carpet? Maintenance Tips for extending carpet life

Installing new carpet in your home can have your floors looking and feeling great for many years, but some maintenance needs to be conducted to ensure that you gain the maximum life from the flooring in your home and business. With heavy foot traffic, changing weather and general wear and tear, carpets can degrade over time, which is when carpet stretching can become an essential maintenance service for your home or office.  

How to know if your carpet requires stretching

There are a few different signs that it’s time to stretch your carpet. The easiest to identify is the bunching or wrinkling of the carpet in high-traffic areas of your home or office. If your carpet has stretched with heavy footfall over time, it will feel progressively less taught as you walk across it before it begins to bunch and ripple. The simplest way to identify if your carpet has stretched is to stand on it barefoot and twist your body. If your carpet moves with your twisting feet, it may be time for some general maintenance before the condition of the carpet worsens to become a hazard to your family or employees.

The hazards caused by loose carpet

If your carpet has loosened over time, some hazards may be encountered in your home or office. If your carpet is only slightly loose, it may collect more dirt and debris than usual, making your home or office feel less clean and sparking allergies within its inhabitants. If the carpet has progressed to the bunching stage, it is likely to become something that people might trip over. In the home, this means the potential for family and friends to hurt themselves, but in a business environment, a trip and fall hazard that is unattended can also have more dire consequences on a legal front. For the safety of everyone in your home or office, it is best to stretch your carpet as soon as you notice the issue to avoid any injuries or further damage to the carpet. 

How carpet stretching is performed

The art of stretching your carpet is something that should be carried out by professionals. It involves the use of key tools and experience to ensure that your carpet looks and feels as good as new when the stretching process is complete. Using power stretchers and knee knickers, your carpet cleaning professional will identify the areas of your flooring that need stretching out and will re-tack the carpet so it is spread evenly and tightly from wall to wall. The end result is a floor that looks as good as new and will no longer be a hazard to you or your guests. 

Items of furniture that need to be moved

Your professional carpet stretcher will advise you on what items of furniture will need to be moved for the service to take place, but generally, you will not need to remove all the furniture in a room for the stretching to take place. Your carpet will often stretch around most furniture items within a room, stretching in the areas that have the highest foot traffic. This means that most furniture items will not need to be removed, as they have kept the carpet neatly in place and protected from wear and tear over time. Your carpet professional will advise you if there are any heavy furniture items it would be best to remove for the most effective carpet stretching. 

The cost of stretching carpet

Having carpet stretched by a professional is often the most affordable way to solve your flooring problems. If your carpet has been installed incorrectly, you may notice stretching within the first couple of years, which will need to be attended to as quickly as possible to expand the lifespan of your flooring. If your carpet is stretching due to age and general wear and tear, then the price of a stretching service is much more affordable than the purchase of new flooring and can give you years of extra lifespan before the carpet will need replacing. Aside from cleaning your carpets regularly, stretching is a service that will save you money in the long run and help avoid the cost of installing new carpets in your home or office for a few extra years. 

The benefits of stretching carpet

There are many benefits of having a professional stretch your carpet. Key successes of engaging a carpet stretching service include: 

An enhanced look for your home or office

Once your carpet has been stretched correctly, your flooring will look much better than it did before. Stretching carpet provides the best opportunity for your flooring to look its best.

Extends the life of your carpet

Stretching carpet that is bunching or rippling will avoid further damage to the flooring, meaning less maintenance for you in the future. 

An affordable repair option

Rather than replacing the carpets in your home or office entirely, stretching can provide an affordable alternative that will keep your carpet looking and feeling great for longer. 

The safe bet

Remove unwanted hazards in your home to keep your family safe. Stretching carpet helps you to avoid any hazards to the occupants of your home or visitors to your office before injury occurs.  

How often should carpet be stretched? 

There is no cut-and-dry answer as to how often you should engage a carpet stretching service. The need will often depend on the quality of the carpet that was originally installed, how old your carpet is, how much foot traffic each section of carpet receives and the quality of the installation. If you think that carpet stretching is something you require in your home or office, it is best to get the opinion of a professional. The team at Boas Cleaning Services can provide you with key insights into the best way to maintain your existing carpet and advise you on the most affordable ways to take care of your flooring.