The True Cost Of Not Maintaining Your Carpet
“The True Cost of Not Maintaining Your Carpet”
Carpet is the third largest expense for most people: Behind their house and their car. Most carpets today are petroleum based, so when the price of oil skyrocketed so did the price of carpet. There were price increases almost every 2 weeks for months, leading to a almost 15% price increase last year. A carpet that cost $38.75 per yard now costs $45.00 per yard this is for a low end mid grade carpet. In this scenario if you bought 100 yards of carpet the increase was $675.00. Now most of going to say that is really high that is because retailers now show you prices by the square foot, to get the price per yard you need to multiply by 9.
Carpet manufactures recommend their carpets be cleaned every 12-24 months. We recommend at least once a year, and we have 2 packages for ½ price cleanings every 6 months. Here are the reasons for this: Carpet acts like a filter collecting dirt, sand, oil, smoke, and grease among anything else walked or floating in.
The sand and small rocks act like sandpaper scratching off the carpet protector and damaging the fibers. Regular vacuuming and truck mount hot water extraction will remove these contaminates.
The oils and grease help hold the soils and other contaminates the carpet, this is where the truck mounted hot water extraction comes in which is the way most manufactures want it done, with a proper detergent and 180 degree plus water you can break down the oils to release the soils.
Most carpet cleaners have prices from .30 to .70 per square foot of $2.70-6.30 per square yard, which is 6-14% of what carpet cost today. Most of these prices are the same from 5 or more years ago. If you maintain your carpet semi-annually to annually your carpet can last and look great until your just tired of the color and WANT to change it, not change it because you have to.
This scenario is based on just 100 yards of carpet.
At $45 per yard, 100 yards would cost you $4500. Which is enough carpet to cover ½ a town house. If you cleaned the carpet yearly at a median price of .50 per square foot it would cost $450 per year. So with regular vacuuming and cleanings it would take 10 years to match the cost of replacing that carpet. With proper care and maintenance this carpet would still look good and not need to be replaced. Without proper care your carpet may only last 5 years before in needs to be replaced.
With proper care in those 5 years you would spend $2200 for regular cleanings. Without proper care you would of spent $0 on cleanings but NOW you have to spend $4500+ say 3% per year increase for a total of 15% or $675. So now your replacing your carpet for a total of $5175.
So you can properly care and maintain your carpet for $2200 or replace it for $5175. That means you save $2975 every 5 years just by properly caring for and maintaining your carpet with professional cleanings.
You not only save approximately 60% over 5 years but you also help save the planet by keeping your carpet out of out landfills. You also will save yourself the inconvenience of moving all your furniture from your home to have the carpet installed.
So you can maintain your carpet for the money, the planet, or your sanity. The key is to Maintain Your Carpet!
See our website at www.superiorsteamcleaners.com for our maintenance packages.
About the Author:Owner of Superior Steam Cleaners in Maryland since 1992. IICRC Certified Master Cleaner and Instructor. http://superiorsteamcleaners.com/
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