While carpets add comfort and beauty to homes and businesses, they can also be a magnet for dirt, allergens, and other harmful outdoor materials such as pollen, mold spores, and pesticides. This is why it’s important to use professional carpet cleaning services, especially when you’re dealing with carpets in the classrooms and administrative areas of a school. Here’s a rundown of the Environmental Protection Agency’s — EPA — new guidelines for safe and effective carpet cleaning in schools, which were released in 2017.

Vacuum Regularly

Large qualities of dust, dirt, and other debris will build up in a carpet if it’s not sufficiently cleaned. According to the EPA, a significant amount of these contaminated particles is released into the air each day, which can exacerbate allergies and compromise air quality. Also, children who play on carpet are exposed to these contaminants when they’re not properly removed via a deep carpet cleaning. To ensure your school’s carpets are adequately dust-, dirt-, and germ-free, use a professional carpet cleaning service regularly.

Use Approved Appliances

To meet EPA guidelines, carpets must be cleaned with effective, well-functioning vacuums. To this end, the Carpet and Rug Institute — CRI — created a Green Label Vacuum Cleaner Indoor Air Quality Testing Program, which identifies vacuum models that meet specific standards for soil removal and dust containment. When you take advantage of professional carpet cleaning services, you can be sure these highly efficient vacuums are being used to clean the carpet in all areas of your school.

Always Clean Up Spills

Finally, the EPA notes that it’s imperative to clean up carpet spills carefully and immediately. If only water is spilled, the moisture must be sopped up right away, and the carpet must be completely dry within 24 hours. Any other type of liquid saturation will require immediate extraction and spot cleaning followed by a 24-hour drying window. Depending on the severity of the spill, you may need to bring in a commercial cleaning service.

When you need professional carpet cleaning services that follow EPA guidelines, contact the IICRC-certified experts at Pioneer Janitorial. Since 1969, this family-run business has been offering a wide range of commercial and residential cleaning services in Live Oak, FL — including upholstery cleaning, steam carpet cleaning, and hard surface floor cleaning. Visit their website to see a full list of services and request a quote, or call (386) 362-3845 to speak with a representative today.