How to clean an area rug on hardwood floor?
How to clean an area rug on hardwood floor is a question which most of the quality conscious people explore today. Cleaning rugs or carpets could be a very daunting task. Everyday cleaning of the area rugs with a normal broom and even vacuum cleaning might not give you the results that you want. First of all, the need is to identify that what exactly you are looking to deal with in cleaning. It may be about the excessive use of the rugs which is causing extreme dust, dirt or debris accumulated or maybe the pet hairs stuck on the carpet. All this could be easily achieved with the steam cleaning but that requires you to follow a proper procedure in order to not only get the top cleaning but also to ensure that no negative effect is noticed either on the carpet or the hardwood floor, where it is laid.
Steps to clean an area rug over the hardwood floor:
Cleaning area rug out in the open is not always a good idea considering the weather conditions and the amount of effort required in cleaning. With steam cleaning, all you need to do is to have a steam cleaning machine and a few prerequisites to meet. The steam cleaning machines could be very expensive but the good part is that such machines could be rented from the market, as such activities are required to be done just once in a while. You may also hire experts for doing the needful but that would shoot up the cost exponentially. The best idea is to do this on your own by following the below given steps:
- The first thing is to ensure that the hardwood floor under the carpet is well protected. In order to make this certain, remove the rug from its spot. You may need to roll it up if the rug is of big size.
- Dust your rug before you get into the details and make sure you don’t have any dirt piles that can be removed easily with the help of a carpet brush.
- You may have to remove stains if there are any using spot cleaning method. This may require some liquid detergent or other cleaning agents to work on the stain quickly. Avoid bleaching as it may ruin the color.
- Before you begin with the actual task of steam cleaning, make sure that you are well aware of the safety directions and precautions are given by the steam cleaner that you have either purchased or rented out. This will help you in using the machine effectively, with no negative effects at all.
- Once that is done, then you need to cover the hardwood floor in order to protect it from the moisture generated through steam cleaning. For this purpose, you need to have a waterproof plastic sheet, such as those used by the painters. Place it over the area and tape it to the walls so that it firmly stays in its place till the job is completed.
- Now get your area rug and place it back on its position over the plastic sheet.
- Prepare your steam cleaning machine with water, cleaning detergent and other requirements, if it’s not already done.
- Clean the rug while making the most of the steam vaccum.
- Allow the area rug to dry in the same position. Make sure that there is no moisture left in the rug.
- Once step 7 above is ensured, then you need to roll over the rug and keep it on one side.
- Remove the plastic sheet from the area.
- Put the clean and dry area rug back in its place.
Finally, the answer to the question that how to clean an area rug on hardwood floor has been resolved. It is not just the dirt, dust, debris or the pet hairs that need to be treated with the steam vacuum, but you also need to do so when it starts smelling bad due to environmental moisture and humidity. This type of cleaning is only warranted once every 12 to 18 months. In between, you could just police the area rug for its required maintenance and then make the cleaning arrangements accordingly.
