Guides

CCGT Services guide

How Often Should Office Carpet Be Cleaned?

Office carpet looks fine until it does not. By the time you can see the dirt, it has been wearing the fibres down for months. This guide explains how often office and commercial carpet needs a proper deep clean, and what pushes that schedule shorter or longer.

The short answer for most offices

For most of the commercial sites we look after, we put carpet on a six monthly schedule. Twice a year is enough to stop dirt building up in the fibres, and it keeps the carpet lasting longer.

Vacuuming every night is not the same thing. A vacuum takes off loose dirt from the surface. A hot water extraction clean pulls out what has worked its way down, which is the part that wears the carpet and holds smells.

The exact timing depends on the site. When we quote a commercial job we walk through first, look at how many people use the building and what the floors are, and set the carpet clean into the schedule from there.

Why carpet looks clean when it is not

Foot traffic does the damage long before carpet looks dirty. Grit gets walked in, settles at the base of the fibres and cuts them every time someone steps on it. That is why the walkways to the front door, the paths to the kitchen and the areas around desks go flat and grey first.

If you wait until the stains show, the carpet has usually already lost life. A regular clean costs less over the years than replacing carpet early.

What shortens the schedule

Some sites need cleaning more often than every six months. A shopfront with a steady stream of customers, a reception area that opens straight onto the street, or a kitchenette where coffee gets dropped will all show wear sooner.

Wet weather matters in Mackay. During the wet season, people bring mud and water in from the car park, and it ends up in the carpet at entries and in lifts and corridors. Busy areas can be cleaned more often than the rest of the floor, while quiet back offices stay on the normal schedule.

Reception areas and lunchrooms are the usual trouble spots. Spills in a kitchenette soak in quickly, and a front counter gets walked on by every visitor. Telling us where your worst areas are means we can put extra attention there on each visit.

What stretches it out

A small office with a few staff, a hard floor entry and a mat at the door can often go longer between cleans. A mat at every entry catches a lot of grit before it reaches the carpet.

Vacuum properly every clean, not just a quick pass. Deal with spills as soon as they happen, because a stain that sits becomes harder to lift.

Matting at each entry is the cheapest way to protect carpet, and it is worth checking that the mats are cleaned or swapped as well, since a full mat stops catching anything.

Doing it without disrupting your business

We clean commercial carpet after hours, so it is dry and ready when your team gets back in. Most carpet is dry enough to walk on within a few hours, and faster with the air conditioning running.

If you also have a cleaning contract, carpet can go on the same schedule, so you get a reminder and a booked time instead of having to remember.

Carpet and your lease

If you rent your commercial space, the lease often says it has to go back in good or better condition. Carpet that has been cleaned on a regular schedule is much easier to hand back than carpet that has been ignored for years.

Keep a record of when each clean was done. It helps if the landlord questions the condition at the end of the lease.

More on this service: CCGT Services service page.

Common questions