The carpet cleaning industry strongly recommends that you have your carpet cleaned at least once a year. While some carpets come with a carpet protector from the factory, you should always apply Scotchgard to your carpet every time you have it cleaned. Because of the high heat used in van mounted steam cleaning equipment, as it is cleaned and sanitized, this strips off the old carpet protector, this is why you need to apply this added bonus to your carpet if you want to get the longest life out of your carpet. My company only uses the best carpet protector money can buy. If someone is trying to sell you Scotchgard for 5 or so cents a square foot, you can probably guess that they are not using a carpet protector and are probably just putting down water, as most carpet protection cost about $50 a gallon, which costs us about 5 cents a square foot.
My carpet in my house is about 15 years old, it is the original carpet that was installed when the house was built. I always apply Scotchgard to my carpet when I clean it, which I do about every 9 month or so. I have a cat, and a 10 month old son, and my carpet is in amazing condition for being as old as it is. This is not to say that my carpet will last forever, with everything, sooner or later it will wear out. Carpet is like glass, when you scratch it is going to make a mark, so after a while the carpet is going to wear out and break down, you will notice this the most in high traffic areas. For instance, the carpet in my house is starting to wear out in the master bedroom where you round the corner to go to the bathroom. What happens is the carpet fibers start to get broken down or worn out and this makes the pile in the high traffic lanes sit lower than the other carpet, making it look maybe a little dirty, but in all actuality the fiber is wearing out and sitting lower than the rest of the carpet, there is really nothing you can do to fix this problem except replace the carpet.
Scothgard helps to protect your carpet fibers so they don’t wear out as fast. What the Scotchgard does is make it so dirt, dust, etc. can’t bond to the fibers, and more of this dust or dirt will be vacuumed up with your weekly vacuuming, this protects your carpet fibers. Think of it like this, if you take two carpet fibers and put dirt on them and rub them together they are going to break down and wear out much quicker than if you just merely rub them together with no dirt. The dirt is abrasive and scratches the fibers, just like if you put dirt on a piece of glass and rub the dirt into the glass you are going to scratch the glass. Another example of this would be your car paint, if you took a rag and rubbed dirt on it, or used a dirty rag, and rubbed this rag accross the paint on your car it is going to scratch it. This concept works the same with carpet fibers.
Scotchgard works to protect your carpet fibers from the inside out giving you the added protection needed from dirt, dust, etc. so you can get the most life out of your carpet. Let’s face it carpet is not cheap, so if you can get 5 or 10 extra years out of your carpet, you have saved yourself and awful lot of money. The cost of the Scotchgard versus the cost to replace your carpet is a substantial difference. Even if you can add 5 or 10 extra years of life onto your carpet, the expense to apply Scotchgard to your carpet for 15 to 20 years is far cheaper then replacing your carpet. Plus you have the added feeling of security knowing that you have the least amount of dust, dirt and allergens in your carpet, and we all know what a hassle it is to have to move all the items off the carpet to have it replaced, this thought of moving all my stuff off my carpet to have it replaced makes me cringe.
Scotchgard should be applied when the carpet is damp, if you go to your local hardware store and buy a few bottles of Scotchgard and apply it to your dry carpet you are just wasting your time and money. The carpet needs to be damp so that it can soak in and bond to the carpet fiber, so leave this task to a professional carpet cleaner.