A carpeted customer waiting area is much more welcoming than hard flooring options. It's also safer, since carpet doesn't pose the same slipping hazard when it's wet as tile or polished concrete. Carpet tiles provide a cost-effective way to add the warmth and safety of carpet, while still remaining as easy to care for as hard flooring. The following care requirements can keep your tiles looking good while preventing premature replacement.
Daily Debris Care
Customer waiting rooms see a lot of foot traffic, so the tiles will require twice daily vacuuming. This is no different than sweeping a hard floor multiple times a day. Fortunately, carpet doesn't show tracked in dust and dirt as easily as a hard floor, so your flooring can still look good when you're too busy to pull out a vacuum.
You can use a small and silent carpet sweeper on Berber carpet tiles, which have a short, tight pile. Save the loud motorized vacuum for after business hours so it doesn't annoy your customers. If you need to minimize sweeping during business hours, use a large mat in front of the entry, both indoors and out, to trap most of the dirt before it can reach the flooring.
Stain Treatment
Any carpet for commercial use should be stain-resistant, although this won't repel all stains. Blotting up most stains as soon as they occur works well, or you can use a carpet spot treatment for more stubborn spots. Set up a wet floor barrier around the stain after cleaning. Although wet carpet isn't a slipping hazard, you don't want people to walk on the wet spot and make a new stain somewhere else.
Regular deep cleaning, usually every three to six months depending on the amount of traffic in the room, helps prolong the life of the tiles and prevents bad staining. This requirement is no different than buffing and maintaining hard floors in a business. Select a cleaning company like Cloud Carpet One Floor & Home that does a wet extraction cleaning to ensure as much dirt and moisture is sucked from the carpet as possible. It's best to clean the floor after closing time, so the tiles have all night to dry before you reopen.
Damage Patrol
The biggest benefit of carpet tiles over regular carpeting is that it's less expensive to replace if there's damage. You can simply replace the damaged or badly stained tile, instead of ripping out and purchasing new carpet for the entire floor.
Using tiles of multiple, complementary colors means you won't have to worry about getting an exact color match if you need to replace a single tile. Another option is to buy extra tiles at the time of installation. Store these until you need them, ensuring you have an exact match when the time comes.
Although carpet tiles wear well and rarely suffer damage, do monitor them to make sure they are not pulling up or becoming wrinkled. A loose tile can trip an employee or customer, so catch it early and repair it quickly.
