Have you ever noticed black or dark lines along the edges of your walls, particularly along the edges of your staircases? Most likely (unless you’re just a bad at vacuuming), this isn’t dirt or dust—it’s actually a form of air pollution building up. Your home is constantly “breathing”, with airflow moving between rooms and from inside the walls outward. Unless the builders of your home caulked or foam sealed the gap where your flooring meets your walls, air will constantly breathe through these openings. The edges of your carpet start filtering this air and over time, carbon and other airborne contaminants will stain the carpet fibres. This effect the same phenomenon causing those dark lines under your doors and closet doors, and under the lids of your HVAC in-floor vents.
What “contaminants” are in your home’s air? Things like car exhaust from your garage, candle or fireplace smoke, gas from pilot lights on stoves or in fireplaces, oils released while cooking, cigarette smoke, traffic exhaust through, general outdoor air pollution, etc. All of these particulates are constantly circulating in and out of your walls and home.
As carpet cleaners, we can’t get too aggressive along the edges of your walls since the heat of our water and our metal tools risk stripping the paint. We typically apply a topical solvent along edges that are particularly bad and will use a special crevice tool to tackle this problem, but even this is sometimes not enough to fully remove the staining as the fibres have essentially been dyed rather than just being dirty. Think of your furnace filter or your car’s cabin air filter. It was once beautiful and clean, but after air has passed through long enough, it becomes permanently discoloured.
WHAT CAN YOU DO? We always recommend vacuuming your edges regularly using your vacuum’s crevice attachment. Removing as much of the contamination as you can on a regular basis can slow the process of air filtration damage. And regular professional cleaning helps too! We recommend cleaning your carpets at least once per year to keep them healthy, bright, and clean.
PRO TIP: If you’re planning on replacing your carpeting, take the time to caulk or foam seal that gap between flooring and wall BEFORE your carpet installers lay the new carpet down. This can help permanently solve the issue going forward. And you might even consider choosing a darker colour carpet for areas where you know infiltration has been an issue, particularly on stairwells. Darker carpets are usually better for stairwells anyhow as they’re subject to heavy foot traffic. Be sure to have your HVAC filters replaced regularly as well. If the air breathing in your home is cleaner overall, there will be less contaminants to soil and infiltrate your carpet’s edges.
BOOK YOUR NEXT CLEANING NOW! Call 778-829-4557.