Road sand and de-icing salt do more damage between November and March than a whole summer of foot traffic. Here's how we handle it.
Every winter we see the same thing in Kelowna, Vernon and Penticton homes: the first two metres inside every exterior door look years older than the rest of the carpet. That is not wear from feet. It is road sand acting like sandpaper and de-icing salt drying out and stiffening the fibre.
The cheapest fix is mechanical. Put a coarse mat outside every door and an absorbent mat inside, and vacuum the entry three times as often as the rest of the house. Grit that never gets walked past the mat never reaches the pile.
Salt is a chemical problem, not a grit problem. It crystallizes in the fibre and holds moisture, which is why salted carpet feels crunchy and stays dingy no matter how much you vacuum. It needs to be dissolved and extracted — a hot water extraction rinse is the practical answer.
If you only clean once a year, do it in late winter or early spring rather than before Christmas. You will pull out the whole season of sand and salt before it has months more to grind away at the fibre.
When you are ready to reset the entryways for spring, our carpet cleaning service is built for exactly that job.