The best and foremost step in maintaining your rugs or carpets is just a doing a good vacuuming on them. The beauty of rugs and carpet is that it can hold dry particulates and keep them away from our breathing zones, but the not so beautiful part about them is that they can hold dry particulates. Vacuuming keeps the sandy grit from scratching the fibers.

The question we get very often is “what type of vacuum do you recommend?” First of all, nothing beats the efficiency of a beater bar. Granted, there are certain rugs such as flat weaves, certain loop carpets that have a tendency to pull tufts, but a beater bar can break the weak bond the soil has on the fiber and sweep it up into the vacuum tube much better than just a suction vacuum.

If you have area rugs, periodically turn the rug upside down on the floor and vacuum the back with the beater bar. You will notice once you turn it back over that the floor will have some sand on it. Sweep it up, and then vacuum the face of the rug. That sand is what is buried deep into the base of the rug.

We have used many vacuums over the years, but have found that many of the big commercial names are just way too expensive, or the plastics break on them prematurely. Uncle Lorrys Vac Shack on Bronson Ave. sells many varieties, but we have really liked their Sebo line. Very nice to use, very powerful vacuum, and a 10 year warranty makes it very attractive. We personally use it in our home, and I have no problem at all in recommending it.  Sebo comes from a company that makes excellent quality commercial vacuums that we have used and abused for years. The Sebo canister vacuum has the same genes as it’s commercial parents. Ask for John at 613-238-3776 and he’ll give you all the specs.