Cleaning wool Berber carpet is trickier than you might think. Almost no Berber carpets are made of wool anymore, most are constructed of nylon or olefin fibers. Since each fiber has its own peculiarities when it comes to proper cleaning practices, your first step is to identify which type of carpet you’re dealing with. Once you do that, you can move on to determining the best cleaning method possible.
If you do have genuine wool Berber carpets, then you need to be aware of the extra precautions that cleaning wool demands. Wool is largely regarded as the elite fiber among all fibers, and almost all other carpeting fibers are compared to it. It is soft, durable, and naturally repels soil and other contaminants. It’s also a very water absorbent, natural fiber, both of which are attributes that can present problems in the cleaning process.
One of the first things you need to keep in mind is that wool won’t hold up well to excessive agitation, and another important fact is that you should never clean it with water temperatures over 150 degrees. Wool carpet reacts exactly like a wool sweater when it is exposed to excessively hot water, it shrinks incredibly, and irreversibly. The last thing you want is your expensive, beautiful wool Berber carpet pulling away from the wall as it dries because you used water that was too hot. One more thing to remember when cleaning wool Berber carpet is to avoid using excessive moisture. Wool is famous for its ability to absorb and retain water, making wool carpets tricky to dry out if they’ve been over saturated. This can lead to a number of other problems, including the development of unpleasant odors, further carpet shrinkage, and growth of unsightly and potentially hazardous molds.
