If you bought one of the newer homes in Summerlin, Copes Crossing, Sumner Crossings or Cedar Brook, your carpet probably came from the builder. It looked great at closing. Two years and one toddler later, the path between the garage door and the kitchen is a shade darker than everything else.
That's normal, and it's fixable. Builder-grade carpet tends to be light-colored with a short pile, so it shows traffic fast. It also mats down quickly once grit works into the base of the fibers.
Your vacuum gets what sits on top. The fine soil lower down is what dulls the color and wears the fibers, and a vacuum rarely touches it.
Get the first cleaning in early
Every new-construction owner gets the same advice from us: have the first professional cleaning done before the traffic lanes set. Once fibers have been crushed and packed with grit for a long stretch, they don't fully spring back.
A first visit goes like this. The tech walks every room with you and looks at the lanes, the spots, and whatever the movers or painters left behind. Heavy areas get a pre-treatment. Then the whole carpet gets cleaned with a fizzing solution that pushes soil up out of the base where the machine can catch it. No soap and no sticky residue, which is a big part of why the carpet stays cleaner afterward. Most people are walking on it again an hour later.
Light carpet shows every spill, too. Out here the usual suspects are:
- Juice and coffee, which almost always come out completely when they're fresh
- Red clay from the backyard, which comes out best once it has dried and been vacuumed
- Anything already scrubbed with the wrong product from under the sink, which is harder, and we'll be honest about how far we can take it
The carpet cleaning page covers the process in more depth. If a pet has left its mark, our pet accident treatment is the one to look at.
How often after that
For most families in White House, once a year keeps builder carpet looking right. Houses with several kids or big dogs do better every six to nine months. Stick with either schedule and you'll get a lot more years out of the carpet before anybody starts pricing replacements.
When you book online, use the notes box to tell us which rooms take the most traffic. The family room and the hall to the kitchen are the usual answers, and they take the longest.