Carpets are a very important part of every home, covering the floors in most rooms of the house. We walk on them everyday, yet may never think about them – apart from when we’re doing the vacuuming!
However, carpets need to be properly cleaned on a regular basis. This is understandable, considering how much we walk over them everyday, with all variety of different shoes.
When you picture cleaning a carpet, though, you might worry that it will take loads of effort, money, washing, and shampooing.
Thankfully, there is a much easier and cheaper way to make sure that your carpet is in a much cleaner state.
The answer? Carpet brushes.
There are a variety of different carpet brushes on the market, and all of them will help you to make your carpet look a lot cleaner than it was. There are two main types of carpet brush, one for cleaning and one for washing.
In our handy guide below, we’re going to explain what a carpet brush is and what it does, as well as give you a guide on how to use one.
On top of that, we’ll look at the pros and cons of using a carpet brush, and then recommend some specific carpet brushes for you to buy. Read on!
What Is A Carpet Brush?
As you can guess, a carpet brush is a special type of brush made specifically for cleaning carpets.
Each brush has bristles that should penetrate reasonably deep into the carpet fibers, allowing you to dislodge plenty of mess and dirt, as well as any pet hairs if you have them.
How Do You Use A Carpet Brush?
Before we explain the proper technique of how to use a carpet brush, it’s worth noting that carpet brushes are not going to give you a full and thorough clean.
A vacuum is still going to be your way for that, and it doesn’t hurt to properly wash the carpet every now and then.
Instead, carpet brushes are for daily cleans, allowing you to get rid of that day’s dirt. It isn’t a deep clean, but if you do it regularly or even daily then you won’t need a deep clean as much.
In order to use your carpet brush, first have a brief go over of the carpet with the vacuum. This will lift up some loose dirt, making it easier for you to clean with the brush.
After that, mix a blend of water and dishwashing liquid. This is going to be your cleaning solution.
Dip the carpet brush in the mix, then scrub and brush at the carpet with it. Try not to get the carpet excessively wet.
If your vacuum is able to clean wet messes, you can use it to get rid of excess water. If your vacuum isn’t capable of that, don’t use it on water under any circumstances.
Once you’ve brushed one area of the carpet with the solution, move onto another. Keep cleaning little areas until you’ve done the whole thing.
As you can guess, cleaning a carpet with a carpet brush is pretty time-consuming. On top of that, it’s very exhaustive too, so be careful.
However, it is a lot cheaper than properly cleaning your carpet or getting a professional to do it. Carpet brushes cost very little, which is a big benefit.
Carpet Grooming – What Is It?
“Carpet grooming” refers to the use of a carpet brush or rake moving the carpet fibers to and fro.
This is very helpful because it resets the carpet fibers back to their original position and state, making the carpet look new and fresh again.
A carpet brush is going to be used to groom low-pile carpets, which have short and flat fibers. On the other hand, a carpet rake can groom carpets with a long nap.
What Are The Different Types Of Carpet Brush?
There are a few different types of carpet brushes that you can buy, each with their own specific purposes.
Rotary Brush
A rotary carpet cleaner consists of lots of nylon brushes, which are effective at picking up mess and dirt, especially when grouped together.
The rotary brush has lots of layers to it, all helping you to get deeper dirt out.
As a result of their layered design, they are very efficient and thorough at cleaning a carpet.
Better yet, they’re easy to clean with too. This isn’t just down to their thorough coverage, but also because they have an adjustable glider which reduces the brush’s friction with the floor, meaning that it glides over it a lot more easily.
You won’t have to drag this brush with effort, it should move smoothly.
Upholstery Brush
An upholstery brush is useful for indoor cleaning, but can also be bought for cleaning the upholstery in a vehicle.
They are specially designed to not damage your upholstery when you use it to clean them, but it also works as a very fine brush for cleaning your carpet. .
The brush is made up of lots of bristles, but what these bristles are made of can vary. For example, they can be made of horsehair or plastic.
You might even find an upholstery brush whose bristles are made out of velvet, which will give a really fine and gentle cleaning job.
Better yet, the brush and its bristles are able to hold your cleaning solution in them, allowing you to get a thorough clean with every part of carpet that you scrub at.
Rug Brush
The rug brush is specifically made for cleaning and livening up rugs, but it will work on a typical carpet well too, because it’s a similar scenario.
Some people might not use these anymore as they are considered a cleaning brush of the past, but they still very much have their uses.
A rug brush will work best on small areas of your carpet, so try to focus on little sections at a time. With each of these, it should help to fluff up the carpet fibers, making it look cleaner and new again. I
f you use it on a big wooly rug instead, it will bring out the fur and liven it up.
It’s an effective and quick way to bring life back to your carpet, and it’ll even help to get rid of any pet hairs that have got caught in it.
Lint Roller
You might have used a lint roller before to make a suit jacket cleaner, but they can actually have a negative effect on clothing.
Instead, you can use the lint roller on your carpet, as it’s a great method for brushing it down and making it cleaner!
If you’ve never seen one, a lint roller is typically a plastic barrel attached to a handle that you hold, and the barrel has a roll of one-sided adhesive paper on it.
As you roll the barrel over the carpet, the lint and dirt should stick to the adhesive.
Thankfully, the adhesive is divided up into small sections, so once you’ve filled one up with dirt then it can just be torn off and thrown away.
You may not be able to find a lint roller that has been especially designed for a carpet, but a regular one should work just fine.
Cleaning with this adhesive is neat and easy, without any liquid wetting the carpet or getting all over you.
Carpet Sweeper
This is a sweeping device that looks like a vacuum almost, only without the motorized body. Instead, you hold a long pole with a sweeper at the end, and push it around the carpet as you do your cleaning.
The metal case on the end of the pole will contain at least one rotating brush inside, and then all of the dirt and mess that it picks up is collected into a receptacle for you to then throw away.
It’s important that you empty the receptacle regularly, otherwise it’s going to impact the sweeper’s ability to pick up more dirt.
On top of that, carpet sweepers have adjustable height, so that you can tailor them to different types of carpet.
Although many of them are manual, you can actually get electric carpet sweepers too. These should make cleaning your carpet even easier, and resembles a typical vacuum cleaner.
Drill Brush
A drill brush is exactly what it sounds like, which may surprise you! Yes, this really is a big brush piece attached to the end of an actual drill.
It makes sense, since drills are brilliant and easy to use handheld tools that spin something around very quickly. Only now, the “something” is a brush for cleaning your carpet.
As you can guess, using a drill brush for carpet cleaning is going to give you one of the quickest and most efficient cleans.
While a normal carpet brush will take a long time to clean a carpet, because it is manual and requires you to move it back and forth a lot, a drill brush will do all the work for you.
The drill spins your bristly brush around and around, allowing all of the bristles to really get deep into your carpet and its fibers.
This means that they should dislodge the mess and dirt much better – and much faster too.
A small downside is that the drill brush will be difficult to get into tighter areas, so make sure that your carpet is as easily accessible as it can be.
However, you must be careful if you use a drill brush. A drill is a dangerous piece of machinery and you could get in a lot of harm if you don’t use it properly and safely.
It’s important to keep the drill brush a safe distance from you, and make sure nobody else comes near it while it’s turned on. Only people skilled with drills should use a drill brush.
When you’re using a drill brush, you will need to apply some force in order to keep it in the right place.
This is a powerful machine that is moving very quickly, so it’s important to not let it run away with you and get out of hand.
Kneeling on both of your knees while you use the drill brush can help you to control it better, just be careful to keep the drill far away from you and your skin.
Rubber Pet Hair Brush
As you can imagine, a rubber pet hair brush is specifically made for cleaning up stray hairs that have fallen off your pets.
If you have pets, you will know much easily their hair or fur can shed, and that it can get everywhere in your carpets.
If your carpet is especially dirty with pet hairs, then this special kind of brush is the perfect solution. It works by creating a static electricity with its rubber bristles, and then that charge helps to collect the pet hair.
This clever method allows it to even pick up hairs that have got lodged deeper into the carpet.
Once the hairs are lodged in the brush, simply rinse or pick them off. It may be a good idea to use gloves while using this brush, just for extra protection and comfort.
Some rubber pet hair brushes, especially ones made for use in vehicles, have a squeegee that’s built-in to the brush.
This means that you can wipe some liquid around the carpet too for an even more thorough clean, without even having to switch tools!
The Pros Of Using A Carpet Brush
Now that we’ve looked at all kinds of brushes that you could use to clean your carpet, it’s time to consider what the pros and benefits of using a carpet brush are.
As we’ve already said, a carpet brush is not going to give you a full deep cleaning, it’s simply a very useful way to keep the carpet clean on a daily basis.
It Takes A Little Liquid
When you use a carpet brush, it isn’t going to need a lot of cleaning liquid to do a good job.
All you need to do is mix some water and soap, dip the carpet brush in the liquid, and you’ll be able to clean the carpet more thoroughly.
The Carpet Doesn’t Get Soaked
On the topic of liquid, using a carpet brush is a method that won’t leave your carpet soaked. Other cleaning methods can leave the carpet wet, and it can be a pain to dry them.
They’re Cheap
A lot of carpet cleaning tools can cost quite a bit of money, especially things like vacuum cleaners. Similarly, hiring a professional regularly to clean your carpets would cost a lot too.
A carpet brush, though, is very cheap. They’re often less than $15, which is a bargain for the cleaning power that you can get out of it.
They’re Light
A carpet brush is also very light, making it easy to carry. The same cannot be said for other carpet cleaning tools, like heavy vacuum cleaners that you have to drag around the room.
This is very helpful because if you’re going to be cleaning the carpet for a while, you don’t want a heavy tool to weigh you down for all that time.
They Can Reach Difficult Areas
Some carpet cleaning tools are so big that they can’t get into all the little areas you might want. Carpet brushes, on the other hand, are tiny.
This means that you can get them into tight areas, meaning that your clean is going to be a lot more thorough.
Anyone Can Use Them
A standard carpet brush can be used by anyone. Some other carpet cleaning tools might need some skill or training. For example, using a drill brush will take knowledge of drills.
A standard carpet brush, however, is so simple to use that anyone can do it.
They’re Easy To Store
A carpet brush is also very easy to store away, because they are so small. Other tools or machines that are used for cleaning carpets can be quite large and take up a lot of space storing them away.
For example, a vacuum cleaner needs a good amount of room to store when you’re finished with it.
They Help With The Vacuuming
Carpet brushes are for daily cleans, while a vacuum cleaner is for a proper deep clean of your carpet.
However, the carpet brush actually makes your vacuum cleaner’s job much easier. The brush should help dislodge some hidden dirt, as well as break up big bits of mess into smaller chunks.
These both make it easier for the vacuum cleaner to do a proper job.
You Don’t Need Other Products
With other carpet cleaning methods, you might need some extra products to do the cleaning, which ends up costing even more money.
However, a carpet brush can pretty much work on its own. The brush will be able to dislodge plenty of dirt, and dipping in a mixture of water and soap takes very little extra effort.
Your Carpet Keeps Its Color
If you use cleaning chemicals on your carpet, then they can cause the carpet to lose its color and fade a little.
On the other hand, using just a carpet brush and some soapy liquid will not affect the color of your carpet at all.
The Downsides Of Using A Carpet Brush
Though there are loads of pros to using a carpet brush, with its many benefits, there are admittedly some downsides to this carpet cleaning method.
As we’ve said before, a carpet brush is not going to give you a deep clean, rather a solid daily clean instead.
You still need to use a vacuum cleaner for the deep cleans, and using the carpet brush beforehand will actually make the vacuum’s job much easier.
They Can Be Exhausting
A big downside to cleaning with a carpet brush is that it’s going to get very exhausting. Since a carpet brush is small, it’s going to take a long time to clean your entire carpet.
The brush doesn’t have the reach of a vacuum cleaner, and therefore you’re going to be cleaning for longer.
On top of that, you’ve got to work the carpet brush manually. There’s no machinery or electric motor working the brush for you, and as a result it’s going to be exhausting.
When this fact is paired with the fact that it takes a lot of time, it means you’re going to get more and more tired using the carpet brush.
They Won’t Clean All The Bacteria And Allergens
When you’re cleaning a carpet, you’re going to want to get all the bacteria and allergens that are trapped within it, as well as the general dirt.
These are things that can make the carpet unhygienic, and you want to be rid of them as soon as possible.
However, high temperatures are needed to really get the bacteria and allergens out of the carpet. With a carpet brush, though, the temperature is low.
This means that a carpet brush isn’t going to sweep up all these unhygienic things.
They Don’t Deep Clean
This is a key downside. A carpet brush is not going to give your carpet a deep clean, which means that it isn’t going to really get into the deepest inner fibers of the carpet and get rid of all the dirt and mess that’s lodged down there.
This is important dirt, and a carpet brush simply isn’t going to get rid of them.
However, a carpet brush is good at solid, almost surface-level cleans. They get rid of the mess that isn’t as deeply lodged and certainly help improve your carpet’s luster.
They will also help prepare the carpet for the actual deep clean that a vacuum cleaner will do, so carpet brushes are still an essential part of the process.
They Can Damage The Carpet
In some cases, a carpet brush can damage your carpet. This depends on how much dirt there is, as well as how hard the brush’s bristles are.
A carpet brush with hard bristles could damage a carpet that’s more fragile, so always be careful and buy a brush that has soft ones.
This is why it’s important to break your carpet brush in before using it. To break it in, soak the brush in some hot water and add a few droplets of dishwasher soap to the mix.
This should make a new carpet brush’s bristles less firm.
Recommended Carpet Brushes
There are lots of different carpet brushes available, making it difficult to find the one that’s right for you. Thankfully, we’ve narrowed down a few of the best.
With this, you get a pair of heavy-duty brushes. They work well with carpets, as well as for scrubbing bathtubs and kitchens.
Each one has stiff bristles which should really help to dislodge dirt in your carpet. However, you’ll want to break the bristles in beforehand, softening them up a little with water and dishwasher soap.
Each has a non-slip handle to make holding them easy, too, and they should both put up with sustained use.
Lint removers and rollers are very good at cleaning carpets, because they help to pick up dirt and pet hair. On top of that, this easily removes crumbs too.
Better yet, it’ll make the carpet look new and leave no residue behind.
Hi, my name is Johnathon Gooder and I have been in the flooring industry for almost 20 years. I’ve done it all - lay flooring, painted carpets, repaired sections of an entire floor - you name it, I’ve probably had a hand at it.
I like to help wherever I can, which is why I’ve seen more than most. I could diagnose an issue with your carpet over the phone, within 30 seconds, with the amount of knowledge I have on all types of carpet repairs!
Anyway, I have made this website to share my tips and tricks on all things carpet related. From DIYs to maintenance, the best products to use to useful information on your chosen flooring, I’ll cover it all.
So, get ready to get to know your carpet on a more personal level, and let’s see if we can’t solve whatever problem you’re facing right now.
