How to Clean Your Natural Stone Tile and Floor

Having natural stone tile and flooring in your home can give it a feeling of luxury, but you still have to keep the floor clean to maintain these appearances, so regular upkeep is necessary.

Be careful with your stone floors, especially marble, as they are very susceptible to scratches. Most sharp items should be kept away from the floor, and furniture legs should be protected with cloth or soft coasters. Pet nails are very harmful to these types of floor, so it's also important to keep your pets nails trimmed. If you do get a few scratches it's important to keep the floor clean, as dirt will fill the crevices and make it appear dirty.

Marble and other stone floors should be cleaned regularly with hot water, mild detergent, and a micro-fiber mop. Be careful adding ammonia to your cleaning mixture, because using too much can impact the stones natural shine.

Granite floors stain very easily, so it's important to clean up spills and messes as soon as they happen to extend the life of your floor. If something does happen to your granite then you can use bleach, mineral, spirits, or acetone to help get stains out.

Natural stone floors are not the easiest flooring to maintain, but the look and feel is worth the upkeep if you choose to add it to your home or business.

Check out our website to see the selection of our ceramic and stone floors- http://carpet2go.com/ceramic.asp

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• There is a sale going on with Shaw Carpet on all Kathy Ireland Clear Touch products that gives $100 back to the consumer with a minimum purchase of 50 yards.
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Summer Rugs!

Summer is here, so it’s time to find the best summer areas rugs for your home. Bamboo rugs are a perfect type of rug for the summer months, since they are the coolest (temperature, not look wise, although they can look cool too) rug on your feed.

Bamboo is one of the fastest growing plants - if not the fastest - in the world. Some forms of bamboo can grow up to three or four feet a day and bamboo varies in size from one foot to one hundred feet! There are about a thousand different types of bamboo found in diverse climates from the southeast US to East Asia.

Area rugs made out of bamboo are easy to maintain, affordable, and give the room a nice natural feel. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors, so you are bound to find one that will suit your home. They are super durable and can be used for summer each year or year round. Each bamboo area rug is made of natural fibers that are chosen with care from the bamboo plant in order to afford extra strength as well as beauty that will last a lifetime. China is the leader of the commercial markets for bamboo area rugs as their natural materials make the finest and sturdiest bamboo area rugs in the world.

So make your floor look and feel cooler this summer, by buying a bamboo rug.

The Amazing Power of Rugs

Want your home to have a new fresh look, but don’t want to renovate a whole room? The best way to get a new look is to use rugs. Introducing a few new rugs into your home can make all the difference in the world and give the room a fresh new look.

If your room needs some help going from plain to jazzed up, consider a large decorative rug. If the room is already full of color go the opposite direction and get a plain neutral rug, so it will not clash with all the other colors in the room. The ideal situation would be to design the room around the rug, so you can get different decorations and textures that do not clash with the rug. Be careful of patterns, when introducing a new run into a room. Make sure they match or the room will look disjointed.

When thinking of what a rug will do for the room, you have to consider the color and the wear of the area in which you are going to place it. If you want a rug for a high traffic area in your home, such as a door way or hallway, consider getting a darker color rug, as it will help hide some of the wear and dirt from walking. Places that do not get a lot of traffic can be spruced up with a lighter color rug. If you are just sold on a light rug for a high traffic be aware that you will have to clean or wash the rug on a regular basis to keep it looking its best.

For redecorating in the bathroom make sure to get rugs that will complement the color scheme of the room and tile. Also, make sure that the rugs that you do get are water and mildew resistant, as they will most likely get wet at some point.

Try and think out what you want the room to look like when planning a redecoration, as it will help save time and money. Rugs can get expensive too, so planning can help keep your budget on track. Get creative and make your house look comfy

Cleaning Your Bathroom and Tile

Cleaning the bathroom can seem like a chore to a lot of people, but in reality it isn't very hard, if you regularly keep it up. If you are a clean freak like I am, all you have to do is sweep and mop the floor, but if you put it off cleaning tile can get a little harder.

In order for your bathroom to be squeaky clean, you have to take the time to get all of the mildew and stains that might have permeated your tile and grout over time. You should first wash with bathroom cleanser. Spray the walls and floor with the solution, and scrub the tile with a brush to get some of the grim off.

To get rid of mildew use off the shelf mold and mildew remover or a mixture of 1/2 cup baking soda, 1 cup white distilled vinegar, and 1 cup ammonia to a gallon of warm water. Apply it to the tile, let it sit for an hour, and rinse off.

To eliminate dirt and mold on grout apply make a batch of oxygen bleach crystals and warm water. Pour it on the floor and spray on the walls and leave over night to let it work its magic. Clean it up in the morning, and you should have pristine floors. If some patches are still dirty take a tooth brush and scrub them clean.

If at all possible let your clean bathroom air dry with an open window, or dry with an exhaust fan since it will cut down on the moisture in the room and make it smell better and stay cleaner longer.

Use a disinfectant on the surfaces in your bathroom to ensure that you get an all over clean. It's important to keep up your bathroom, so you won't have to do a deep clean as much.

Cleaning Your Kitchen

The kitchen is one of the most popular and used rooms in a house, it is said to be the heart of the family. If you are building or redecorating your house, consider putting tile down as the floor and the counter surface, as tile is very durable, since it is not easily damaged by moisture, heat, and sharp or heavy objects. Don't worry if you don't have tile, other surfaces work just as well. Since the kitchen is such a high activity and traffic area it is important to keep the counters, floors, and cabinets clean.

Daily spot cleaning will help with the overall look, feel, and cleanliness of the kitchen. It's important to keep the counters clean, as they will most likely come into contact with food at some part in the day. Mold and bacteria can grow on the counters and in the grout of tile, so it's important to keep the counters disinfected. Floors also need to be maintained and kept clean as well.

Cleaning the floor is the easy part; all you need to do is sweep everyday and mop with warm water and disinfectant at least once a week. It will keep your floors looking good and feeling clean. Countertops, cabinets and walls take a little more time and effort to clean. Make sure you use a cleaning agent that will help get the grime and dirt off; you don't want to be scrubbing forever.  It's important to take special care in highly used prep and cook areas, as these will be the places with the most germs and bacteria. If you do have tile make sure to get in between the tiles and into the grout, as harmful bacteria can grow here. Take a toothbrush and cleaner (an oxidized bleach mixture is very effective against stains and mildew) to make sure you get them good and clean.

Make sure to ventilate the room you are cleaning in, as the fumes of the cleaning products can be difficult to breathe with. If you can, open the windows and doors to let the kitchen air dry. Cleaning you floors and counters isn't hard; you just have to come up with a routine that works best for you and your home.

Remove Your Shoes!

Removing your shoes before you walk on your carpet is a simple thing you can do to extend the life of your carpet.  You spend a lot of money to put your carpets in, so why not treat them right? Carpets need to be treated with love and care, so spills and messes should be cleaned up immediately after they happen to keep your carpets looking nice and fresh.  You can also extend the life of your carpet by placing area rugs over high traffic areas. Hallways and stairs generally get the more use, but they can be saves by using runner rugs and stair carpet pads.

Carpets are like sponges that absorb food stains, grime and dirt which can quickly ruin them if not properly cared for. Spills should be cleaned immediately as recommended by the manufacturer to avoid the presence of permanent staining. Consider stain resistant carpet like STAINMASTER which has been shown to last up to 50 percent longer than other carpets. Dirt and grime can be avoided by removing your shoes at the entrance. Shoes track in a tremendous amount of dirt and grime and if you walk on your carpet with shoes on, the dirt and grime on the soles of your shoes will transfer to your carpet. This can be easily prevented by removing your shoes. Whichever way you look at it, removing your shoes will add years to the life of your carpets and help keep them looking new and feeling soft underfoot.

Renovation Guide

Renovating a room can change the whole feel of your home or office, but there are a few things to keep in mind before you start your renovation process.

Planning is key-He who fails to plan, plans to fail. Planning helps keep everything straight when the renovations start, which in the end will save you time and money. Take the time to plan out how the room will look when it is done, and what changes you want to make to get there. The amount of changes will obviously affect your budget.  After thinking about the design then it's time to pick a contractor or decide if this is a do it yourself kind of project. We suggest Carpet To Go for all your flooring, cabinetry, and countertop needs for both products and installation.

Next thing to do is outline the budget. This is important because you will determine where all your money will go. Hopefully you have already decided if you are renovating just one room or if you are doing the whole house. Kitchens and bathrooms are popular rooms to remodel and have been shown to recoup their money during a resale.

When renovating and choosing your design it is important to take in to consideration trends and fads. You want a room that will stand up to time, and not have to be redone 10 years down the line. Having a final overall design will help the renovation process go smoothly and look better in the end.

Don't take renovations lightly, and make sure you keep up to code and stay safe. If you are supposed to take safety measures don't skimp on it, because if you or your contractor gets hurt it's going to delay the renovation.

Renovation can get to be time consuming, so make sure you and the people you live with have the time and resources to invest in the project. Again plans can help keep both you and your contractor on target.