How to Protect Carpet from Furniture Marks and Indents
No tenant or homeowner wants to keep rearranging furniture around the house, especially the couches, dining tables, beds, and sofas. Sadly, the weight of furniture causes dents and depressions in carpets.
There are many ways of protecting carpet from furniture dents, including placing area rugs under furniture legs, placing the furniture on coasters, vacuuming your carpet, or moving furniture often.
Here, you'll learn easy and cheap ways to protect carpets from furniture legs, the importance of safeguarding carpets from furniture dents, and more. Read to the end.
Why Is Protecting Carpet From Furniture Dent Important?
Carpet dents are reversible, but not always—extended carpet exposure to heavy furniture weight results in long-term irreversible indentations and carpet discoloration.
1. Discoloration and Carpet Fiber Damage
When furniture legs sit on carpets, it restricts light exposure and airflow into the carpet fibers, causing discoloration in the long term.
Constant friction and pressure from furniture weaken and fray the carpet fibers, extending the damage beyond the surface level. This is mostly common in light-colored carpets or those with fragile fibers.
2. Irreversible Dents and Wear Patterns
Failure to move heavy furniture on a carpet for a year or more results in visible wear patterns and deep dents.
These wear patterns and dents could be permanent based on the furniture's weight, carpet material, and furniture leg style.
Carpet protectors safeguard the carpet's quality, making it last longer.
How to Protect Carpets From Heavy Furniture
Some carpet dents may be irreversible, especially if heavy furniture with narrow legs has been sitting in the same position for a year or more.
Narrow furniture legs increase pressure on the carpet fibers and speed up wear due to the weight being concentrated on a small area.
Wide furniture legs evenly distribute the weight, lowering stress on the areas the legs rest on.
Protecting carpets from dents using coasters and area rugs also helps to distribute furniture weight evenly.
Here's how to protect carpets from furniture marks/dents/indentations.
1. Vacuum the Carpet Often
Dust and debris weigh down carpet fibers and cause indentations, especially in high-traffic areas.
Regular vacuuming and DIY or professional carpet cleaning lifts dented carpet fibers.
Once or twice a week, run the vacuum over your carpet.
Most modern vacuums have low, high, and medium suction settings to cater to high, medium, and low pile carpets. A high setting, for example, works best for deep dents. It makes them less dented.
Experiment with different suction settings to determine which setting is the best for lifting the fibers of your carpet type.
Have a weekly regular cleaning and annual or bi-annual professional deep cleaning schedule and stick to it even when the carpet is seemingly clean.
Zerorez® can help with annual or deep carpet cleaning to remove dents, dust, and debris.
2. Furniture Coasters
Available in different sizes and designs, furniture coasters evenly distribute the weight over a wider area, protecting the carpet (or hardwood floor from furniture). Furniture coasters can be made from decorative glass or rubber.
If the legs of your furniture are visible, buy small-sized coasters. You can buy larger coasters for furniture with hidden legs because they won't be visible.
3. Use Area Rugs
Placing area rugs under furniture reduces furniture marks, but you must move them every few weeks. Area rugs lessen the weight on your carpets, reducing the indentation—also, place area rugs in high-traffic areas to reduce low-grade dents.
4. Move Furniture Often
Moving furniture is often tedious, but this is a cheap and easy way to protect your carpet from dents.
You're not changing the layout of your room (unless you wish to); you're moving the furniture several centimeters away from its initial position so that the dented carpet fibers recover and bounce back.
You can also use a small comb or fingers to fluff the carpet fibers to restore their original appearance.
Every few weeks or during your monthly carpet or couch cleaning, lift and move the furniture a few centimeters away. Don't drag the furniture. It could cause wear and tear or indentations. Use furniture sliders or glides for carpets when moving your furniture to protect the carpet from dents, wear, and tear.
5. Carpet Scraps
If there are carpet leftovers since your last installation, cut them into small pieces and place them under the legs of the furniture.
Ensure they aren't too big, just slightly larger than the furniture legs, to prevent people from noticing them easily.
Two Tested and Proven Carpet Dent Preventive Measures
You can prevent carpet dent by buying high-density carpets or using firm carpet padding.
High-Density Carpets
High-density carpets are expensive, durable, and more comfortable but able to withstand the weight of heavy furniture.
When purchasing a carpet, fold over the sample and look for the backing between the fibers. If the backing is visible, that's a low density; if not, it's a high density.
Be warned, high-piled carpets with thin fibers aren't dense; they're prone to dents. Avoid them.
Firm Carpet Padding
Thin carpet padding is firm and resists dents much better than thick padding, which makes carpets flex a lot. Under heavy furniture, flexing increases the occurrence of irreversible carpet indentation.
How to Fix Carpet Dents from Furniture
If you never knew what to use to protect carpet from furniture feet indentations, all is not lost! You can fix carpet dents by:
1. Ironing the Carpet Dents (Not Directly!)
- Saturate a towel or dishcloth with water and place it flat on the dented area.
- Use a medium heat setting and allow the iron to warm up.
- Apply the warm iron to the dishcloth for 30 seconds to 1 minute, moving in small circular motions to even out the heat application to prevent burning the carpet fibers.
- Pull the dishcloth up and gently fluff the carpet fibers with your fingers.
- Repeat if necessary.
2. Using a Blow Dryer
- Spray water on the dented area to saturate it.
- Hold the blow drier 10 to 15 cm (4 to 6 inches) away from the carpet dent, and using the lowest heat setting, blow dry the indentations while running your fingers through the carpet fibers to add texture.
- Repeat until the dented area(s) are dried.
3. Putting Ice Cubes on the Dents
- Place ice cubes on the indentations and ensure they're fully covered.
- Allow at least 3 hours for the ice to melt into the carpet fibers.
- Remove excess moisture from the carpet by dabbing it with a clean sponge or towel. Removing excess moisture also restores the carpet's texture.
- Use a small comb, fingers, or a carpet rake to tease the fibers.
- Allow the carpet to dry to determine if the ice cubes worked or if you must repeat the entire process.
Certain types of carpet, like Berber carpet, this technique works better on that on other types of carpet fibers.
4. Professional Carpet Cleaning
While this isn't guaranteed to work (none of the other methods above are either), hiring a professional carpet cleaner to clean your carpets can help remove indentations from furniture. This is especially true if you hire a company like Zerorez who starts the carpet cleaning process with their Zr™ Lifter, which helps fluff the carpet fibers via its counter-rotating brushes.
After using the Zr™ Lifter, Zerorez uses their powerful truck mount extraction wand to further release carpet indents from furniture.
Carpet Protectors for Desk Chairs/Office Chairs
Office carpets are prone to furniture damage due to high-foot traffic and the constant movement of office chairs. Office chair mats, desk mats, and furniture caster cups help protect the carpet from wear, tear, and fraying out.
Office Desk and Chair Mats
Office chair mats are inexpensive and come in varying sizes, colors, and quality.
Gliding your office chair or dragging the table could wear or tear the carpet or cause the fibers to fray out. Office chair wheels glide smoothly on office mats, making moving around your working area easy.
Not regularly moving your office desk could cause (irreversible) carpet indentation or a noticeable wear pattern.
An office chair and desk mat create a protective layer between the carpet and the office furniture.
Office Desk Caster Cups
Furniture coasters with spikes that sink into carpets, preventing deep dents, are excellent carpet savers for furniture. Some call them caster cups. They're small, steady devices that evenly distribute the weight of heavy furniture, preventing imprints and dents.
From regular carpet cleaning and vacuuming to regular furniture repositioning and what to place under the furniture, carpet protection from furniture saves your carpet from damage and needless replacement.
If you're considering having your office or home carpets, couches, and sofas professionally cleaned, Zerorez is only a call away. You can call or schedule services online.
