To keep your carpet looking its best for longer, check out these industry guidelines

by Brianna Crandall — April 17, 2019 — The Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) recently announced the publication of the CRI 204 Commercial Carpet Standard for Maintenance and Cleaning and CRI 205 Residential Carpet Standard for Maintenance and Cleaning.

Worker cleaning carpet

CRI 204 (Commercial) and CRI 205 (Residential) highlight necessary carpet-cleaning protocol to ensure the appearance and maximum useful life of carpet, in any and all environments. Image courtesy CRI

The standards highlight necessary cleaning and maintenance protocol to ensure the appearance and maximum useful life of carpeting in any and all environments.

CRI President Joe Yarbrough stated:

At CRI, we are the foremost source for the best information on carpet. Proper carpet cleaning is vital to the end user’s experience and satisfaction. CRI 204 and 205 highlight the best ways to maintain carpet and its appearance.

The standards were developed by the Cleaning Maintenance Standards Task Group through 2018 and 2019 with the guidance of representatives from the carpet manufacturing and carpet cleaning industries to develop best practice standards for cleaning and maintenance.

Yarbrough continued:

Our task group developed these standards from scratch through their knowledge and expertise on cleaning and maintenance. We are thankful for their commitment and diligence in this project.

The CRI 204 (Commercial) standard will have added significance as it will be submitted for inclusion in NSF/ANSI 140 Sustainability Assessment for Carpet, a sustainability standard developed by the carpet industry in collaboration with the National Sanitary Foundation (NSF) and certified by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

The standards will also have a Spanish translation available later in 2019.

The cleaning standards are the next step of standards development for the Institute following the highly successful CRI 104/105 Carpet Installation Standards released in 2015.

The new CRI 204/205 Carpet Maintenance and Cleaning Standards are available to view online and as a free download in multiple formats for access on tablets, smartphones, eReaders and all mobile devices. The CRI 204 (Commercial) and CRI 205 (Residential) standards also have permanent, mobile-friendly websites.

CRI helps the carpet industry and public make informed choices through providing science-based information and insight on how carpeting and rugs create a better environment for living, working, learning, and healing, promoting a balance between social, economic, and environmental responsibility for the long term.