[Mike Halliday]

did a rug this afternoon..... actually i did 8 of them.

turned it over and vibrated the back with my oreck orbital, this is the result.

the second photo does'nt do it justice, this pile was 6inch high. ( this was after giving the front a good vacuuming)

all of them produced the same amount of crap.

[jasonl]

This kind of thing makes me wonder if a cerpet would be the same?

[Mark_Jubb]

It makes wonderful mud when mixed with water

[Mike Halliday]

how do you know? have you done this then scooped it up and mixed it with water?

the argument that you if you don't vacuum this out before HWE  you will create mud is not true 

if you mix this soil with a cup full of water you will create mud, but as we will use 2 x 15lt buckets of water (if using a portable, more if using a T/M) then we will create not mud but dirty water.

mike.

ps Jason this will be exactly the same with a carpet, if not worse. what this really shows is how ineffective vacuuming really is,  the front of the rugs were given a thorough vacuum before turning them over and still this crap came out

[robert meldrum]

So the answer is..............don't have fitted wall to wall carpets and make the anti asthma lobby happy as they want everyone to rip up their carpets and be healthier.

Which of course is nonsense but every property is different. In some areas there's constant erosion from buildings that leaves a very fine grit on the roads and blowing around so it gets carried into properties and ends up at the base of carpets. Similar when people walk along a gravel path to reach their door.

I'm old enough to remember the rugs being taken outside and hung over washing ropes then beaten to release dry soil but increased ownership of vacuum cleaners and fitted carpets did away with this.

[Mark_Jubb]

ps Jason this will be exactly the same with a carpet, if not worse. what this really shows is how ineffective vacuuming really is,  the front of the rugs were given a thorough vacuum before turning them over and still this crap came out

which I quite agree, is a very fair point Mike