New house, new carpet?

[mummy2007]

Hi,

I am moving into a new house. They have carpet in the hallway, living room and all of upstairs (except bathroom). The carpet is about a year old. But they have 2 cats and 2 dogs. With a 2 year old and baby on the way... should I replace all the carpets with new ones? Should I also replace the underlay? Or should I just clean the carpets - if so, how?

Not sure what to do!

Thanks!

[wilbur]

I would get a professional carpet cleaner in to give the carpets a really good steam clean - you won't get the same effect yourself. When we moved into our current house, we discovered that ds1's carpet had fleas in it, presumable from a cat or dog, but a good steaming got rid of them all. Much cheaper than a new carpet and none of the new carpet chemicals either. I am in Balham and have used a caroet cleaning company who have a hugely powerful suction thingy that goes from the van into the house so they are very effective and fast. Will try and find their name.

[wilbur]

Dh has remembered they were called Avalon, but I'm not sure they are still in business. There a company here that has the same kind of kit. What you need to ask for is a van-mounted cleaning machine.

Welcome to Tooting/Balham by the way.

[mummy2007]

oh great.... thank you. I am moving into Furzedown Tooting. I am about to google Avalon - its good when you have recommendation. So have you had any more problems with fleas since? One of our houses had pets and we believed we had fleas... the bites were so itchy! We ended throwing the carpets way and it all stopped! i am glad that was before my child was born.

[mummy2007]

is this them: www.cleaning-contractors.co.uk/carpet.htm

[mummy2007]

all advice welcomed!

[wilbur]

Yes, that's them - I couldn't find them before. They were v helpful and not too much hassle. Price is slightly higher than cleaner who just come with one of the handheld things, but result is far better IMO. We def had no fleas after carpets were done - I think the van system keeps the water hotter so they are totally zapped. It was quite a deep pile carpet, too. Poor ds1 had flea bites all over his legs after he had been playing trains on the carpet when we first moved in.

[wilbur]

PS: I am on the other side of Tooting Common from you, a couple of streets north from the northern tip, up by the Tooting Triangle one o'clock club.