To ask how often you replace your carpets?

[Strawberryfelineforever]

Had a discussion with soon to be DH about whether we’d like hardwood flooring or carpets upon moving in. He said he prefers carpet and I agreed that I like it but requires more upkeep, to which he said you replace them every couple or three years. To me that seems excessive but that’s how often his family replaced theirs because he said DM got sick of things easily. We’ve always had hardwood floors so I’m not overly familiar, but what is the average lifespan of a carpet?

10 plus years - buy decent ones

Old house had 80/20 wool/acrylic and looked like new after 5 years when we moved away. Will get similar, probably roll ends/factory shop for new house once we've done any messy alterations as they look a bit tired and I suspect most came with the house. Will definitely get top of the range underlay like we did in our old place, great both for sound insulation and foot comfort.

I quite liked the laminate flooring we had downstairs but it scratched despite being "super tough" and not being easy to scratch the samples. Dropping stuff in the kitchen was main culprit. You also need to be shoes off with laminate as the worst thing for it is the little stones that get stuck in shoe treads, especially if they get under a chair leg!

I think my ideal house would have carpet in bedrooms, landing and stairs, tiled entry, kitchen and bathrooms and wood in downstairs rooms like playroom. Definitely no carpet in the dining room (kids!!). Sitting room would have rugs for cosiness.

Biggest cost of laminate is fitting - and it costs the same to fit cheap stuff vs more expensive stuff. Carpets are much cheaper to fit!

Oh wow that's a beast! No, it didn't look anything like that! Just a normal carpet cleaner. We paid sixty quid I think it was. Just the living room. It was so bad we said never again!

We paid 300 quid for a four bedroom plus small no room house , including all the stairs, downstairs 14 ft by 18 ft rug and oven cleaning, which is two ovens. So per room cheaper than your sixty quid a room. I think you were done over..sorry. The professional guys bring in massive carpet cleaners like the one I posted are your carpet is pretty much dry after. 😔

Wtf! Mine have done 6 years and I have no intention of replacing them any time soon. They still look fine, and that’s with cats and small child doing their best to make a mess of everything.

Ours are about 15 years old. I need to replace them but I can't face the hassle of moving all the furniture.

we have the carpets that were here when we moved in 12 years ago, and they weren't new then. TBH our bedroom and DC1's have needed replacing for the past couple of years, but it's such a faff I keep putting it off. The sitting room upstairs hall and stair carpets still look just great, downstairs hall fair to middling.

@Bluntness100

Oh wow that's a beast! No, it didn't look anything like that! Just a normal carpet cleaner. We paid sixty quid I think it was. Just the living room. It was so bad we said never again!

We paid 300 quid for a four bedroom plus small no room house , including all the stairs, downstairs 14 ft by 18 ft rug and oven cleaning, which is two ovens. So per room cheaper than your sixty quid a room. I think you were done over..sorry. The professional guys bring in massive carpet cleaners like the one I posted are your carpet is pretty much dry after. 😔

Yes. I bloody was, wasn't I?!

Thank you bluntness. I will give it another try but I'll make them send me a photo of their machine!

About 3-4 years here but that is because they really look awful by then because our cat uses the carpet as a scratching post. We do have actual scratching posts and mats but he prefers the carpet.

15 years at least!

We have never replaced a carpet.

To explain, the first house we owned was newly refurbished and everything was still fine when we moved out. The current house has carpets which were down when we moved in and are now a bit shabby. We're not replacing them because we're having an extension soon and new ones would probably get ruined by all the mess.

I struggle to understand the mentality behind changing carpets every couple of years though. It's so much cost and disruption, but above all it's such a wasteful use of resources.

No wonder the planet is so fucked.

Mine were down 11 years brand new when kids were newborn by the time oldest was 11 they were nastttyyyy. Got hardwood and not been changed since.

@Backseatmedmum

I remember a family on here who repainted their living room every weekend because they liked to keep it fresh. A carpet every 2 years is along the same lines.

What?! How can you paint a room every weekend? The paint would be about an inch thick after a year!

If you regularly have your carpets professionally cleaned, keep them hoovered regularly too, you shouldn’t have to replace them for decades, and even then likely becayse they are out of fashion and look dated.

I honestly can believe anyone would change their carpets every two to three years.

And as for painting your living room weekly, that must be a mental health issue if true.

Our bedroom carpet is a beautiful large Axminster rug which my Auntie bought for her bungalow in, wait for it....1967! Its been in 3 different lounges as well as our bedroom so has had plenty of use and it still looks good. Clearly you get what you pay for. We are however on our second stair carpet in 10 years!

Regarding paint, he said they would also paint approx every summer because they like to change it, and sofa replaced every 3-4 years! We had better win the lottery lol!

I've replaced all the carpet in my house. I reckon the old ones were 20+ I wouldn't consider replacing for 15 years or so. The cat scratches the bottom step carpet though so I've kept all the offcuts and will replace every few years.

Just replaced after 15 years. Wouldn’t do less that 10 it costs thousands.

The carpet in my great aunt's sitting room had been down over 100 years and has seen four generations of children. It's a wool carpet and has been cleaned and looked after. It still looks good!

I've got one that came out of a bigger room in another house. We think it's most probably from the 1930s. It's been down in this house for over thirty years, and it's just started to look a little bit tired in the last couple of years.

My parents had one that looked great for over forty years.

And as for painting your living room weekly, that must be a mental health issue if true

It must be. And wouldn't the paint build up, so the room would get smaller and smaller?

Axminster in living areas and on stairs 12 years ago and it’s still perfect. If you buy top quality carpet it has a long life.

Not sure why he wants to replicate what his parents have done?
Make a decision based on what suits your lifestyle as a couple?
Would you both be happy with wooden floors and some rugs?

Urgh carpet! floors are easier to clean and therefore more frequently cleaned. I’ve realised since living in Europe, where downstair carpeting is not a thing, I hate carpeting (despite growing up with it in the UK).

@Strawberryfelineforever

Regarding paint, he said they would also paint approx every summer because they like to change it, and sofa replaced every 3-4 years! We had better win the lottery lol!

Or just not do what his parents did?

I’m currently dealing with a hideous carpet moth infestation in our house. As soon as lockdown lifts I’m replacing the bedroom carpets with synthetic, and hard floor everywhere else. It’s going to cost a fortune but the moths are awful!

And wouldn't the paint build up, so the room would get smaller and smaller

Generally paint takes two weeks to fully cure, so it would be a right mess, if true.