Is It Worth It To Steam Clean a Carpet OR Buy a New One? Or Buy Laminate?!

[mumfor1standfinaltime]

I live in a terrace house with no hallway so you can imagine the state of the living room carpet already. We use the back door most of the time as the drive is out the back, but carpet is main walkway. It is 3 years old and shabby.

Now do I get it cleaned? If so by who and how much? Or do I buy new one (which would mean doing stairs too) or put laminate at bottom of stairs??

Buy laminate.

Carpets are minging and nasty no matter what.

I want to! I think I may look at some. The stairs carpet is ok, its just the walkway through from kitchen to front room (think pram is making it worse!)
Do you find laminate easy to clean?

Nasty carpet, get down!

Just wanted to let you know that we had the same trouble in our last house - steam cleaner rented from homebase did the trick. but if you wanted laminate (as we have in our new house) I recommend Floors 2 go (if there's one near you) for bargainousness and nice selection!

Laminate is dead easy to clean! You'll never look back.

I find laminate cold and noisy. We have it in our sitting room and DH is deperate for a carpet. I'm trying to steer him towards wood as I think it would be warmer than the laminate. Am I mad?

Buy good quality laminate for the hall, we had some from B&Q that was suitable for shops and heavy usage (dark slate tile effect). Dead easy to mop and sweep and no gaps/grouting to catch dirt. Good investment as it will give a smart first impression if you sell up.
Worth hiring a cleaning machine (try local dry cleaners) to do the worst of the carpets.

the best thing for a really grubby carpet is wet clean and then you can stay on top of it with a steam cleaner

Hi, thanks for the input.
I like the idea of laminate but worry about those little cracks you get where bits gather lol and sweeping it constantly! Our kitchen floor is lino stuff and it is so hard to clean, I hate it. Ds would have a field day banging his toys on it too, he loves doing this in the kitchen!
We can't put a runner down as the door won't go over it and it just rucks up.
Good idea about buying steam cleaner, may try this. In general the carpet is ok it's just the bit by the door to kitchen and front door (as front door is in lounge!)

Rug Doctor from Homebase/ supermarket - about £25. We've just done the carpet in the living room - looks like new.

Second the idea of an offcut of carpet, or a contrasting 'runner' for high traffic areas though.

Laminate doesn't have cracks if done properly and comes in lots of different finishes. It's the paler wood effects that show the dust bunnies. But anyway, visible dustbunnies keep your cleaning routine on track, it's easier to ignore a carpet which is pretty unhygienic if you don't hoover/clean them very often.

Thanks will be going to homebase to look for rug doctor! Will think about laminate in the new year!