How to clean filthy carpet

[Clackyheels]

Hello, we bought our house a year ago. It's a small 2 bed terrace. We daily have a troop of toddlers coming in the front room and straight into the living room/diner. The carpets through this room are cream (already in when we bought it). The carpets are filthy. It's really getting me down. I'm hoping to get some free second hand laminate at some point, but I'm desperate to make some differince in the carpet in the mean time. I was thinking to hire a rug doctor? And maybe pretreat it somehow? Anyone with experience got any advise? Please. It stressing me out.TIA

When we moved into our current place it had pale grey carpets which we weren't allowed to get rid of, and also a back door that went straight in onto the carpet (why?!). At first I considered the Rug Doctor but I really needed something that I could do little and often so I bought a Bissell carpet cleaner. Can't recommend enough!

Hire a Rug Doctor, but don't use the expensive shampoo they try and sell you, you can buy shampoo for carpet cleaners from places like Home Bargains for about £2.50 a bottle. I've tried both the cheapie shampoo and the expensive Rug Doctor shampoo and I can't tell the difference. You will be horrified by the amount of dirt that comes out of the carpets but its strangely satisfying! You could probably clean a small two bed terrace in a weekend, or maybe a day if you really go for it- I'm far too lazy and get tired far too easily to manage it in a single day! You will get through bottles and bottles of the shampoo, so stock up, but it will be worth it. We had absolutely disgusting carpets in one home we moved into, and we decided to clean them as a stop gap with a view to replacing them once we'd finished decorating. They cleaned so well we never needed to replace them in the end.

I would buy a carpet cleaner if you can afford one because the problem will reoccur and you'll end up shelling out on a rug doctor again and again. Black Friday month is probably not a bad time to do it. We have a vax one, it's very good and like a PP I use a generic shampoo - screw fix does a good one. You can also spray diluted household bleach on most carpets with no ill effects and it works a treat for getting out grey patches on lighter coloured carpet.

I did the rug dr from tesco last week its fab! Got out the cat piss and years of dirt that had been left in the flat the whole place looks feels and smells clean now. Deffo worth it.

OP, thanks for starting this thread as I’m looking for the same.
My carpets are not dirty as such but flat in places (from use), moved in fairly recently. We’ve previously lived in flats with no carpets so completely new to carpet cleaners etc.
Do the carpet cleaners recommended go some way to ‘fluffing’ up carpets that have been flattened by use but haven’t worn away?

I have hired a rug dr in the past and it was fantastic. Much better than the small carpet cleaner that I sometimes borrowed from my SIL if I just needed to do one room. I had a small 3 bedroom terrace and used to rent the rug dr for the weekend, but I could have done it all in a day if I worked like mad.

It is frightening how much dirt come out of the carpets, but very satisfying and the carpets always seemed rejuvenated afterwards. I did find that on the stretch of carpet right inside the front door I did find I got the best results using the rug dr heavy use spray. The one time I didn't use it, the carpet came up a lot leaner, but you could see that part of the carpet wasn't quite as clean as the rest of the room.

I hire a carpet cleaning machine every year. The best detergent is very diluted liquid clothes detergent - use wool detergent if the carpets are wool obviously. It is my favourite job in the house.

The professionals can add a fire resistant coating - maybe look into that as well. It's not available where I am.

Thanks so much for all the advice.

Rug dr are great but as pp said, I bought some carpet shampoo from home bargains.
Dunelm is not a shop I would usually shop in as it’s way to expensive for me but they sell really cheep carpet runners, like under a tenner for long carpet rugs. I have them in my caravan.
Smashing for heavy duty areas t cover it up until you get your laminate.