Manky carpets - steam cleaning?

[notcitrus]

We have old stained carpets in dining room and lounge, which now we have toddlers are getting food on regularly despite any plastic sheeting under high chair etc. MrNC wants to get a steam cleaner (it's a gadget, innit), but I'm not sure a VAX one for £60 second-hand will be any good.

Are domestic steam cleaners worth it or is it worth splashing out on people to come round and clean every few months?

And any suggestions to help get food off carpet in the meantime? My hands are buggered so scrubbing hard isn't an option.

rip up carpets and have boards instead

May well do eventually (rather, some sort of non-carpet covering as the boards are in really bad nick), but it's not going to happen in the next couple years. Currently getting ds his own bedroom is the priority which means finishing building work elsewhere.
House is one of those 10-year projects you see on telly, which was fine until our builder buggered off having just started a loft conversion, leaving me with no roof and going into labour... 18 months on it's virtually finished...

No opinion on steam cleaners then? I figured if the domestic ones were any good half of Mumsnet would have them.

I don't have any carpets in the house at all now, I have glosed the stairs and have laminate in both bedrooms, hallway, landing and living room, I managed to get it all really cheaply all at £2.50 per pack as it was end of line stuff. I love it, I just use a flat swivel mop to sweep up any detrius to the middle of the room and then either dustpan and bruss it or I get the vacuum on it. then spray the floor with floor cleaner, and use the mop to clean it sorted.

if you want one get a domestic one, at least you can patch clean with that. if you got a company in they would do the whole lot

Can you not get the food off with 1001 cleaner?

If I was you I would turn a blind eye to stains (obviously wipe up the splodges) until they are past the worst of it, and then get professional cleaners in. "it will pass"

We rented a house once, the carpets were stained and smelly: after £100 of cleaning and they were like new. I was amazed.

How about a very cheap rug to put under the table & chairs? And ban eating/drinking in the lounge until they are safe.

Professional steam cleaners are worth every penny IMO.

Wouldn't bother getting a domestic one.

Hire a Rug Doctor - £20 quid plus £20 for the shampoo. Honestly it does wonders and you can get special stain removers for the worst bits.

I dont think the domestic ones are up to much tbh.

Thanks for the hints - will suggest to MrNC not to buy a domestic one but knowing him he'll find an industrial one for £50 somewhere.

We had the carpets cleaned when we moved in which got them vaguely respectable-looking but they're 30 years old, had a family with 4 kids for 20 years, then some lads rented the place for 7. So they've suffered.

I might look into prioritising getting some laminate in the dining room though. Any advice on getting cheap laminate that doesn't look like cheap laminate?

we have laid cheap vinyl plank things from poundland, 4 to a pack, covers about 1sq mtr, just put extra adhesive down on the floor first iyswim. THEY ARE FAB!! no scratching, not hollow sounding like cheap laminate, not as cold as laminate and no panic if water gets spilt! we love em!

I second sb6699's suggestion - hire a cleaning machine. Dry cleaner's do them and they're very easy to operate. I had the carpets professionally cleaned, but I think DIY machine has given very similar results at a fraction of the cost.

Will look into hiring cleaning machine.
MrNC has had complete fit about the idea of not having carpet in the dining room. I will attempt to set family onto him to get him to change his mind. And search for really fab smooth flooring...

2nd the Rug Doctor from Homebase. Great VFM and effective too. Was told yesterday to use an industrial vacuum cleaner to really keep carpets clean. And spray with something to protect from stains afterwards.