Do people really keep the old carpet when they buy a used house?

[totsuka]

Actually, a good carpet cleaning company can do a really good job cleaning carpet.

[mmyk72]

I just moved into a house with 'old' carpet and I've not gotten sick yet. By old, it's 6.5 yrs in age. The previous owners bought the house new, so I'm the 2nd owner. Carpet still looks decent (in fact very 'new' looking).

I bought a new vacuum (the Shark Lift-away) that picks up much more dirt than my previous vac and used it thoroughly. There was a lot of carpet fibers in the vac cup when I did the first pass thru. Have not vacuumed again since and wondering if the vacuum is so good that it's ripping the carpet (thus all the fibers being sucked up).

Anyway, I'm sure the carpet is already much cleaner than what I had to live with back at my old apartment and that didn't kill me either.

[FloridaKash]

I ran a Hot Water Extraction Carpet Cleaning company in a previous life. This is what people refer to as "Steam Cleaning". First off, this method is the recommended method by the Carpet Mills to clean your carpet.

Second - trust me... this method does a great job cleaning carpets. How do I know? I had to clean out the filters and waste tank after each cleaning job. The water was black, smelt like something died and the filters would be filthy.

I have seen carpets that look totally trashed come back to life and look almost new.

Granted - we had the best equipment money could buy, but man.... it definitely got the carpet cleaned.

Also, in a previous life I was a carpet installer. Carpets which were maintained had a lot less dirt between the carpet and padding than carpets which were obviously not maintained. Also, much of that "dirt" isn't dirt. A lot of it is also the fiberglass backing breaking down.