Our upstairs carpet was there when we bought the house but I'm not sure how old it was at that point. Definitely not new and we moved in 6 years ago. It's starting to look pretty bad so I'm considering new carpet but I like to be frugal so can't decide. On one hand, like I said, it's looking kind of bad and we can afford new carpet. On the other hand, it seems like spending on this house never ends and we'll never get the money back, we have 2 still fairly young kids (almost 6 and 7) who will still spill sometimes, and we have a dog. So it's kind of nice to not care when there's an accident. Plus, it's mainly just family upstairs. But if this carpet is say at least 9 years old, is that already past when people typically change it? So I'm not being extravagant to consider changing it? I realize it depends a lot on use etc. I'm sure senior citizens can keep their carpet for 20 years. But how often do you all replace carpet? Thanks
Well, if you replace it with hardwood or tile it'll never need replacing again. Plus HUGE asset when you ARE ready to sell.
:)
Well, we've been here for almost 14 years. Six of them 'kidless'.
We had this stuff installed right before we moved in.
We're replacing it all this year.
The reason I think it stayed as nice as it has for so many years is I've only had it professionally cleaned ONCE. I think carpet cleaning is the kiss of death for wall-to-wall carpeting. Once you do it, the carpet gets dirty so much faster! So clean new carpet sparingly.
We're lucky though, because we have hardwood or tile in most of the living areas. And I agree with Theresa--if you can, replace the carpet with hardwood.
It depends. Living spaces (family room, living room, hallways, etc) tends to wear out and get stained up a lot faster than carpeting in a bedroom.
We built our first home and lived there for almost 8 years. We replaced the main rooms with ceramic tile about a year before we moved, so 7 years into it. The bedrooms were still good. We had 2 kids and a dog by that point... a 4 and a 7 year old, and an 18 month old pup, indoors.
This house, we started out with that arrangement: ONLY the bedrooms have carpet. We have been here just over 6 years and it is still in great condition.
Depending on your upstairs and the individual rooms, maybe you would want to consider putting in hardwood or tile for the hallway/common areas upstairs and leaving the carpet in the bedrooms?
We built this house 20 years ago. We replaced the carpet in the whole house three times before I said eff it!! I have not had carpeting in this home for six years and couldn't be happier. Oh so less than five years between replacing.
We replaced the builder's cheapo carpet with another cheapo carpet at year 5 and it is still in that house at year 10 with no stains even though they had kids. I guess we were harder on it than the two families who later bought the house.
I encourage you to do it if you can afford it and plan to keep your house. Even if you sell, your realtor may encourage you to put in cheap new carpet. But nice carpet you can enjoy sounds heavenly. I have "new" builder grade carpet put in 4 years ago when our house was built, and I hate it. But I will be living with it for some time.
Replace it and enjoy your private faily space a bit more. But maybe wait 1-2 years until the kids are a little older and will keep shoes and drinks off of it.
To directly answer your question, I think it is reasonable to replace 10 year old carpet, but I would bet most people wait to 15 years or beyond.
I think a huge deciding factor is the quality of the carpet. We've lived in our house for almost exactly six years, and our carpet is about the cheapest stuff they could find. In the living room it's getting so wore out. We probably won't replace it for another year or two, though. We have five kids, four of them are under the age of five. So, we'll wait until they are older. When we replace, we'll get fake hardwood (we live in a starter home and real hardwood would be out of place). Ideally we'd like to move since we need one more bedroom for all the kids. If we move, we'll probably just offer a certain amount of upgrade money for the buyers to replace the carpet with whatever they want.
So...I think some carpet can last over 10 years or more. It depends on quality, how much it's used, and if there are little ones running on it. You might want to consider waiting until your kids are a bit older...either that or restrict was is allowed on the new carpet.
The rule of thumb in my apartment complex is that if the carpet is still in decent condition and looks okay after a steam cleaning we keep it for 10 years.
I'm sure it's really all about the wear and tear. Like you said--you still have two little kids, I'd wait a little longer if I were you otherwise you have to police too much.
My parents bought my childhood home brand new and lived there for 27 years. The downstairs and two bedroom carpets were replaced when I was 11 or 12 and weren't replaced again. My parents' bedroom carpet was the same for the entire 27 years and looked okay. My mom made the decision to wait until my sister and I were old enough to avoid all the spills, accidents, etc. that tend to mess up a carpet until replacing them and then after that, with regular cleanings they stayed in decent shape.
My husband and I bought our home 2 years ago and replaced the carpet in the entire house. We had no choice due to the pet odor. We have an almost 4 year old and a newborn and I refuse to replace our carpet until both are old enough to not cause a lot of spills and accidents. I tell my husband all the time that when they are both old enough, I'm getting a "new" living room! New furniture and new flooring! Until then, I'll do my best to keep it looking as good as I can, but I expect it to look "gently used" and "lived on", lol! That's why I didn't go expensive when picking out the carpet and the furniture...I knew it was just going to get lovingly abused. :)
I think if you have young children and a dog that waiting is a good thing. No use in getting new carpet only to be frustrated when it gets spilled on or messed on.
Our upstairs carpet is awful!
It's from 1986 and it's just awful!
I'd like to replace it with hardwood (like we have on the lower level), but everytime I save up enough money, something else comes up. I've finally resigned myself to the fact that I'll have to put up with them for another 7 years until both of my kids are out of college and I have money... sigh...
LBC
We had our house for 10 years and I know for a fact that the carpet was a little older.
It was stained purely from use.
We had it shampooed & steam cleaned a few times. When we decided
to have a baby, I anticipated the crawling and told hubby it was a must.
Having said that we shopped around and found a cheap but a good one
@ Home Depot. This time around I chose a multicolored yarn so that it
wasn't a flat beige to show each and every spec of dirt.
So happy.
I, also, use area rugs to help out high traffic areas. I say do it.
Have kids take off shoes before traipsing in & do not choose a light color.
Do it once and maybe you won't have to do it again.
ive only replaced my daughters room because i had too (air conditioner/pipe burst on old carpet...ick. I prefer to shampoo.
Carpet gets pretty nasty, pretty fast!
When we redid our house we decided to only put carpet in the bedrooms, every other room is wood, tile or stone, with some area rugs.
I'm pretty sure the basic, home depot quality carpet has a life of 10 to 15 years for a typical active family with kids, depending of course on wear and tear (pets? food/drinks in the bedrooms? smoke?) and of course depending on how nice you want it to look/feel :)
