Clean, repair or replace? Reading a carpet before you spend money on it
Most carpet in Clarksville is twenty years old or younger and most of it has life left. Some of it does not. The difference is worth hundreds of dollars one way and thousands the other, and it is readable from the floor with a little help. Here are the signs, in the order we check them.
The median Clarksville home was built in 1997, which means a great deal of its carpet is the original builder-grade cut pile, now somewhere between fifteen and twenty-five years old, cleaned a few times, moved on and off by two or three families, and showing it. The question we are asked on the look-over, more than any other, is whether it is worth cleaning. The answer comes from four things.
Four things to check
1. Is the backing sound?
Lift a corner or fold back a bit in a closet. If the carpet bends like a thick fabric, the backing is fine. If it crackles, if the secondary backing is coming away from the primary, or if the latex between them has turned to powder, the carpet is delaminating and no cleaning or stretching will hold. That is replacement.
2. Are the lanes dirty or worn?
Press a fingernail into the grey path down the hall. If the fibres stand back up and the grey is soil, cleaning with pre-spray and agitation brings most of it back. If the fibres are matted flat, frayed or shiny and stay down, the pile has worn and cleaning will make it cleaner but not new. Worn lanes in one hallway are a reason to patch or accept; worn lanes everywhere are a reason to replace.
3. Are the stains stains?
Soil, drinks, mud and fresh pet accidents are stains, and they clean. Bleach marks, sun fade in front of a window, old urine that has changed the dye, and burns are not stains; they are damage. Damage is patched from an offcut, dyed in the case of a small bleach mark, or lived with. A carpet with a dozen patches of damage is usually a replacement.
4. Is it loose or torn?
Ripples, waves and bubbles are a loose carpet, and loose carpet with a sound backing is stretched, in an afternoon, for a fraction of replacement. Open seams are re-bonded. Tears and chewed corners are patched. None of those are reasons to replace on their own.
Putting it together
| What you find | What it needs | Guide cost |
|---|---|---|
| Sound backing, dirty lanes, ordinary stains | Clean | $125 – $500 whole home |
| Sound backing, ripples or a loose seam | Stretch or re-seam, then clean | Quoted on inspection; far less than replacement |
| Sound backing, a burn or a chewed corner | Patch from an offcut, then clean | Quoted on inspection |
| Pet urine in a few spots of pad | Sub-surface extraction | Quoted on inspection |
| Pad saturated with urine, carpet sound | Replace the pad, clean and re-lay the carpet | Quoted on inspection |
| Delaminated backing, worn-through lanes, damage everywhere | Replace | A flooring installer's quote |
Why we tell you to replace when it is time
We do not sell or install carpet. That makes the look-over simpler: when a carpet is past cleaning and stretching we say so and you take the money to a flooring installer. When it is not, which is most of the time, the clean, the stretch and the patch are a fraction of the cost and buy years. The stretching and repair page and the cost guide have the numbers.
Questions people ask about this
How can I tell if my carpet is delaminating?
Fold back a corner in a closet. If it crackles, the backing layers separate, or a powder falls out, it is delaminating and should be replaced; cleaning and stretching will not hold.
Will cleaning fix worn traffic lanes?
It fixes dirty ones. Fibre that is matted, frayed and stays flat under a fingernail has worn, and cleaning makes it cleaner but not new.
Is it worth stretching twenty-year-old carpet?
If the backing is sound, yes, nearly always; it is an afternoon's work and far cheaper than replacement.
Can a bleach spot be fixed?
A small one can sometimes be dyed; a larger one is patched from an offcut. Neither is a cleaning job.
The dog ruined one room. Do I need new carpet in the whole house?
Usually not. If the pad in that room is saturated, that room's pad is replaced and the carpet cleaned and re-laid; the rest of the house is cleaned.
Do you install new carpet?
No. When a carpet is past repair we say so and leave the replacement to a flooring installer, which is one reason the advice is straight.
Related reading: Carpet stretching and repair · Carpet cleaning · Getting pet smell out of carpet · Carpet cleaning cost