Doug Cox said:
Carpet is stupid, got rid of most of my carpet and replaced with cherry. The rest gets it about once a year.
I couldn't agree more, Doug. We bought our house 3 years ago, and the downstairs living room carpet was pretty nasty. Since we are not made of money, I couldn't put in ceramic tile like I wanted to, so we put in new carpet. I forget the pile rating, but it is Shaw's top of the line carpet, and after only 2 years it looks like shit. The first year I cleaned it almost monthly. I have 2 dogs that track in crap from the backyard, plus with all the kids, it really takes a beating. I did protect it, too, a couple of times when it still looked decent, now it's a waste of money.
Heck, I should have just kept the old crap in there and saved up for the tile, cause it would still look like new, unlike the carpet in there now. There is hardwood underneath the carpet, but it is in rough shape, plus with the dogs claws, I don't want hardwood, tile is a much better option, imho.
Anyway, with that being said, I'm lucky if I clean it twice a year now.