Of course even when living with my parents and in rented houses I tried to keep the carpets in a decent state and avoid spillages, but I didn’t realise that carpets normally come with warranties and how you care for your carpet will dictate whether you can claim against the warranty. I guess I just thought that once you bought the carpet that was it (unless you claimed on your home insurance), but it turns out there was a lot I didn’t know about carpets.

How To Choose A New Carpet

Of course the cost, feel and appearance of a carpet is going to be a big part of your buying decision, but you also need to consider if the type of carpet meets your needs, the carpet in a spare room is going to have a lot less traffic that the carpet on your stairs for example. Cats and dogs are likely to damage carpets with loops in the pile (their claws get stuck) and if you have (or expect to have) children then it is more likely to get spillages and stains so a more hardwearing pile maybe made out of polypropylene or similar which can be cleaned with stronger cleaning agents is worth considering. A good sales person will help talk you through all these options.

The type of warranty that comes with your new carpet can tell you a lot about how well you can expect it to last. Most carpets come with a stain warranty which might be for a number of years of the life of the carpet, this tells you that the carpet should be easy to clean. The texture or appearance retention warranty will be the key one to tell you how long the carpet should look good before you might want to replace it. The wear warranty covers the carpet actually wearing out, but realistically you are unlikely to make a claim against these because modern carpets shouldn’t lose enough fibres to be considered worn within the time frame of the warranty.

Once you have the carpet fitted in your home regular vacuuming and cleaning the carpets twice a year will be enough to keep them clean and looking as good as new. A professional company like TSD Carpet Cleaning can be the best way to ensure the cleaning process is perfectly suited to your carpet types.

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How Not To Void Your Carpet Warranty

All carpet warranties differ, you can see an example of a carpet warranty here, but it is absolutely essential to read the small print for your specific carpet when you buy it if you think you might want to later claim against it. They might state what sort of padding or underlay is needed, right through the expected use of the carpet and how it is cared for. It’s not unusual for a warranty to state how often the carpet should be professionally cleaned and you would need to keep receipts to prove this (as well as an itemised receipt showing the cost of the carpet when you initially bought it). 

Even stain warranties can be challenging to claim against because you need to understand the difference between staining and soiling, have it cleaned properly, keep receipts and ensure that any spillages are food and drink only, and even then certain exceptions will apply like mustard.

While it can be useful to see what the warranties are for an indicator of what the carpet potential life span could be, it might be better not to worry about them in practise. Aiming to look after your carpet properly through vacuuming, regular cleaning and suitable stain spot removal should be enough to keep it looking good. If you are likely to have a lot of accidents in some areas eg the dining room it might be better to have wooden floors possibly with a rug in these rooms and save carpet for those areas where there is less food and drink like bedrooms. In my house we have wooden flooring and tiles downstairs and carpets on the stairs, landing and in bedrooms. This is a great compromise for us at the moment because while it means the floor is harder and can be noisier when played on it would have been ruined many times over. While we have some rugs that have had spillages and decorations they have been easier (and cheaper) to replace.

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