Carpet Health Check
How often should your carpets be cleaned?
Four quick questions and you'll get a straight recommendation — based on carpet-industry guidance (Carpet & Rug Institute, AS/NZS 3733 maintenance practice), not a sales pitch. No email, no catch.
Guidance: Carpet & Rug Institute · AS/NZS 3733 maintenance practice · manufacturer warranty norms. A guide, not a diagnosis — your cleaner's on-site read always wins.
Why the timing matters
What's happening while it still looks fine.
The number above isn't about how dirty your carpet looks. It's about how much of it still comes back.
- 6 months
Looks new. Is new. But grit is already arriving at the front door and being walked in, a few steps at a time.
- 1 year
Still looks new to you. It isn't, quite. Every footstep grinds that grit into the fibre, and the scratching has started where people walk.
- 18 months
You'd say it "could do with a clean." You'd be right — and this is the moment worth knowing about: a clean now takes it back to near enough new.
- 2 years
The traffic lane is visibly greyer than the rooms either side. A clean still makes a big difference. But not all of it comes back now, and you can tell.
- 3 years +
The lane stops responding to a normal clean. We can lift the soil out of it; we can't un-scratch the fibre. There's still something we can do — a restoration, which is Premier-level work and needs a look at the floor before anyone can price it honestly. It brings some life back. It won't make it new. And if it's past even that, we'll tell you it's a recarpeting quote you need, not another clean.
Carpet is the expensive thing. Cleaning is the cheap thing that protects it — which is the whole point of the number above. And if you're already at the last line, we'd rather tell you than sell you a clean that won't fix it.