carpet stain protection - is it worth it?

melb

Evening peeps we're just about to have nearly all downstairs carpeted, plus daughter's bedroom and we can have the whole lot stain-protected for an extra £200 (this is on £975 worth of carpet). Is it worth doing? We have no pets and have never had any major stains in all our years. I've looked for any previous posts on here but they were from 2005. Anyone got any views? thanks

olias

Not worth it IMO, most spills can be cleared up with carpet shampoo etc, and if its a bad enough stain to be permanant then you can claim on your insurance.

Olias

Doozergirl

If you have manmade carpet then you shouldn't need it.

It does work on wool carpet if the liquid isn't forced into it. This is probably not a very nice example but my son 'lost' an entire can of Heinz tomato soup on the carpet. Where it hit the carpet it did soak in but where it bounced, it beaded and sat on top. With all the elbow grease it took to get it out, the small bits that did bead didn't really make a lot of difference to the sizeable clear up operation.

Once the carpet has been washed, the protection has gone. It does make a difference on the amount of dirt the carpet picks up in general - once it's had a carpet cleaner over it, I was shocked at how quickly it picked up dirt again. It then became a losing battle with the carpet.

We've always gone for 80% wool carpets but have since discovered really nice manmade carpet which isn't shiny or scratchy and it's so easy to get marks out, I just wet the carpet and dab at it until the mark has gone. It means we can still have pale carpets. I'm very happy with it.

D1zzy

I paid for stain protection on my daughters carpet. I then knocked a mug of black coffee off a windowsill onto the carpet - no way would the stain come out even though it was dealt with immediately - so not worth it.

melb

thanks for your replies. I forgot to say it's 100% wool and the main area for concern is the dining room where my daughter likes to throw chocolate mousse and tomato ketchup over the floor - even though she's 9 - you've never seen such a messy eater. I couldn't understand with the tomato soup incident above whether you were saying that it beaded where the stain protection was and whether you were recommending it or not. I'm tempted not to go for it.

underlay_guru

One thing I think you should take into consideration:

If you scrub at a 100% wool carpet, it will begin to 'pill'. Similar to when you brush your own hair, the wool in the yarn will begin to split, fluff up and break (Similar to when hair goes frizzy from over-brushing, I suppose!).

That is why a lot of popular carpets are of 80/20 construction. the 20% is usually either polypropylene or nylon, which is mixed in with the wool, supports it and offers a small degree of stain resistancy. I would avoid a 100% wool carpet anyway and go for either an 80/20, or completely synthetic!

Regarding the stain treatment: In my opinion AVOID!

A fully synthetic carpet does not need it;
An 80/20 carpet offers a good degre of stain resistancy anyway;
I have heard of so many occasions where the product simply hasnt worked;
The actual cost price of the treatment to the retailer can be as low as 20p a square metre (Basically a cupful of the magic guard soloution in water, then sprayed on).

melb

thanks underlayguru but you don't realise what you've done!!! months of looking and finally we've found one we like and you're telling us to avoid it!! We always wanted a 'berber' type which all seem to be either 100% wool or 100% synthetic and I wouldn't want the latter. i just like the look of them although i know an 80/20 mix would be better but they don't seem to do them in berber (bearing in mind we don't want to go over £20 a sq metre) thanks for the advice anyway

D1zzy

we have a pale all wool berber carpet ( rusticana -natural sheeps wool - not made anymore) - is been with us for 30 years and has moved with us from chopped down lounge to 2 bedroom carpets. If I could still get it I would furnish the rest of the house. I did find something similar for our extension 12 years ago - and its still like new. The odd spill I have "dabbed off" with carpet cleaner - no problem

Doozergirl

melb wrote: »

thanks for your replies. I forgot to say it's 100% wool and the main area for concern is the dining room where my daughter likes to throw chocolate mousse and tomato ketchup over the floor - even though she's 9 - you've never seen such a messy eater. I couldn't understand with the tomato soup incident above whether you were saying that it beaded where the stain protection was and whether you were recommending it or not. I'm tempted not to go for it.

It beaded for small areas, not for major spillage. I don't think it's great.

After having carpetted 20 odd houses in 80/20 wool twist (and paying for scotchguarding on any of those that we've lived in) being a self proclaimed carpet snob, my own house now has manmade carpet and it's the best carpet we've had. We've had carpet downstairs for a year now and it's still like new which is some going for us. I always thought that manmade was cheap and pulled at every opportunity. This carpet is a twist. It's soft to touch and I'd defy any person off the street to work out whether it was wool or manmade.

Honestly, I've found my carpet heaven :rotfl: