I've worked in this industry for over 20 years, having owned and built my own business and now I work at training people. I am one of a relatively small group who believe carpet cleaners should be qualified. We are cleaning thousands of dollars worth of carpet and home furnishings. Electricians and plumbers don't deal with property worth as much as what a textile floor cleaner does yet they must have a full certificate and serve an apprenticeship. The Carpet and Rug institute recommends technicians certified with the IICRC (Institute of Inspection Cleaning and Restoration Certification). Most of the Standards boards world wide will only recommend Hot Water Extraction HWE as a full restoration style of cleaning. I think Chem-Dry were losing market share due to this and in more recent years added HWE (They had been using it on carpeted stairs for years). To continue their "Dry" branding they promote their patented Carbonated cleaning method. I have had many discussions with Chem-Dry technicians over the years and they all sprout the glories of their unique system but I've never seen results from them results to go with it. In the end it always comes down to the operator. You need someone who cares enough to pay attention to detail and who wants to be trained in all aspects of their craft = Fibre technology, suitable chemistry for those fibres, stain removal, water damage restoration etc. etc. This often comes from an owner operator of a small business who truly wants to impress you and so do the best possible job. For me it was seeing colleagues who didn't care and wanting to rise above that and restore rather than destroy carpets. May I suggest next time you need your carpet cleaned that you try the IICRC for a recommended cleaner and compare the difference? I'm not suggesting you will get a bad job from Chem-Dry, I am only suggesting you check their qualifications and look for the very best option. http://www.iicrc.org/ All the best

I have son who is terribly allergic to everything he was tested for (except animals) as well as asthmatic. He has two vials of serum and received 2 shots 2x a week (one in each arm). We are just beinning 2 shots 1x a week on the maintanance vial. Dust mites was one of his biggest reactions. After testing, we were about to replace his carpet with hard flooring when our pediatric allergist at the children's hospital recommended that we put in a low pile carpet. The Allergen world is now saying that a low pile carpet is ideal for allergy sufferes and asthmatics, as it traps the allergens rather than being constantly dispersed everytime they are walked on, or by any movement of the air. It does require some work though. Helping with allergies and asthma is not just a flooring issue but goes way further than that. In our case: * we rearranged the furniture. Only his headboard is against the wall so we can get to baseboards easily. * Night stand is off the floor, replaced by a cool shelf and bracket we got from ikea, with a clip on bendable arm reading light. * Dresser now is wall mounted in the closet (raised 11 inches off floor and from ikea) * One tall bookcase (also from ikea) that is attached to the wall and sits on the floor. Ikea makes the bottom cut away for the baseboard so the unit is totally flush against the wall. Minimal dust gets back there and also cant be disturbed by air movement. *He cannot be in his room when it is cleaned which is done faithfully every week. *Hepa filter vacuum is a must. *Room is vacuumed, baseboards are wiped down *as well as the crevice where carpet and moulding meet) with damp rag sprayed with dust mite control spray. *Dust mite control spray is again applied to the low pile carpet (we put in Shaw Tuftex). Wait 1-2 hours (which he cannot go in there) and we vacuum thouroghly again. *Blinds are vacuumed weekly and wiped down monthly. *Ceiling fan wiped and dusted weekly. *Matress is encased in a protective zippered cover. *Pillow is an allergy control pillow also encased in allergy cover. *His comforter is allergy control but encased in a regular duvet cover that is washed on sanitary cycle weekly. *No window treatment or wall mounted pictures in his room so we put cool wall decals http://www.whatisblik.com/ I bought a steamer mop at a hardware store and I steam his carpet 1-2 times a month. I do the rest of the house (wood and carpet) more often. Because there is some costs involed, we did some things right away and some things over time. It is overwhelming at first having such a rigorous cleaning routine, but after a while, it becomes easier. We have now begun doing the other two kids bedrooms the same way, though neither has allergies or athsma. Here is a link to a swedish study about solid flooring vs carpet, where carpet was outlawed in public building in 1973 and carpet became only 2% of all flooring, yet allergy sufferers incleased dramatically over the 30+ years time. Here is a link that might be useful: Carpet vs Hard Surface Flooring for allergies

Landlord, I'll chime in on your apartments. I don't know anything about Terrazo, but we ripped out the carpet in our apartments and put in hardwoods in the living room areas and upstairs hallways. We left carpet in the bedrooms for sound, and on the stairs for sound and safety. We also were tired of having to recarpet every couple of years, as people absolutely destroyed decent carpet. We put in prefinished hardwoods ourselves (DH has a handyman business), and I love how easy it is to clean up. We had some damage to one area, but he just pulled out an area of boards and replaced them. They are no longer as sparkly as when they were new, but hey, it's an apartment. A bit costly up front, but the cost is more than recovered by the savings of a couple of recarpeting jobs. As an added bonus, the hardwoods in the upstairs hallway makes the carpeted areas totally separate. If one room needs to be replaced, we can do that with something that matches, without having to replace all of the carpet. This was a suggestion from our carpet installer.

We haven't yet... We're still living with our 17 year old frieze carpet :( Part of it is laziness, and part of it was having 2 older cats who regularly vomited and had other accidents on the carpet up until very recently. Both of our beloved senior cats passed away in the past month, so I am thinking about replacing the carpeting again. I'll keep you posted on what we decide to go with and how it holds up. We do have one more cat, but he's only a year old and isn't a puker, thankfully.