Clean your carpets, but do not saturate them and do not use a lot of soap. Using vinegar is better (you can find a lot about that on this web-site). If you imagine never cleaning your kitchen floor for a year and then looking at the water you use to wash it, you know you want to clean your carpets once in a while! Just use common sense and do it when the weather is dry or the heat is on.
When we purchased our new carpet, we were told that to keep the carpet in good shape, it should be vacuumed and steam-cleaned regularly. I use the RugDoctor extractor method. They are between $20 and $30 per rental period of 24 hours. If you only use it every 6 to 12 months, it seems a reasonable amount to pay. And it does a good job for our carpet.
Carpet shampooing and steaming can be very dangerous to your floors underneath the carpet and pad. My husband lays floor covering and also sands and refinished hardwood. He has had several instances where people have cleaned or steamed their carpet and it has damaged the plywood or hardwood underneath. It's especially a no no if you have hardwood underneath. After doing this to your carpet, the pad never really actually completely dries out. Leaving it to possibly sour and may even mildew without you knowing it. this also causes bad allergies. If you have hardwood underneath, it would be best not to do this. It may ruin the floor, and may not be able to be sanded out. Also another thing that damages the subfloor, whether concrete or wood, is carpet refresher powders. If you use them, they seep deep down in to the pad and the vacuum never gets it all. This is made of oils and it seeps to the bottom and attracts dirt and other allergens, causing more problems. Hope this helps you! Feel free to ask any more questions about your floors. We'd be glad to help you.
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