We made the wet-clean mistake in our last home, realizing that the dirt from the sub-floor was being pulled through the carpet. The carpets were worse than before we cleaned!
In our new home, we decided to get the builders grade carpet and replace it when it could no longer be cleaned properly (we have 5 kids, 4 grandkids, a pool and a dog). We thought this low-grade carpet would last 3-4 years, given the traffic.
We've had the same DryCarpet service team coming 2x a year for the past 4 years and I'm happy to say that the carpet does NOT need replacing. We've had pet stains, tar and oil on these low-quality carpets, but somehow our Dry-Carpet team makes them look near-new every 6 months.
I now expect we'll get about 7 years out of these carpets - thanks to Mr. D, our Dry-Carpet guy.