How long should carpet last?
Anywhere from about five to fifteen-plus years depending on quality, traffic and, most of all, maintenance. What decides it is whether the oils come out before sand grinds the fibre into permanent graying. Vacuuming, cleaning on a wear-based schedule, and reapplying protector push carpet toward the long end.
The range is that wide because maintenance decides it
Two identical carpets installed the same week in the same building can be five years apart in appearance, and the difference is almost never the carpet.
What ends a carpet is not foot traffic. It is dry particulate ground into the base of the pile, acting like sandpaper against the fibre every time somebody walks over it.
The sequence that shortens it
Oil arrives continuously and coats the fibre. Sand then sticks to that film instead of falling to the base of the pile where a vacuum reaches it, so it rides at the height your foot lands.
Every step grinds it through the protective coating and then into the fibre. The twist opens, the surface stops reflecting light evenly, and that grey is permanent. At that point the carpet is finished as a piece of furniture regardless of how clean it is.
The three things that lengthen it
Vacuum slowly and often, especially the lanes. Free, and the highest-impact item on the list.
Clean on a wear-based schedule rather than waiting for it to look dirty, because by the time you can see discolouration the grinding has been running for months.
Reapply protector annually so the sand wears the coating rather than the fibre. Plus two mats at every entry and shoes off indoors, which is where most of the oil and grit is decided.
The follow-up
questions.
Yes, and the mechanism is not cosmetic. Removing the oil film and the embedded sand on a real cycle is preventive maintenance against abrasion, which is what actually wears carpet out.
When the fibre has bloomed across the areas you look at. It can be perfectly clean and still read dull and grey, because the optical surface that produced the colour no longer exists.
It buys a better starting point, not immunity. A well-maintained mid-range carpet routinely outlives a neglected premium one.
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