Is your carpet worth cleaning, or is it time to replace it?
Dirty carpet is worth cleaning; worn-out carpet isn’t. On Angi’s figures, a carpet’s useful life runs 5 to 15 years. Replacing one costs $3–$11 per square foot installed; cleaning costs $75–$125 per room.
Maid VIP estimate: about $30–$75 per room, with a $150 visit minimum; most homes about $150–$400. Services fulfilled by our affiliated service partner, Maid VIP. Covered: Old Town Camarillo, Mission Oaks, Spanish Hills and Las Posas, Leisure Village, Camarillo Heights, Camarillo Springs, Oxnard. Call (805) 793-0293
Should you clean or replace your carpet? A quick test
Kneel in a traffic path and look at the fibers. Gray color, spots and a smell sit in the fibers, and those are what a carpet cleaning or a urine treatment can reach. Pile that stays flat when you brush it up the wrong way, a pad that feels lumpy or thin underfoot, and seams that have opened are wear, and no cleaning will lift them.
How long carpet lasts
Angi’s range for how long carpet lasts is 5 to 15 years, depending on its type, the pad and the traffic, and Angi says most manufacturers expect about 10 years from carpet that gets proper care. HomeAdvisor gives its own range: 5 to 20 years with the right care. Part of that care is regular cleaning, which Shaw recommends every 12 to 18 months for carpet in a typical household.
Signs your carpet needs replacing
Angi’s list of signs it is time to replace:
- Stains that carpet cleaning fails to remove
- Matted, crushed fibers in the traffic paths
- Odor that outlasts treatment, a sign it is in the pad or subfloor
- A pad that has broken down underfoot
- Allergy symptoms that cleaning doesn’t ease
- Age: around 10 years for most carpet, by manufacturers’ expectations
The math for three bedrooms
| Job | National figure | Three 150-sq-ft bedrooms (450 sq ft) |
|---|---|---|
| Professional cleaning | $75–$125 per room | $225–$375 |
| New carpet, installed | $3–$11 per square foot installed | $1,350–$4,950 |
| Removing the old carpet | $1–$5 per square foot | $450–$2,250 |
| New pad, in an installation | $0.75–$2 per square foot | $338–$900 |
Angi’s average replacement job is $1,777. Replacement is flooring work. Unless the job is minor, it takes a Contractors State License Board license. A minor job comes to less than $1,000 in all, counting labor, materials and everything else; needs no building permit; isn’t part of a larger project or split into smaller contracts; and is done by someone who has no employees and whose ads don’t claim a CSLB license. Flooring work like this isn’t referred through this site.
National figures, not quotes: the cleaning company sets the price for your home before any work.
Pet damage: the pad, the carpet, or both
New carpet isn’t the only answer to urine damage. A soaked pad can have its bad section cut out and replaced, with the subfloor sealed, before the carpet goes back down and is treated; new pad runs $0.75–$2 per square foot in a carpet installation on HomeAdvisor’s figures, and pulling back and relaying the carpet adds labor. Replacement makes sense once the carpet’s own backing has broken down, or once stains spread over much of the room; the pet urine guide covers the treatment.
In a rental
Replacing a rental’s carpet is the landlord’s call. What a tenant can be charged is limited to returning the unit to its move-in cleanliness, never ordinary wear: the move-out guide has the rules.
Sources
The cleaning prices on this page are national figures, read in October 2026 in the price guides listed below; none is a quote, and no Camarillo average turned up in the price guides checked. Facts about Camarillo come from the local pages listed.
- Angi, how long carpet lasts and the signs it needs replacing (updated July 9, 2026)
- Angi, carpet installation cost (updated September 9, 2026)
- HomeAdvisor, carpet replacement cost (updated June 20, 2026)
- HomeAdvisor, carpet cleaning cost (updated June 17, 2026)
- Shaw Floors, carpet cleaning and warranty care
- University of San Diego Center for Public Interest Law, AB 2622 minor work exemption
- California Business and Professions Code section 7048, the minor work exemption
- California Civil Code section 1950.5, security deposits (as amended through 2025)