Cleveland, OH · Member since 2016 · 42 posts · 12 votes
Hello, I just evicted my tenants who stayed in my property for only 11 months. Unfortunately, they left my property with damaged carpet, holes on the walls, in additional to leaving behind their filthy belongings. Now, I'm torn between getting new carpeting or just refinish the existing beautiful woodfloor. I can save money on new carpeting compare to refinishing the woodfloor, but there's this possibility that my next tenants may do the same thing. So, it better not to install new carpeting and just refinish the woodfloor? Any thoughts you may share is greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Investor · SE, MI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 461 votes
9y
Hello Ed,
We've decided to never buy carpet for rentals. yes, it may be the cheaper option NOW, but it doesn't last long and costs more to clean properly. I have an Oreck Carpet scrubber that does a decent job on normal amounts of soil, and we rely on a local carpet cleaning company for anything beyond that, so either way we've got more time or money wrapped into clean carpets than we would in clean hard surface floors.
So far, we haven't removed carpet and found wood floors worth finishing, but if we did that is the route I would take. We've been putting in laminate floors and vinyl floors and have been very happy so far. They make turnover time much faster, and current and prospective tenants seem to really like them as well. Tile is great too, but for us in MI (and you in OH) it is generally only expected in bathrooms and kitchens.
Investor · Atlanta, GA · Member since 2014 · 389 posts · 250 votes
9y
@Chris Herrera -- so far so good. Yes, the vinyl plank (TrafficMaster grip strip planks) over carpet does sink a bit (like carpet, but it bounces up), so it's unexpected, but not unpleasant. It's low-pile very basic carpet that I inherited with the house, not anything plush. I did this in a "bonus room" that had been created from an enclosed carport, so the base is just carport slab. This solution has the benefits of both flooring types :-) and it was way cheaper than anything else I could think of.