Rental Property Investor · Auburn, AL · Member since 2018 · 50 posts · 20 votes
Anyone know how to bring carpet back to life one more time?
We just had an eviction and these people spilled kool aid, candle wax, and probably a million other things over it. It's matted down and looks like a mess.
Any magic cures?
Could you potentially lay vinyl plank over it? Might actually make it feel padded underneath like the luxury stuff?
Rental Property Investor · Upstate, NY · Member since 2012 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
7y
We actually walked into a 'rehabbed' ranch that had put 'click in place' flooring over the old carpet in the living/dining room. The bouncy feel was not enticing & ripping it all out & relaying it would be time consuming. We had an apartment in one of our multis that had a layer of carpet, a layer of old style ugly pergo, then another layer of carpet on top of the pergo & no padding anywhere. It appeared as each layer was damaged they just covered it with another layer & skipped the cost of padding.
I would replace it. Sounds like it’s gone. You can try to save it but I think the time you spend trying to save the carpet will not be worth your time. Carpeting is fairly inexpensive. I try to use hardwoods that way I can replace sections.
Rental Property Investor · Erie, PA · Member since 2018 · 6k+ posts · 9k+ votes
7y
I have torn out carpeting where a guy died .. laid it all out in my driveway dumped dish soap on it and used my high powered pressure washer to clean it good ..then I rolled it up and threw it back in the unit tacked it down and rented the place out a week later .
Try it you’ll be surprised what the pressure washer can pull out . The koolaid stain may require white vinegar to be poured over the stain for an hour but it can come up toonif it’s not too bad
What a good carpet cleaner can do is amazing. Good chemicals that are agitated into the carpet and then extracted will take a lot of stains out. Call around and be upfront with the cleaner. Tell him you have an ugly carpet that has been abused. Ask him what he uses to agitate the carpet after he puts down the cleaner. If he says a CRB or a rotary brush ---he will be able to get it clean.---good luck. They might charge you 50% more for "restoration cleaning" but much cheaper than new carpet.
Investor · Milwaukee, WI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
7y
Dye it? LOL.
I've tried having carpet in a rental exactly once. Just not worth it.
I think the floating floor systems are great. There are tons of choices in terms of materials, styles and price point. Super easy to install and replace if needed. Most of them hold up pretty good. Luxury vinyl is the new thing. But heck, you can get them in hardwood too if you want.
I put super cheap laminate in my own house lower living room ($.79 a sf plus $.45 sf underlay, $.40 shoe and some paint). We did this as a band-aid fix, expecting to go with tile eventually (concrete subfloor). Bought the better underlay. I love that stuff and might never get rid of it. It looks quite good and still as good as the day I put it in. It's crazy easy to keep clean. It doesn't like standing water and it can gauge, but is actually quite scratch resistant and absolutely scuff proof. Soft to walk on. Love it love it love it.
I did a high-end maple hardwood floater on the house prior, and while I loved that too because it was beautiful (and what the space needed), it was more expensive and you had to really baby it.
Just got done putting in luxury vinyl for the first time and may have found the be-all-end-all. I might start putting it in over hardwoods in rentals. Almost water proof (only possible would be the edges), soft to walk on and looks sort of like wood. Appears to be super durable and certainly will never disintegrate. I just don't see a downside to it for a standard rental.
Turned out fantastic actually . My rentals don’t have padding under the carpet so I just laid it back down on the floor and rented it out a few days later . Kind of a pain but no sense in throwing away 100 bucks in carpeting when it can be reused
Investor · SE, MI · Member since 2013 · 1k+ posts · 461 votes
7y
Either get a really good carpet cleaning company in there, someone who leaves the carpet pretty dry when they leave, or take it out and put down hard flooring. You can't leave it and put flooring over it, unless you want the new flooring buckling an voiding the warranty.
We have been removing all carpet as we fix up apartments, and putting down vinyl plank or laminate flooring. Cleaning apartments in between tenants is much easier, and everyone seems to be happy with the change.