Real Estate Investor · chicago, IL · Member since 2012 · 1k+ posts · 231 votes
before having to replace it? Also, what did you do (if anything) to keep it in decent shape? I know some landlords who have their carpet cleaned annually at their rentals.
I'd also be curious how long you've been able to keep carpet in your primary residence as well (while still maintaining it in decent shape)?
With regular annual inspections including scheduled spraying for prevention of insects/bed bugs as a former employee of a broker and as a tenant my observation shows 10 years is about the maximum.
Personally, in my opinion carpet is highly unhygienic, attracts odors and has a short life compared to hard surfaced floors and it amazes me that it has taken so many years for the trend to switch reflected in more apartment complexes featuring hardwood (I'm in Reno, NV where there has been a surge of bed bugs so this may be a big part of the switch-regular preventive fumigation in addition to that for prior to move-ins and outs is common too.) I would favor hard surface floors whether tile, linoleum or hardwood/synthetic variants and simply provide some sort of adhesive backed strips of carpet over the hard surfaced floors if dealing with property that requires carpeted living space for handicapped tenants in government subsidized properties & I would imagine greater savings in the long run since I've seen hardwood floors that are over 50 years old!
I've had zero luck with carpet in my apartments. Whenever possible I take it up.
I'm in the middle of a remodel of one of my places and had the fortune of finding incredible hardwood floors under the bedroom and living room carpets. The final stage of the reno is going to be the refinishing.
Mostly I replace with laminate.
My folks have had great luck with their carpet. They just replaced 22-ish year old carpet in the upstairs of their place in VT. It didn't look too bad, but the worn path was annoying my mother.