Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Jun 09, 2010 12:19 am Hi I am new here, I use to read your forum but this is my first post. We have a 4 bed room rental property in Gold Coast, but we live eight hours away in NSW. Our property manager informed us that it is time to replace the old carpets. Their carpet supplier recommended two carpet options: Option 1 Space Carpets - Bayview (sea shell) http://www.spacecarpets.com/bayview.html and Option 2 Godfrey Hirst Carpets – Campaspe (taupe) polypropylene carpet. The carpet company suggested to use the existing underlay with new carpets. Are theses carpets are suitable for a rental property or should we use some other type of carpets. Any help is appreciated. Re: Carpet for a rental property 2Jun 09, 2010 2:17 am This mentality really annoys me! Both carpets are alike.... cheap rubbish that will look crap within a couple of years. Carpet stores tend to recommend and sell this sort of stuff all the time whenever they hear the word "rental". Its great for their turnover! Just think... having a bunch or property managers that they have buttered up, and whenever a carpet is looking bad enough, they sell them more of this crap! Its virtually a throw away carpet, and has a life expectancy of around 5-7 years. Now I know... rental owners think "its just a rental, and spending much more may be over-capitalising". Well there may be some logic there maybe. But I just find the throw-away mentality incredibly wasteful. From new carpets to landfill as fast as can be, seems to be the motto of the stores that push this stuff! OK now I have that off my chest. So, you are still wanting to know what is the best choice of carpets for YOUR RENTAL..... I guess it depends on how you want to present the place. Do you want it to scream "cheap" or do you generally present the place nicely, with fresh paint and fittings? Is it run down and uninviting, a basic place that will attract those who don't respect it? No doubt, there is a market for both. Of course we can't be too precious or naive... and we can present a place beautifully and it may still be abused. But in my mind, if you take care to present a place so that its an attractive place to live and are careful about who rents it, its most likely you'll find tenants who look after it and respect it, and want to stay there. So less turnover of tenants, and less headaches all round. What I'm saying is you should choose carpets that are in keeping with the overall presentation and quality of the place. Polypropylene (also called olefin) carpets are cheap with stiff pile, are very heat sensitive (common to have cig burns and iron burns) and flatten rapidly in traffic ways. So even after several months, the carpets texture will have changed as it flattens both in traffic ways and wherever heavy furniture has been. It also soils rapidly if exposed to oils. So it doesn't take long to look pretty grubby unless tenants are very clean and careful. Being loop pile, seams and joins commonly come loose as many layers don't bother to use a seam sealer when joining carpets. They do have good stain resistance and colourfastness, but all the others things means they look crap before long. Now if you want the place to be more attractive and luxurious, you could consider quality nylon twist pile carpets. If close to the coast, quality solution dyed nylons might be a better choice. Some other good carpets are the Sensitex 6000 fibre carpets made by Northstate Carpet Mills or possibly the new Smartstrand carpets. These all have various qualities, and are more attractive than the cheap polyprops. But avoid very plain, light colours. Look for something in the colour/shade or texture that breaks up the uniformity to disguise spots and soiling. And to use that dirty word, you could even consider WOOL. Yes Wool! Most retailers will tell you wool is just not suitable for rentals. They are wrong to discount wool, and certainly wrong to assume that everyone with a rental wants cheap disposable carpets! But of course, quality wool carpets cost more and are an investment you don't want ruined, so it would need to be chosen carefully and installed in sensible areas. But a carefully chosen wool carpet can out-perform any synthetic carpets in many ways and keep their appearance for many years. Most carpet retailers utterly FAIL their customers, the way they dismiss quality wool carpets. Finally, the suggestion that the store made to fit new carpets over existing underlay is a good sign that they are less then professional. Again, they are assuming that every rental owner is cheap, which I find bloody stupid. Apart from that, it is absolutely contrary to the Aust Standards for carpet installation, and every manufacturers installation specs. Its another way they ensure they are selling more carpets in the shortest possible time, as it leads to premature failure of the carpets. Ash. Re: Carpet for a rental property 3Jun 09, 2010 10:32 am RoyalBlue, Great response and very interesting read. We have just ordered pure wool carpets for our build. We are currently in a unit that we bought off the plans. I am not too sure what the carpet is, however I think that it is a nylon plush. It has had about 8 years of wear and tear and is an OK state. I was wandering if I should replace the carpet before I rent out the old house or just give it a good professional clean? I suppose we are expecting a young family or a young professional couple to be renting the property as it is a unit (1 of 3) and the other two properties have similar tenants. I would value your opinion. View our blog at: http://room4acubby.blogspot.com/ Re: Carpet for a rental property 4Jun 09, 2010 10:45 am Roomy, wool carpets in your new place will be nice, especially in Melbourne for the warmth they offer. I'd suggest you get in a quality carpet cleaning tech to give the nylon carpets a really thorough clean. They generally come up very well. A cheaper carpet cleaner will also usually get a decent result, but a tech who takes time to do it better will achieve results that last longer. Also, he will be trained and equipped to be able to take care of stains or other issues, which the cheapies will gloss over. Once you have it cleaned this way, ensure that tenants are obliged to have it cleaned by the same tech, so the carpet is maintained in good condition. It may last another 10-15 years! BTW it may be a good idea to have it re-treated with Teflon after cleaning to give it added protection from staining. Let me know which area its in, and I should be able to advise who to use. Ash. Re: Carpet for a rental property 5Jun 09, 2010 11:18 am The rental is in the Eastern suburbs. Thanks. View our blog at: http://room4acubby.blogspot.com/ Re: Carpet for a rental property 7Jun 09, 2010 11:59 pm Thanks Ash for your detailed reply. Sorry I couldn’t response early, my internet connection was down all evening. I totally agree with your comments. I don’t want them to put cheap carpet because it is a rental property. In fact we built this house with good quality material and didn’t plan to rent it out. Unfortunately we had move because of my employment. We still love this house and we don’t want it to look cheap and uncomfortable or unattractive for the tenants. The problem I have is I have to rely on our property manager because I am about nine hours away from the property. Besides, I have very limited knowledge about carpets or any building materials. . Therefore I really appreciate the information you have given here. Now I wouldn’t go with their recommended polypropylene carpets. Current tenants are vacating the property next week. As this is a four bedroom house a family with children most probably would be the new tenants. White pages shows that there are number of carpet companies like Carpet Choice, Carpet One and World of Carpets operate in Gold Coast area. I guess I have to ring them and find out who would be able to supply and lay Sensitex 6000 or Smartstrand carpets in Gold Coast area. Ash, Are there any carpets other than Sensitex 6000 and Smartstrand you can suggest? Thanks again for your help Re: Carpet for a rental property 8Jun 10, 2010 12:39 am Well Harvey Norman would be in the area I expect, and have the Smartstrand. I think you'd find Solomons sell the carpet made with Sensitex 6000 by Northstate Carpet Mills. This carpet is actually produced near the Gold Coast. You could call the mill direct and ask who stocks their carpet in your area. Other carpets to consider might be Beaulieu Carpets in a low dense pile SDN. Their site has a lot of varieties, and they are produced in Qld. Ash. Re: Carpet for a rental property 9Jun 10, 2010 11:52 am Pad, There is a Harvey Norman store at Bundall, just behind the Gold Coast. What area are you in? I part, Ash is correct in that polyprop carpets are at the cheaper end of the scale, but in a rental I certainly wouldn't be recommending a wool carpet. As you say, it is 4 bedrooms so a simple SDN would be perfect for you to keep that smart appearance you built the house for, without over-capitalising on your investment. Even though I have looked into the Smartstrand product, and agree that it is a great product, the price would inhibit me putting into a rental. Stick with a SDN, probably around the $170 plm installed as a guide. A decent wool, or the Smartstrand, are going to be over $200 so a bit much for your usage. Scott Re: Carpet for a rental property 12Jun 10, 2010 6:50 pm scott_b ...but in a rental I certainly wouldn't be recommending a wool carpet. Hi Scott! Would you be another carpet retailer? Good to have more input around here! I'm curious.... would you care to say why you would not put wool carpets into rentals? The only thing you stated was that you thought it may be overcapitalising. Whilst that may be considered a valid reason, I'd be interested if you were to elaborate on what you feel is not so great about wool? I've been cleaning carpets for around 28 years, and am doing rental properties very regularly. So I would argue that I have been in the 'front line' seeing all the issues with carpets in rentals and other places on a daily basis. I have first hand knowledge and experience in how carpets perform and how they respond to cleaning and restoration. When there are problems with carpets, its my business to provide solutions. And particularly to advise whether problems can be cost efficiently restored, or whether the carpets are past their useful life. Whilst carpet retailers and sales staff often do have a good appreciation of various carpets' characteristics and qualities, I would suggest that very few have anywhere near the knowledge and experience that someone like myself does. So in real terms, the advice given by most carpet retailers is not as reliable as what I have to share. They may have their criteria to match carpet types with various customers, but people like me are the ones who deal with the results of the customers' decisions. I'd be a millionaire if I had a dollar for every person I spoke with who was disappointed with their carpets' performance. There are all sorts of reasons for this, not the least being that the carpet was not well chosen for the place its in. So, what's wrong with wool? Ash. Re: Carpet for a rental property 13Jun 10, 2010 11:01 pm Ash, Good guess, I am currently a flooring retailer (but I'll choose not to advertise myself here). To answer your main question, I have absolutely nothing against a wool carpet, having had wool twist (by Quest) in my previous home, and it's also on my shop floor currently. My only concern is that the cost of wool can be overcapitalising in a rental, and the tennants don't always follow the appropriate cleaning guidelines for cleaning a wool carpet. They are quite specific depending on the stain being treated (you'll know that for sure) and getting it wrong can have a detrimental effect on the carpet. I have seen the effect of scrubbing the carpet by tennants, causing some very nasty pilling for the landlord. Fixable for sure, but also at a cost. I have seen plenty of horror stories (in fact going to another one tomorrow) where the tennant has absolutely trashed the entire house, not just the carpet. A decent SDN would be sufficient to get a good looking carpet, easy enough to clean, harder to damage through bleach spills etc (but not impervious), that's all. For a person's home, put wool in everytime if you ask me. As for me, 25th year of retail, 10 years manufacturing, countless production and design meetings. I heard about this site from a customer and, as a career flooring person, thought I could help the public get the correct information without selling anything. I see and hear too much mis-information from opposition retailers downselling and it drives me nuts. I had a customer on the weekend tell me that xyz retailer told them that polypropylene is the best wearing fibre. How's that grab you, given your obvious dislike for this fibre type? (rightfully so, but it suits those that want cheap). No disrespect to your fine city Ash, but try the rental properties around the Sydney area on for size sometime, they can be VERY special. Maybe you Perth people are just too nice. Re: Carpet for a rental property 14Jun 11, 2010 2:21 am Scott, thanks for that. I generally agree that it can be a mistake putting quality wool carpets into rentals. But a well chosen wool rich carpet in the right place can be perfect! That's my point.... there's a lot of generalising here. "Rentals" may be the basic units which are abused, or may be homes inhabited by the most careful long term tenants. I just think its a great shame that so many retailers totally dismiss the potential of these carpets, just because they hear the word "rental". The outcome often is that people renting only live with cheaper carpets that have poor appearance retention, and it turns them off carpets altogether! I've known lots of rentals with old berbers, axminsters and other wool carpets which continue to provide excellent service year after year, including many I've resurrected from abuse. The saving grace of these carpets is their resilience and appearance retention, which surpass any synthetic carpets. After all, these carpets are chosen for many hotels and cinemas, which are horribly abused. They can and do give excellent service also in rentals. Ash. DIY, Home Maintenance & Repair Follow up question - any ideas on how to set up a portable air conditioner through this kind of window? 1 6424 You might be able to apply to divert the sewer at your expense. In NSW you would contact a Water services co-ordinator and they would give you advice as to whether or not… 1 16213 |