Ok, I’m getting ready to close on my 2nd low-income rental and this place has “almost new” carpet. It is beautiful and runs throughout the whole place. Normally I would never put carpet this nice in any sort of rental, but it’s here and I might as well use it.
But there is one problem.
By the back door there are some big stains on the carpet. I am considering either (a) laying a rug over the carpet just in that spot or (b) cutting out a section of the carpet, and installing matching vinyl tiles from the back door to where the stains were AND glueing the carpet edge down where I cut along it - this wouldn’t look too bad but my concern is the carpet de-stretching. I would install the carpet to linoleum edging as required and I prefer not to hire a contractor for this. I guess I could also lay new tack board and stretch the carpet myself – but I prefer not to do that. LOL.
Do you have any extra remnants of that carpet laying around somewhere (maybe some in a garage, attic, or basement)? In our last apartment rehab, we saved the carpet in the bedroom, but there was a burn mark - looked like it was from an iron - in the carpet a few feet into the room. There was some extra carpet in the hallway so we just cut out the bad spot and glued down the replacement. The whole carpet is glued down so we didn’t have to worry about the strecting issue.
Have you tried any carpet shampoo? I bought a can of the spray foam shampoo for cars. It’s got the plastic bristles on the top of the can. That stuff works pretty well for spots.
Here’s a technique for removing stains from carpet:
Spray the spot with ammonia.
Place a dripping wet (with water), white, terrycloth wash cloth on top of the stain.
Place an iron on maximum temperature over wash cloth, which is over the stain.
Let it steam for 30 seconds.
Vacuum with a wet vac.
You will be amazed at the kind of stains that this technique will get out. If you do this too many times in the same area, the carpet will begin to lose it’s color.
You also might be able to patch the carpet, but new carpet will not look the same as old carpet. You might be able to use some out of a closet, then try to match it as best as you can for the closet. This seems like a hassle unless you want to keep this carpet for a long time. I might consider this approach if I had an otherwise new carpet with bleach stains.
I would cut out the stained area and make a nice tile entry area. That small an area won’t cost much to do and you’ll have a permanent file and a dressed up entry.
You get a tile to carpet edging strip when you install the tile and it has tacks to hold the carpet, plus it bends over the top and grips it.
You shoukld not have to re-stretch unless the wole room needs to be re-stretched.
If you use vinyl, there are special metal strips for the transition between vinyl and carpet.
If you use tile, get one with a slightly rough surface and a matte finish, so it won’t be slippery if it gets wet.
Thanks for the tips guys. The prior owner said the stains would NOT come up. But they did.
You know what worked? I tried several carpet cleaners (Bissell, generic, etc) and none of them worked. I used that Oxi-Clean stuff and the stains came up!!! Wow is all I can say!!! The carpet looks great now. I guess this guy knows what he’s talking about (haha)…