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I have customers ask me all the time, “What is the best carpet to buy for their house or rental property?” Just curious what other operators opinion would be. What type of fiber and what style of carpet do you recommend or what would you buy?
Me personally, I like a good hi/lo cut berber. Snags can be the only downside as otherwise it usually wears well and cleans up well. That aside, if a customer asks me about carpet I give them the following advice:
1. DON’T SKIMP ON THE CARPET PAD. The “shock obsorber” for your carpet is very important as we all know. Upgrading to a denser pad isn’t usually much more money, and we all know a cheap pad as soon as we walk in the house.
2. Avoid one color. I like “flecks” or something that breaks up the solid color of the carpet, especially if it’s a light/white color as a base. Some flecks of color in the carpet help make a “stain” not as noticeable.
3. Get two quotes for the installation of the carpet. One price being the cheapest, and the other being the installation with the fewest seams. We all know seams can be where issues happen first and sometimes installers will just piece areas together to make it cheaper. Not always the case, but something to consider.Just my 2 cents
Good subject question.
Dave, totally agree. When it comes to durability, what you don’t see makes all the difference.
Most “Land lords” locally seem to go to the “short cut Berber” carpets and plan on replacing every 5-7 years. My parents have 28 house/apartments rentals. They come from the 1930’s era of “Service is the price you pay for the space you occupy”… “Use it up, wear it out, or go with out”. They get carpet used from a government assisted “senior retirement center” I clean for, who replace the carpet every 5 years. They have large liv/din room carpet and he installs them and I clean them. He also picks up high quality used carpet where the owners are “just tired of the color”and are buying new. He has a place he has about 4-5 carpets waiting to be installed. And yes, he installs quality pad. So, that’s the two extremes.
I’m going to be writing an article about this for residential carpet buying tips. What other things are there to consider?
What type of fiber to buy?
The fiber count (not sure what it’s really called, but the density of fibers per sq ft)?
etc?
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I feel that a carpet made of 100% nylon is the most resilient. I tell my customers to look for the most expensive. Carpet is like carpet cleaners, you get what you pay for! 😀
Thanks bsutton!
I have a carpet installer that I know and will be talking to him as well. But I know that all the experience that all you operators have, I can learn from.
Any other tips?
If customers bring up wool carpet, make sure that they understand you really have to stay on top of the maintenance of wool carpet. I see too many people buy wool b/c it is the most expensive and therefore must be the best. Then, they don’t vacuum it regularly and don’t get it cleaned as often as they should and it looks like crap quickly and they wonder why. That nice wool carpet in the high end hotels gets cleaned all the time and vacuumed daily. Wool can be great, but it can be high maintenance in my opinion. Also, I’m not a fan of wool in areas where there is moisture (see basements) or in homes that have accident prone pets. Just like wool rugs, wool carpet can last a long time, but only in the right situations.
Anyone buying carpet for rental properties should talk to their tax person. I believe in most states you can write off carpet for the first 3 yrs after purchase, but not after that, so replacing carpet more often than originally anticipated may be the way to go for them. Most experienced landlords already know this, but those new to the game may not.
Having carpet installed properly is also a very important part that is overlooked. Nothing worse than seeing carpet buckling that is only 3 yrs old. If you can grab the carpet in an open area and pull it up very far, it wasn’t installed well. I always tell people to make sure that the installers have power stretchers with them when installing. Hallways are one thing, but you can’t knee kick a big room of carpet and expect good results in most instances.
All just my 2 cents…..
I like a good nylon berber. It is easy to clean, resilient, durable, has a nice texture and feels good. The better pad is worth the investment and takes the load of heavy traffic. Carpets should be stretched when installed but usually isn’t when they give the installation free. They just knee kick it, set it and forget it. Just like the Ronco rotisserie.
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