Carpeting

[Josh L.]

I know many landlords have gotten rid of most of their carpeting, but I'm still keeping it for the upstairs bedrooms, stairs, and for a living room downstairs. I've got tile in the rest of the house and hopefully the carpets won't get as much wear and tear because they're in less trafficed areas.

So, I've got a couple of questions for those who still use carpeting:

1) Where do you buy your carpeting? Home Depot and Lowes? Local flooring specialist store? Anywhere else to buy it?

2) What type of carpeting do you buy?

There's so many different types of styles and materials. For styles, there's cut, loop, cut-loop pile. For materials, there's wool, nylon, olefin, polyster, etc...

Is one style and material better than another for a rental?

3) Do you ever buy better carpeting because it should be more durable than cheaper carpeting? Or, do you buy the cheapest carpeting you can because the tenant will end up destroying it anyways, regardless of how durable the carpeting its?

If its the latter, do I still get the cheapest carpet even though my rental is in good location and can get high rents?

4) I've just learned that carpets are rated differently for durability and that your carpeting should depend on the expected traffic in that room. I hadn't really considered that before and that explains why there's a few areas of carpeting that need to be replaced while the carpet everywhere else is fine.

But, if you get the most durable carpet that will meet the demands of the most trafficked areas and use that same carpet throughout the whole house, then it seems you're overpaying for carpet for most of the house- you're getting carpet more durable than needed for the rest of the house

5 )What else do I need to know or to look for when buying carpeting?