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As we are preparing to look for a new place we are doing some deep cleaning and minor repairs to our apartment to (hopefully) get our full deposit back. I have a couple of concerns about some wear and tear to the apartment. First, the carpet we have in here is bottom of the line, dirt cheap "office" carpet. There is zero padding and it's rough to walk on. We have been here for 4 years this August and I'm not sure how long this same carpet has been in this unit. The carpet has almost zero stains, however where it meets at different rooms it is unraveling. We have done nothing abnormal to this carpet and, in fact, take very good care of it. Is this normal wear and tear? If this carpet has not been in this unit for the duration of a normal "life" for apartment carpet, I fear our landlord will try to stick us with the cost to replace.
Next, we bought these expensive memory foam kitchen rugs and the black on the rug appears to have almost dyed the linoleum. I'm freaking out about this. Under each rug (two) there is a faint outline of black that bleach will not get up!
Before anyone treats me like the "typical" tenant who treats others' property like crap, that's not me. In fact, when we moved in it was a dump. This place has never looked better. I had not planned on the rugs to mark up the floor and have never heard of this! I'm also incredibly OCD, so my apartment is spotlessly clean.
Any suggestions on how to try to get this "stain" up? Any insight on the carpet questions? Much thanks in advance.
Get some goo gone and a magic eraser for the marks under the rugs.
In the future as much as you may love them don't get dark color rugs or foam back.
Get the oval braided rugs.
Without knowing the extent of the damage to the rug or how long it has been in the unit it is hard to say if the landlord will try to take the cost out of your deposit.
If you run into this again in the future, there are threshold covers that can be put in place to cover those edges which the landlord shouldhave already done.
Anyway, the cost is not much and they save future aggrivation with issues like this in regards to carpet.
Thank you so much for the suggestions! We have a rug to cover the poky strip that separates the carpet from the kitchen because we were tired of accidentally stepping on it and pricking our feet. Are the threshold covers like a rug? I've never heard of these? If so, they may be a pain and and an accident waiting to happen, as we already trip over the above mentioned rug many times. I understand not wanting to put in expensive carpet, as you never know what your tenants will do to your property, but I feel the cheapness of this carpet is what led to its wear and tear. If they try to charge us for it, I may consider fighting for that. We did nothing to make it unravel.
I am off to buy goo gone and magic erasers! I hope they work!
You mentioned it's "almost" stain free, what stains remained and how did they occur? Do you have pictures from when you moved in at it being a dump? Was it noted on the move in sheet? Lastly, have you ever reported the unraveling to the landlord and if you did, did you keep proof of it?
Carpet. The unraveling of the seams would fall under wear and tear under normal circumstances, however, the landlord can make an argument that it is damages based on no prior knowledge of the failing seams. What that means is you would not be held liable for the seams so long as you made notification to the landlord that the seams were unraveling so they could take steps to mitigate further damages. Did you notify the landlord during your tenancy about the condition of the failing seams?
Kitchen flooring stains. If this is the discoloration that occurs when the backing interacts with the flooring, it is normally considered damages because you placed the item on the floor that caused the discoloration. Most manufactures labels will have a warning about potential damages due to the backing interacting with the flooring, with moisture, with the normal cleaning items, or with chemicals leeching from the materials. This warning is to protect the manufacture from claims of damages but unfortunately serves as prior warning to you that it can damage the flooring.
Is that a Berber carpet? If so, the unraveling should have been reported as soon as the first string came loose. It can be repaired with a hot glue gun, but not after a large area has unraveled and not after the tenant has clipped off the loose threads.
I'm sorry, but I can't answer your question without seeing the actual carpet or vinyl floor. If the carpet is worn out, that's one thing. If the cat scratched at the doorway, that's another. "Damage" doesn't necessarily mean the same thing in every circumstance.
The carpet cleaner I use is very good at doing repairs and he has repaired damage at doorways for me on several occasions. However, I don't know what your landlord will do. If carpet gets replaced and he does bill you, then the cost should be prorated. Without seeing it, i can't tell you whether or not it is something that I think you should be billed for.
The stain on the vinyl flooring is on you. Rubber backing on bath mats sometimes ruins vinyl. Usually, it is yellow under the rug and that will not come out, no matter what you try. I've never seen one that was black, but if Magic Eraser won't take it up, you are probably out of luck on that one. Unfortunately, vinyl replacement tends to be quite expensive because labor cost is high. Prorating vinyl won't help a lot because it lasts forever if it is taken care of.
What will your landlord do about the vinyl floor? I can't even begin to guess. What I would do isn't really of any help to you. However, you might very carefully try ether on the marks. Just the tiniest dab in the very smallest spot to test it. if that doesn't work and the Magic Eraser doesn't work, I think you are just out of luck. You can buy ether at the auto parts store.
A hot glue gun? Like one used for crafts?? Maybe I didn't explain properly, the carpet is so thin it is separating, not necessarily due to a string unraveling it. I don't know much about carpet repair, but I don't see how hot glue would have done any difference. Also, it's completely the landlord's word against mine. This carpet could be way past due to be replaced, but they could easily say it was put in right before we moved in and charge me for it. There is nothing in the lease about letting the management know about thin carpet or carpet disintegration.
Most landlords get mad if you complain to them about things like that...
Never had that happen but then I "advise" and don't "complain".
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