Covering Carpets with Other Floors

snadata

My wife and I are moving into a rented apartment with all carpeted floors. We'd like to cover a section of the carpet, maybe 600sf, with an easier-to-clean floor. (We have yet to find a professional cleaning surface capable of removing pet fur or fingerpaint.) Our goal is to do this so it lasts 2-3 years without damaging the carpet underneath.

We looked into floating click-and-lock laminate or linoleum directly over the carpet, but we were advised not to do it, since that requires a level surface. One person suggested we put down plywood and then put down a second floor. A few people told us to give up and just buy rugs.

Any other thoughts or ideas?

Thank you very much!

angus242

What about pulling the carpet up and saving it? Put down your cheapo laminate and when done, have the carpet reinstalled.
Seems cheaper and easier than trying to lay some kind of subfloor OVER carpet.

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Angus

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NateHanson

Have you asked the landlord if he'd like you to install a nice new laminate floor for him? I'd be suprised if he didn't take you up on it if you're supplying materials and labor.

snadata

The whole apartment unit is covered with one continuous carpet. We don't care so much about having carpet in the bedrooms, and we don't even need to redo the entire living/dining area. We just want to redo enough of it to have a nice area where the baby and puppy can be themselves without us getting a permanently dirty carpet (food spills, shedded fur, etc.).

So if we were to redo just that section, it would mean cutting up the existing carpet. I don't think it can be reinstalled so cleanly after that, unless I'm mistaken.

We asked the landlord if he would mind if we redid that one section, and got kind of a stone silence in reply.

angus242

Oh your eyes deceive you. If it's a 2BR place, I bet you have 4-5 seams in the carpet.

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Angus

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snadata

We asked our landlord how he feels about us laying down a nice laminate floor for the main room. The reply: hardwood only, no laminate.

Right now, we're considering FLOR carpet tiles, which are theoretically easier to clean (and hide dirt better) than real carpet.

javan

All that comes to mind is to lay down sheets of plywood material (maybe luan), but that will still be a bit soft.

What type of carpet is it?

snadata

We get the apartment on the 15th, so we don't actually know what kind of carpet it is yet, but my suspicion is that it's your standard gray industrial-looking piece of ugliness that is so celebrated in the apartment renter's lifestyle.

We're now past FLOR carpet tiles and down to three ideas:
1) area rugs (boo!)
2) plywood + substrate + rollout vinyl sheets (a little silly, but relatively cheap and easy)
3) a roomba vacuuming robot (with the theory that for $450, it must do something right -- though this isn't really the DIY spirit that we prefer)

javan

I thought that the Roomba was cheaper than that nowadays.

perpetual98

I picked up 2 Roombas for Christmas of '06 for $150 each for the middle-of-the-line one. They work surprisingly well, and even better when you actually use it.

NateHanson

Roomba isn't going to extract the puppy pee and baby barf though.

Sounds like your landlord is trying to get as much as she can out of you. If she wants hardwoods, I'd ask her if she is willing to pay for the materials and you'll do all the work. (That's assuming you are interested and able to do the work.)

perpetual98

That is a good point! I wouldn't use ours for major cleaning, but for the "in between" stuff they work awesome. We have 2 cats and a dog whose sole existence is to shed her entire coat daily it seems.

snadata

We don't expect the Roomba to replace all manual cleaning, just as we don't think installing a laminate floor would replace all manual cleaning. We just want to create a situation where, with a reasonable amount of maintenance, we can have a floor that looks nice and feels clean when we walk on it. Our one precondition is that at the end of the lease, we need to give the apartment back to the landlord unaltered. So if a Roomba gets the job done, good enough. If not... expect me back here next month, asking for advice on creating a substrate layer.

HomeDepot23

Putting carpet over carpet is just a health hazard waiting to happen. If the carpet has been used anything that can be used as a food source by a micro organism is now trapped in the carpet and all the conditions are now ripe for mold and spores. One reason that rug manufacturers tell you to periodically lift the rug and vacuum the carpet below.

As for ripping out the old carpet, your instincts are correct. You almost never get the seam back together as well as you did the first time, which is why carpet installers give a pained expression when somebody doesn't like a seam and wants it re-done.

As your landlord isn't down with your plan you may have to live with carpet.