Quote:
Originally Posted by Evan[_3_]
On Aug 25, 4:45*pm, geo pearl wrote:
Hello, I have lived in an apartment with two kids for the
last five years. Everything that spills on the carpet leaves
a stain. The carpet looks gross. Cleaning up a mess
just makes a bigger stain.
Do landlords have access to cheap carpet that allows the
above senario to happen? *IF you have the answer, please
don't spare any details. Thanks in advance.
With two kids you should own a small upright carpet
spot cleaner so you can take up the spots while they
are still wet...
I would not worry about the condition of the carpets
after a five or six year tenancy, that would be considered
normal wear and tear and all of the carpeting would be
replaced before a new tenant moves in if you left at
this point and it would have no impact on any damage
deposit as normal wear and tear is not "damage"...
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Two points, Evan:
Mini carpet shampoo'ers like those sold by Bissell, Eureka, Hoover and others are designed by the sales department, not the engineering department. They try to fit too many functions into a small price and the result is that you end up with a product that simply doesn't work as well as a simpler one would.
What Geopear might want to do instead is to buy a small wet/dry vaccuum cleaner like those sold by Sears, and a hand held spray bottle. Then, he/she could go to any place listed under "Janitorial Equipment & Supplies" in their yellow pages phone book and buy a "spotting solution" (pronounced "stain remover") meant to remove the kind of liquid that was spilled on their carpet.
Professional carpet cleaning contractors will typically buy a "spotting kit" which will consist of anywhere from 8 to 22 different spotting solutions, some brushes, absorbant pads and a spray bottle top that can be screwed onto any of the spotting solution bottles. But, you can buy bottles of each spotting solution separately, which is what the pros do if they run out of something. So, if you can at least remember what you spilled on the carpet, the nice man at the janitorial supply store will sell you the right stuff to remove it. And, janitorial supply stores will sell to the general public cuz there's no such thing as a cleaning product retailer store that's going to bark at them for stealing his business.
Geopear could then spray that stain remover onto the stain with the spray bottle, work it into the pile with his/her fingers, and then suck the soiled cleaner out of the carpet with the hose of the wet/dry vaccuum cleaner applied directly to the carpet pile. Repeat that process as necessary to get all the stain out, and then again with clean rinse water in the spray bottle, and you'll do as good a job removing stains from your carpets as most pros will. That is, if you can read Engrish and follow the directions on the bottle, you're not going to do appreciably worse than a pro would, cuz he's gonna be doing the xact same thing.
As to the carpet being stained and needing to be cleaned, that IS damage. Food and beverages should be consumed at a kitchen or dining room table, not at the living room couch or in front of a computer. If eating at the table would likely have prevented those carpet stains, then it's NOT "normal wear and tear". It's the result of people being less careful with their landlord's property as they would be with their own.
And, even a cheap Olefin carpet should last at least 10 years under conditions of normal wear and tear.