Hey good morning. Mario Gonzalez here for Navy to Navy Homes. Today’s blog we will answer the “Age Old” question from Landlords – Should I put down carpet or should I put down tile? Well if you’re going to make any improvements to your home, you might be surprised to know that the price can be much closer in carpet and tile than you really imagine.
PRICING: TILE vs CARPET
For instance, when we advise people, whichever way they’re going to do, if you’re going to put down carpet, then spend the majority of your money on the actual material itself – the carpet you are selecting and the padding you are selecting because that will help ensure the longevity of it. Conversely with tile, you really want to spend the money on installation, because you can have a great tile, very expensive product, but if its crummy installation, then you’ve really kind of shot yourself in the foot. Likewise, you take a less expensive tile product and really do a lot with the installation. You can angle it, you make like different patterns, etc. that people will do, you know staggered, or you can even have tile that looks like hardwood floor.
CLEANING PROS & CONS
So anyway, a little bit more about the carpet versus tile. You can clean both. You can clean carpet overtime but it is hard to overcome traffic wear patterns. You can also have tile and grout cleaned by most professional floor cleaners or carpet cleaners. What we do see is in on average, tile will last much longer than carpet. However, you’re about 50-50 on what people like.
WHAT TENANTS PREFER
The majority of people like carpet in the bedroom – it keeps the sound down in bedrooms, and if you just carpet the bedrooms, then it’s much easier to replace if there’s any damage or anything like that. It also keeps the people from coming out and hitting the cold floor first thing in the morning. The counter argument, is you do have a lot of people with allergies and those people with allergies don’t want any sort of carpet at home. So what we do see a lot of investors– they will put carpet down just in the bedrooms and then all the wet areas and the common living areas will be a hard surface even to, like the hallway leading up to the bedroom.
FINAL THOUGHTS
In your high traffic areas, tile is going to last you a little bit longer. If you carpet only the bedrooms, then you’ve maximized your investment by saying “okay, I can mix and match carpets if I need to.” You don’t necessarily have to, just as long as it looks close. So if you have more questions, feel free to look at some of our other blogs like, getting your home rent ready, some of the best improvement you can do, top tips to maximize your rental and thanks for checking us out here.
Navy to Navy Homes
4540 Southside Blvd, Suite 702
Jacksonville, FL 32216
904-900-4766
