About a year ago I painted the walls of an IP I have and left the place in a neat and tidy order.
The tenants has just moved out and after doing an inspection I noticed that he has or she has burn a hole in the carpet, marked the walls. Put a hole the size of your fist in one of the bedrooms, broke two light fittings, broke the handles of the two security screens front and back, took most of the light bulbs, broke and lost parts of the blinds in two rooms, broke the celing fan switch, put a hole in the lino.
While fixing and upgrading the tenants showerhead next door, I noticed that she had floor boards in the kitchen and I was thinking I could rip up the lino in the kitchen and sand back floor boards. Would they still just get burnt and knocked around if I did that?
Whats the pros and cons of carpet and lino vs floorboards?Cheers
GCarpet Pros:
– Cheap
– Washable
– Favoured in the bedrooms (excluded floorboards in period homes)
– WarmerCarpet Cons:
– Damageable & hard to repair
– Wearing
– A Big NO in kitchens
– Need to be professionally laidLino Pros:
– Durable
– Gaining Acceptability
– Easy Clean
– CheapLino Cons:
– Burnable
– Can look cheap
– need to be professionally laidFloor Board Pros:
– Clean
– good looking
– can be resurfaced
– fairly durableFloor Board Cons:
– Scratching – can only be resurfaced up to a point
– Colder
– Serious damage may render unusable
– expensive for complete replacementsAt the end of the day the best way to pick what to use is to go to rental home opens in your suburb which are of the same period as yours. Look what they are doing and match it.
For a rental, I’d only put in lino. It’s the most cost effective solution, looks nice and also as a side benefit is appreciated by people with allergies.
Although even better than that, screen your tenants harder next time. You don’t want losers in your property that don’t treat it like their own.
Hope you have good insurance coverage to cover the works and loss of income while it gets repaired!
Make sure you have a good property manager to start with so they do thorough screening of potential tennants and regularly visit the premises and provide you with condition reports and photos.If you have wooden floors, why wouldn't you sand and polish them?
ps. After the work you do, make sure you get your depreciation schedule updated to cover all the changes.
Kind Regards, Ana
Suggest just going for carpet or lino for rentals…. when/if you decide to sell, then polish the boards
I always use lino in the bathrooms and kitchens of my properties. It's fairly inexpensive and very durable. Although you can get some very tough durable finishes for wood, I wouldn't take the risk of using the floor boards.
Gregory Fry
For more REI tips and advice be sure to check out the real estate investor radio show.Lino in bathroom? Sounds strange.
I only tile bathrooms, floor and walls to ceiling.
I like carpet in the bedrooms (so do lots of renters). I have polished floorboards in some living areas. I am yet to see how they stand up over time. I also have a few with carpet throughout. Staining is a problem.
Polishing is a lot cheaper. I prefer the polished floors now because of cost, except in really cold areas.
G0biin,
Why wouldn't you tile the kitchen? They are more durable than floor boards, washable and you can't burn a hole into them. Of course the tenants could crack them, but that is not that common, from what I've seen.
Floor boards will show scratches. Generally speaking, the darker you go, the harder the wood gets, but if it still gets scratched, then those scratches can be seen more easily then in light wood.
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