I love my dog, but when she was a puppy, she was a carpet eating fiend.
April 5, 2014 7:45 AM Subscribe
I am renting an apartment and have been here for about a year a half. I don't plan to leave for at least a few more years. About six months after I moved in, this little terror tore up two spots of carpet directly in front of my bedroom door. I have covered these two spots with a throw rug for the past year, but the fact that they're there is driving me bonkers. I want to repair them using remnant pieces of the carpet. Problem: I don't have any remnant pieces of the carpet.
My current plan is to cut remnant squares from inside one of the three carpeted closets in the apartment and use a method similar to this tutorial on replacing patches of carpet to secure these remnants over the damaged areas. Then, I plan to go to Lowes or Home Depot with a picture of the carpet in the apartment or even a piece of the remnant square I pulled from the closet, and buy however much I need to replace the pieces I took out of the closets using the same method. I have a few questions, though:
1. Does the tutorial linked above seem about right for this project, or is there a better way to go about this?
2. I am VERY reluctant to make any noticeable changes to the apartment that might violate my lease, but my apartment manager is not the kind of person who deals well with conversations about damage, even very small damage. I don't care about losing the security deposit or about having to pay her a bill after I move out. She's an apartment manager, so I am sure she'll find some way to charge me for some kind of damage when I leave. The issue is that I can no longer deal with looking at the two small damaged spaces. For my own sanity, I need to fix them, but I would very much like it to look like I never had to replace any carpet in that area at all, just so she doesn't get mad at me for making repairs. Are there any tips and tricks I can use to make the remnant squares look like they "fit in" to the area? Do I just need to vacuum over them a lot to mix the fibers?
3. How can I make sure that I get as good a match as possible to the current carpet for the areas I will need to replace in the closets? Would it be best to bring in one of the squares cut from the closet instead of just a picture? The carpet looks like it is Berber, but the texture feels different from the Berber I have seen in stores.
I am willing to post pictures of the damaged areas, if need be. Any help at all is appreciated. Thank you so much.
My current plan is to cut remnant squares from inside one of the three carpeted closets in the apartment and use a method similar to this tutorial on replacing patches of carpet to secure these remnants over the damaged areas. Then, I plan to go to Lowes or Home Depot with a picture of the carpet in the apartment or even a piece of the remnant square I pulled from the closet, and buy however much I need to replace the pieces I took out of the closets using the same method. I have a few questions, though:
1. Does the tutorial linked above seem about right for this project, or is there a better way to go about this?
2. I am VERY reluctant to make any noticeable changes to the apartment that might violate my lease, but my apartment manager is not the kind of person who deals well with conversations about damage, even very small damage. I don't care about losing the security deposit or about having to pay her a bill after I move out. She's an apartment manager, so I am sure she'll find some way to charge me for some kind of damage when I leave. The issue is that I can no longer deal with looking at the two small damaged spaces. For my own sanity, I need to fix them, but I would very much like it to look like I never had to replace any carpet in that area at all, just so she doesn't get mad at me for making repairs. Are there any tips and tricks I can use to make the remnant squares look like they "fit in" to the area? Do I just need to vacuum over them a lot to mix the fibers?
3. How can I make sure that I get as good a match as possible to the current carpet for the areas I will need to replace in the closets? Would it be best to bring in one of the squares cut from the closet instead of just a picture? The carpet looks like it is Berber, but the texture feels different from the Berber I have seen in stores.
I am willing to post pictures of the damaged areas, if need be. Any help at all is appreciated. Thank you so much.
Best answer: Yes, I have done this (and for the same reason; my dog was not a chewer, but twice in his life he got the idea that he'd like to tear up a bit of carpet). I used hot glue rather than a special adhesive. It worked fine. My shag carpet patch was pretty much invisible. My Berber carpet patch was visible if you knew it was there, but much better than the hole. FWIW, neither landlord charged me for it on moving out, but, as you said, my main concern was not having to live with a holey carpet.
posted by Kriesa at 8:54 AM on April 5, 2014
posted by Kriesa at 8:54 AM on April 5, 2014
Ok, so you don't want to talk with the Property Manager about the damage, but is there any way that you can talk with the maintenance staff directly and discreetly? Changing out the carpets between tenants regardless of level of damage is standard operating procedure for many apartment complexes, and they may have extra remnants easily available that could be quietly swapped for a couple of beers.
posted by radwolf76 at 12:22 PM on April 5, 2014
posted by radwolf76 at 12:22 PM on April 5, 2014
This thread is closed to new comments.
Two thoughts:
-The carpet in the doorway has probably gotten heavier traffic, and may have changed in colour from the less-trafficked carpet in the closet- is this the case?
-One big patch is probably less noticeable than two small patches. And if the patch is bigger perhaps you can cut it right to the edges of the doorframe and hide two of its edges along the walls or doorframe?
posted by pseudostrabismus at 8:30 AM on April 5, 2014