How do I repair the carpet in my apartment without any spare carpet?

February 1, 2006 8:36 AM

How do I repair the carpet in my apartment without any spare carpet?

We have a 7 month old pug who finds ripping apart carpet as one of his favorite things to do. He's torn up atleast 4 different spots in our apartment...all right up against the floor board.

Since we're in an apartment we don't have any spare carpet lying around and we'd like to do our best to fix these spots before our lease is up so we don't risk paying a chunk of money to have the carpet repaired by the apartment complex.

Any ideas?

I'm aware there was another carpet repair question but they had spare carpet...we don't.

posted by JPigford to home & garden (6 answers total)

Are the closets carpeted too?...maybe you could swap a few pieces out from behind the door frame.
posted by lobstah at 8:41 AM on February 1, 2006

Go to a carpet store, pretend you're looking to buy some new carpet. Find some that looks like your current carpet. They'll give you a few small sections to take home to see how the color/texture looks in your home.

You now have some spare carpet. Repeat as necessary.
posted by bondcliff at 8:43 AM on February 1, 2006

The closets are carpeted...but I don't know how we could snag a piece from inside there without them noticing once all our stuff is gone.
posted by JPigford at 8:44 AM on February 1, 2006

I was thinking of switching the bad carpet for the good...at least the crappy carpet would be in a less visable area.
posted by lobstah at 8:46 AM on February 1, 2006

You could try a combination of lobstah's and bondcliff's method, where you use carpet store samples similar to the current carpet to replace a section in the closet, then the exact match from the closet to the more visible area.
posted by Mahogne at 8:50 AM on February 1, 2006

Perhaps I have had better luck with apartments than others, but were I in your shoes I'd just go ask apartment management. Damage happens and you will not be the first person to come to them with the question of "what will this ding me if I leave it vs pay to get it done myself?" My experience has been that they're just as happy to have you resolve the problem rather than them have to deal with it.

If you think you have a management group that views this as a possible profit center, call them up and ask them for the name of the firm they use for carpet repair "for your friend who needs something fixed in his house and needs a referral." I don't think you'll fool them any but that organization will have spare carpet that matches yours.
posted by phearlez at 10:01 AM on February 1, 2006