Selling house..remove carpet? What about the tack strips?
pizza
| Posted in General Discussion on
Hi. I’m selling a house and can’t decide whether to remove the old carpet.
There are hardwood floors underneath, in decent shape, but I’m concerned that buyers will see the holes left by the tack strips along the perimeters of the rooms.
Should I leave the carpet as is or remove all of it. There are two rooms that have no carpet and I show the potential buyers those rooms to give them an idea of what the hardwood looks like.
Everything I read says to remove them since hardwood floors are in now,
The carpet is Ok and in fair to good condition.
Thanks to everyone in advance for any advice.
Replies
Last winter I worked on a house the owner wanted to sell
It had been a rental.....................
The carpet was very bad, we redid the kitchen and baths. No brainer to pull the carpet and refinish the floors, where we took care of all the tack strip holes.
If you have areas of hardwood and can assure them the other rooms will have it as well, why bother. There's liable to be some spots that don't look that good.
Sounds like a totally subjective call... hard to tell without pictures.
Either way... if you don't take up the carpet, be sure that prospective buyers are told of the hardwood underneath. Filling the holes left by the tack strips and refinishing is no big deal for someone who knows what they are doing.
Of course, in about 90% of the cases anyone who knows what to look for can see the (filled) holes along the baseboard that reveal the prior existence of tack strips. But most people don't look there -- the eyes aren't drawn there unless the refinisher does a poor job of edging and dark "stains" remain at spots along the wall.
Remove it
Remove the carpet and refinish the floors. I'm pretty sure that the fresh floors in our house helped to sell it. We didn't have any carpet to remove, but it showed the house off well.
Exception: bedrooms. If the carpet is in very good condition in the bedrooms then leave it. Unless you've had pets. In that case, remove it all.
Plasti-wood wood filler makes fairly good match with natural finish floor. However, tack strips may have left stain or marks along the floor that must be sanded out. Wood floor may have worn spots or stained areas. Staples holes may be all over the place. You may have to replace the 1/4 round molding along the base molding and repaint them. All things considered, what you were doing so far may be the better choice.