What’s the best floors for tenants with pets?
I replaced all the carpet a year ago and it’s covered in pet urine. I’ve had 2 companies clean the carpet and couldn’t get the stain or urine out.
What are my best options? Laminate floors, reinstall new carpet or tiles?
Tiles are the closest you'll get to indestructible when it comes to floor coverings
I had these laid in my place/future IP and bought an extra box of two as spares. Very hardy and hard wearing. If by chance they do get damaged a single plank can be pulled up and replaced. Might be an option for you but they do expand and shrink with the seasons so a couple mil gap might appear.
https://www.carpetcall.com.au/hard-flooring/vinyl-flooring?g…
Polished concrete
In my experience this is the best option. I wouldn't tile a rental where people let their pets piss everywhere - they'll likely just get cracked.
Polished concrete is very expensive, and needs to be resealed every few years or it will start to be able to absorb liquid spills. It also can crack with thermal movement.
I didn't have that experience, but good to know.
I vote laminate. Not laminate floor boards, but actual old style laminate. Gets a bad rap because of the cheap laminate a lot of us grew up with, or still have, but it's a pretty amazing technology. Watched a whole documentary on YouTube about it. Get a pattern that can be easily patched without looking weird.
Laminate is a thin layer of polymer over a coloured film and backing, it can easily scratch with furniture legs and fog from heat or chemical spills. If you're talking about old-style flooring, it was linoleum which is made from linseed and woven fibres IIRC, not so common now but a healthier option as it has fewer VOCs.
you can get marine carpet or outdoor carpet (eg https://www.rugstreet.com/CTGY/outdoor-carpet-rugs.html) but it doesnt look that great or feel great. But you could get an outdoor rug and put it over other normal carpet
Commercial grade vinyl or tiles.
Go vinyl,(aka old school lino ) and let tenants provide,maintain and take with them, any soft floor coverings,mats,carpets etc. Kudos to you for (1) allowing pet ownership and (2) looking for a durable solution to maintain that.
I built my house 11 years ago, and the tiles look like they were laid yesterday. They were cheap porcelain tiles and they're just so resilient. The only bad aspect of tiles is they chip if you drop something really heavy on them, but over 11 years I have chipped tiles in just two places. The entire house is tiled.
My old landlord got industrial carpet for the house..
It was itchy and unpleasant to sit on but holy crap it held up so well. I spilled a glass of water on it one day, it was just a wipe away situation.. it didn't absorb at all and when we moved it just needed a vacuum over for it to come up immaculate. We offered to cover steam cleaning for the carpet but he was stoked with how it looked and refused.
limit tenants to non pet owners
You can’t in Vic
At all? What about owners that are themselves allergic and plan to move back in? They just can't rent their place out?
New laws in Vic says you can’t reject pets :(
@Veg88: Seems like this law would merely restrict the number of places being rented out? Who would rent out their non-IP to somebody with pets… Sounds like yet another kneejerk 'feel good' law.
I suppose I would, in theory, if i could charge an extra few thousand bond to ensure a proper deep clean at the end of tenancy.
@ssfps: I can rent your place and you can't ask if I have pets or if you do I can say no and just get one the next day after moving in. Then hide it every time you schedule an inspection. It's really not that complicated.
Not all pets are grubby but some owners are useless. That's what bond is for and if you expect being a landlord to be risk free maybe try another form of investment.
@Mechz: I'm a renter, but I simply recognize that in most cases, pets are in fact very dirty and grime up a place. If you dispute this and think pets are no dirtier than people, I imagine you must have excess body hair, roll around in dirt, and lick & sniff assholes to say hello? 99 times out of a hundred it's immediately obvious when somebody has four legged pets - there is always hair stuck somewhere, even if they are great with the hard floors and have a roomba.
That's what bond is for
How much pet bond are you allowed to charge? Enough to replace carpets and get a deep clean done? I thought pet bond was only allowed in some states and was a paltry amount, like $200.
I ripped up the carpets in my properties and replaced them with carpet tiles. End of tenancy, any damaged carpet we can just remove the tile and replace it. We leave boxes of the in the garage for the tenants to replace where possible. We show them how to do it. Very simple. Never had an issue.
Carpet tiles just from Bunnings?
VINYL
pet proof
hard wearing
waterproof
non-slip when wet
easy to clean
easy and cheap to replace
fireproof (when wet)
LOOKS AND FEELS GREAT
Tiles, porcelain 600x600x10mm or so, very durable as long as it doesn't have a high gloss finish which is prone to scratching.
I would have them everywhere except bedrooms — ideally those will be recycled timber boards or use a large rug in each bedroom.
Tiles are best for pets as it doesn't absorb liquid and are scratch resistant. Laminate are normally just 24-48 hour water resistant and will buckle if it absorbs too much piss over time. There is also 100% waterproof laminate like flooring (hybrid material) which you dont have to worry about liquids but are less scratch resistant.