rental house questions...

[MVChiefFan]

I just purchased my first rental house and things seem to be going great except for two things. The first is the master bath. It has a standup/stall shower and it's perfectly clean except for a line of, what I assume is, black mildew around the bottom edge of it. We have used a few different tub/shower cleansers and nothing seems to get it completely out.

The other thing is a couple of stains on the carpet in the living room. They're not horrible like grape juice or wine and the carpet is otherwise in great shape so I don't want to replace it. We have used Resolve and some Oxy stuff but it's not gettin' it done either.

So, the question is, what products are out there that you've found works best in these situations?

[ExtremeChief]

In the 3 rentals I have the fix was new carpet and a new shower/tub insert.

Honestly for the carpet if oxy didn't get it I don't know what would.

Maybe try CLR for the mildew.

[Saul Good]

Get a magic eraser, wet it down, and go to town on the tub.

[Ming the Merciless]

Is the mildew in the caulk around the edge? If so remove the caulk...

If it is in the grout, you can also get a grout removal tool, and remove the grout....

Then just re-caulk or re-grout.

Nothing works better than BLEACH (yes, just laundry bleach, cheap stuff) to get rid of mildew. Just mix bleach with water like 50%/50% and scrub the **** out of it.


For carpet....stains can be tough. There is a product called 'goof off (http://www.goofoffstainremover.com/)' that has worked for me when nothing else will...But test the goof off in a closet 1st to make sure it doesnt react badly with your carpet....Out of the hundreds of times I have used it, I think it has only had one time where it reacted weird, but it is still better to be safe....Anything you use on a carpet, test it in a closet or somewhere else not visible.

Of course you could also try a professional carpet cleaner, once you find a good one...Hang onto his phone number...some do a great job and some suck.

If that fails, you can have a carpet guy take a piece of carpet from a closet and cut out the stained areas in as small of a square as possible...Then he can seam them in and you will be shocked how perfect it looks...All for pretty cheap.

If you had more rentals, I would suggest learning how to seam carpets yourself...Because it isnt too hard and requires not too many tools...but with only one, it probably won't come up often enough for you to bother.

Congrats on your first rental!

I hope everything goes well for you.

[Extra Point]

Remove the caulk, as mentioned above. Mix up 1 c. hot water, 1/4 c. TSP, 1 c. Clorox in a bucket. A Scotchbrite-backed sponge with some elbow grease ought to work. Rinse w/hot water. PRN.

[ExtremeChief]

Is the mildew in the caulk around the edge? If so remove the caulk...

If it is in the grout, you can also get a grout removal tool, and remove the grout....

Then just re-caulk or re-grout.

Nothing works better than BLEACH (yes, just laundry bleach, cheap stuff) to get rid of mildew. Just mix bleach with water like 50%/50% and scrub the **** out of it.


For carpet....stains can be tough. There is a product called 'goof off (http://www.goofoffstainremover.com/)' that has worked for me when nothing else will...But test the goof off in a closet 1st to make sure it doesnt react badly with your carpet....Out of the hundreds of times I have used it, I think it has only had one time where it reacted weird, but it is still better to be safe....Anything you use on a carpet, test it in a closet or somewhere else not visible.

Of course you could also try a professional carpet cleaner, once you find a good one...Hang onto his phone number...some do a great job and some suck.

If that fails, you can have a carpet guy take a piece of carpet from a closet and cut out the stained areas in as small of a square as possible...Then he can seam them in and you will be shocked how perfect it looks...All for pretty cheap.

If you had more rentals, I would suggest learning how to seam carpets yourself...Because it isnt too hard and requires not too many tools...but with only one, it probably won't come up often enough for you to bother.

Congrats on your first rental!

I hope everything goes well for you.

The main problem with the carpet square thing is that the closet has had no foot traffic over the years and probably will be much darker than what you are trying to match it to.

[cookster50]

Fart on it, the mildew and stains will run away.

[MVChiefFan]

Thanks guys! I really appreciate it. This is great info all around because I've got to make a supply run and I wanted to sort of narrow it down. I thought about the caulking deal but it looks like it's just an insert with sharp corners. It would almost be easier if I could just remove some caulk and be done with it. But, I guess I'm heading out to find all this stuff, LOL. Thanks a ton for the help guys!

[cookster50]

Fart on it, the mildew and stains will run away.

I'd like to mention, this works great on pesky neighbors and pain in the neck co-workers also!

[MVChiefFan]

Congrats on your first rental!

I hope everything goes well for you.

Thank you sir! Yeah, it's a little worrisome at first but it seems to be a really great place and I'm hoping it won't be a money pit.

[Ming the Merciless]

The main problem with the carpet square thing is that the closet has had no foot traffic over the years and probably will be much darker than what you are trying to match it to.

It all depends...Without seeing it, I would have no way of knowing...It also depends if the carpet is multi-colored / textured / sculptured (MUCH more forgiving) or like a light color....

I use multi-colored sculptured carpets in all of my rentals, and seaming them is almost never a problem.

Something like this:

http://www.georgiacarpet.com/trilogy.htm

http://www.georgiacarpet.com/images/trilogy/maple-syrup.jpg

If the room is faded enough or abused enough to where a sample from the closet is radically different...well..It might be time to:

1) Change the carpet and charge a little more for rent/deposit

2) rent to a person with dogs knowing that when they move out you will have to change the carpet anyway...LOL (still charge more rent cuz they have dogs)

3) Sometimes you can get a roto-jet cleaner to REALLY thoroughly clean the carpet...but it costs a bit...money that could go toward new carpet.

But anyhoo, for a rental...sculptured multi colored brownish is the best way to go...for seaming purposes.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Anti-Freeze works for everything.