I'm doing some between-tenants-fixing up of a duplex. The upstairs on this side has just one room, approx 12x12. It has likely been carpeted since 2008. Had some cleanliness issues with the last tenant so I've already pulled up the carpet.
Earlier this year I addressed the upstairs of the next door unit (about 3x the floor space upstairs). It had the same carpet and it was ghastly thanks to the prior occupant. I pulled that up and the subfloor was a nightmare, clearly why they carpeted originally. A pisspoor job of leveling had been done and then plywood (rather, plywood shards) were nailed down haphazardly for the spongiest subfloor I've seen. I brought in a friend to level it, got Hardy cement board on top of it, then installed this wood grain ceramic tile.
http://www.homedepot.com/p/Daltile-Parkwood-Cherry-7-in-x-20-in-Ceramic-Floor-and-Wall-Tile-10-89-sq-ft-case-PD14720HD1P2/205051799I'm mostly happy with it, but it was time consuming and more expensive than I'd hoped. Add to that, there's an old tongue&groove wood floor (with a 14 deg angle) that I one day may want to restore if the house gets a full makeover to sell. And I realize now that old wood floor is buried and will be a pain to get to.
So back to my smaller room. I assumed that the subfloor would be in the same poor condition and that I'd re-level and then put something durable down (maybe not anything requiring mortar). However, when pulling the carpet up today, the subfloor felt significantly better. The carpet padding didn't tear up so I left it on the floor for now. Just pondering if it'd be easier to just recarpet this small of a room, especially since it would likely save me from messing with the subfloor.
Curious what other landlords would do in my position. Is carpet ever the ideal choice in a rental?
Does the carpet padding need to come up regardless due to odor/etc? Because if so I'll just pull it up and get a better idea of the subfloor.
I'm assuming there's some decent quality wood floor underneath, so if I wanted to put something on top of that, would vinyl planking (I've seen Home Depot's Allure recommened here) be a good compromise for durability, ease of install, and make future refinishing of the wood floor easier to access?
Thanks for any thoughts. I'll try to get some pictures tomorrow.