Turning over a Towson student rental: fitting the carpet in between May and August

What a school year leaves behind

Student rentals wear in their own way. There are gray lanes from each bedroom door to the bathroom and the kitchen. Desk chairs grind a patch in front of every desk. Drinks get set on the floor beside beds and couches, so rings and drips collect there. Candle wax, nail polish, hair dye and takeout grease turn up more often than anyone admits.

Most of that is soil and spots, and it responds to cleaning. Some of it is damage, and it won't. Sorting the two early saves money and keeps you from promising a new tenant a carpet you can't deliver.

Walk the unit the day the keys come back

Do the inspection while the rooms are empty and the light is good. Bring your phone and a roll of painter's tape.

1. Photograph every room from the doorway, then get close on anything that worries you.
2. Stick a small piece of tape beside each spot so it's easy to find later.
3. Check the closets and the carpet where beds and dressers stood.
4. Note burns, tears, loose seams, ripples and any place the backing shows through.
5. Smell each room with the windows shut. Pet odor and smoke stand out in an empty space.

Then pull up your move-in photos and compare. That comparison tells you more than the carpet's age does.

Clean it or replace it

Cleaning is usually worth the money when the pile is intact, the traffic lanes look gray rather than bald and any odor comes from spills on the surface. In rooms like that, steam cleaning (hot water extraction, in trade terms) can make a real difference for the cost.

Replacement is usually the better spend when a room has burns or tears in several places, when the backing shows in the lanes, or when urine has soaked the pad in more than one spot. Cleaning can't grow back worn fibers or put back color that bleach took out. Ripples and split seams are a job for a carpet installer who can restretch or repair, not for a cleaner.

Plenty of turnovers end up as a mix: clean the bedrooms, replace one bad room, patch a burn by the couch. That's a normal result, not a failure.

Put the carpet last in the work order

The cleaning belongs near the end. A typical turnover runs like this:

1. Trash-out and hauling away whatever the tenants left.
2. Drywall patches, paint and repairs.
3. New carpet, restretching or seam work, if any.
4. Carpet cleaning.
5. Drying time, then your final walk-through photos.
6. Keys to the new tenants.

Paint drips, drywall dust and work boots undo a cleaning fast. If a repair runs long, move the cleaning date rather than squeezing it in ahead of the mess.

Book in spring for a summer date

Landlords near campus are all working inside the same few weeks, and so are the painters and handymen they call. Booking early locks in the day you actually want instead of fitting the carpet around whatever's left. The drive from our base in Forest Hill is about 50 minutes, so a date set well ahead is easier on everyone.

Book as soon as you know the move-out dates. If the repair schedule slips, tell us early so we can look at a new day together.

What a turnover visit costs

Pricing is per area, so you can work it out before you book. Each room of carpet up to 200 square feet costs $65. Hallways are $35, and a staircase with up to 15 steps is $65. For a rowhouse off York Road, add up the bedrooms, the living room, the hall and the stairs, and measure any room that looks bigger than 200 square feet so the booking matches the unit.

Towson visits have a $275 minimum, so a one-bedroom apartment near Towson Town Center can come in under it, and then the minimum applies. If you own more than one place, mention that when you book. You'll see the full price in the online booking before anything is locked in.

Send these details with the booking

The more we know ahead of time, the less time gets spent on the phone in a hallway. Include:

• Room, hallway and stair counts for each unit, and any rooms over 200 square feet
• The spots you taped and anything already tried on them
• Pet or smoke history, if you know it
• Who is letting us in, and where parking works
• The move-in date, so the drying time fits around it

You can read more about carpet cleaning in Towson, or see the other surfaces we clean on the Towson service page.