...and the Decision is...

I'm sold on carpet dyeing! This decision was a couple of weeks in coming after initially getting mixed results on my first attempt to dye one of the carpets in a rental.

Here's what happened. Included in the 11 rentals that I bought in January were a 2 bedroom house and a 3 bedroom house. The two bedroom house was vacant when I took possession and I began working on it within a few weeks of taking possession. The carpet was BADLY stained but didn't have a lot of structural damage. When the carpet is in this condition, I call a professional carpet cleaning company to steam clean the carpet in an effort to save it. The carpet cleaning company did their best, but the carpet still didn't look very good. The carpet was a tan color and had some stains that wouldn't come out.

Since I really didn't have anything to lose, I decided to try dyeing the carpet in an effort to get another year or two out of it. I did some research on the internet and ordered dye and other chemicals from Americolor. Because I was only trying to dye the carpet, I didn't want to spend $1,500 on a dyeing machine. I decided to apply the dye with a small pump-type sprayer. I bought the cheapest sprayer at Lowes (about $10) and started applying the dye. Until today, I was unimpressed with the result. The dye that I applied to the carpet in the 2 bedroom house did improve the look of the carpet, but the color was not uniform and the carpet was only marginally acceptable.

Today, I had the same carpet cleaning company attempt to clean a very large 3-bedroom house that just recently became vacant. This carpet was VERY BADLY STAINED, and I didn't think much of the carpet could be saved. This carpet was a very light beige color. After the carpet cleaning was complete, I determined that the bedrooms were acceptable but the large living room, large dining room, and hallway were completely unacceptable. There were still some stains; cigarette burns, and even some red colored stains that didn't come out. With nothing to lose, I decided to try dyeing this carpet. However, this carpet was so large, that I decided to buy a better sprayer to apply the dye. So, off I went to Walmart and I found a relatively fancy 2 gallon sprayer with multiple nozzles for $20.

Arriving back at the house, I mixed the chemicals and started applying the dye. The difference between applying the dye with this better sprayer was DRAMATIC. The cheaper sprayer applied a much smaller pattern. My new sprayer applied a very large amount of dye via a large swath of about 12 inches. Even with one pass, the change in the color of the carpet was dramatic. I was pleasantly surprised when the stains virtually disappeared before my eyes. After applying the dye to my 3 bedroom house, I went back over to the 2 bedroom house and applied more dye there with the new sprayer. Again, the change was significant.

After my experience today, I'm sold on dyeing carpet. In fact, I'll be ordering more dye and chemicals tomorrow! By the way, dyeing the carpet in 2 rooms of the 2-bedroom house and 2 very large rooms and a hallway in the 3 bedroom house cost a grand total of $44! MONEY WELL SPENT! The color I used was called Apartment Dark Brown.