Re-use carpeting?

Can you re-use carpeting? My parents are having all the flooring in their house re-done, and one room has carpet that is in very good condition minus a stain from a pet mishap. This room is big enough that the stained portion wouldn't even make it into the room we'd be using it in.

So, two questions: Is it possible, and second, is the juice worth the squeeze?

FWIW, my wife and I want new carpet in our bedroom pretty bad, but it just isn't in the cards to do it right now financially.

I bet you can DIY for almost free. Leave the tack strips and the padding (or replace padding altogether) in the current room, and put new carpet down on it. Maybe buy one of those knee stretchers to install. I think the only tricky thing about carpet is getting the order right so it is stretched properly and not floppy in the middle. Never done it before but pulled up lots of carpet. Let me know if you need a hand.

Sure. If it fits in your room and is acceptably clean, there is no reason not to reuse it.

Worth it? Depends on if you can install it yourself or do you have to pay a guy to do it for you. Often installation is free with purchase of new carpet so you'll need to do the math there.

That's exactly what we did in our bedroom. Still have a huge roll leftover that weighs about 500lbs.

They're taking up enough carpeting we could potentially do all 4 rooms that need it. But we really only care about the one.

EDIT: We're finding out how much it would be for the guy doing all of my parents floors to do ours too with the old carpeting. Who knows, might be cheap.

I am assuming you mean carpet that is stretched to tackless strips, right?

If it's glued down, then the answer is no. If you will have to make a field seam, then the answer is hire a pro.

It's tricky to stretch. You can get a knee stretcher and a beam stretcher form a rental store, but I can't tell you how to get good results. I've only done it once, and I was not happy with the results. Decided I would not do it again.

In reply to mtn:

That's good. I would definitely consider hiring the pro to install.

And the pro said he'd be able to do it for not that much money. We're getting "new" carpet!

And the carpet in our room is so bad that it doesn't matter how poorly this turns out, it will be an improvement. This was the first thing that we wanted to change on the house, but it is last on the actual priority list since it is something that we can easily live with. This makes us very happy.

Make sure you change the underlay. Your old stuff will be junk.

And, as a cheap guy that bought a knee kicker, just pay the pro to do it for you.

yeah good call paying the pro. we have 2 carpet crews and i can do it in a pinch as i've got a full install tool set. they're way quicker than me, and my knees are dead when i get done with a room. i hate that i even own and know how to use a seaming iron.

That's how we carpeted our first office--acquaintance with money was "redecorating," which meant throwing out perfectly good carpet because... never did really figure that out. Did have a pro install it as well as bind some of the excess for door mats.

Margie

In reply to Marjorie Suddard:

Grassroots Carpetsports has a bit of a ring to it...

I recarpeted all the bedrooms in the house I sold in Florida with carpet I removed from another house. Someone on Craigslist was replacing almost brand new carpet with tile, so I picked it all up for free, even the brand new padding.

I just used a knee kicker and worked my way from one corner out. It'll wear you out doing it this way though, the results were pretty decent and the carpet was miles better then the crap I took out. For zero dollars it was a bargain.

I dunno.. Last time I had used carpeting around it ended up like this..

Or option B: yank all the carpeting out and just stain or epoxy the concrete. Nice looking floor with easy maintenance...

Then you use the carpet you would be getting to make rugs as needed...carpet makes great rugs for the garage too, through it under the car and have a nice surface for your back and head while working.

Vracer111 wrote: Or option B: yank all the carpeting out and just stain or epoxy the concrete. Nice looking floor with easy maintenance...

Hard to do on the second floor... Or the first floor for that matter, since we have a basement

mtn wrote:

Vracer111 wrote: Or option B: yank all the carpeting out and just stain or epoxy the concrete. Nice looking floor with easy maintenance...

Hard to do on the second floor... Or the first floor for that matter, since we have a basement

I guess carpeting it is then, because laminate flooring would be more expensive...

I wasn't thinking of whatever region you might be in, so forgive me... basements are a completely foreign concept to me, only concrete slabs here. Tile/composite flooring and surfacing concrete is what everyone seems to want.

mtn wrote:

Vracer111 wrote: Or option B: yank all the carpeting out and just stain or epoxy the concrete. Nice looking floor with easy maintenance...

Hard to do on the second floor... Or the first floor for that matter, since we have a basement

Also not really a budget friendly option; either one would cost more than carpet if you have pros do it.

In reply to mtn:

One other thought - don't skimp out on padding. Our bedroom was way smaller than the rolls they sell at Menard's, so I ended up buying the thinner padding, but doubled it up.