Moving carpets to new home (social housing)

elljay

I moved to social housing a couple of years ago and put in some nice carpets on stairs and bedrooms, not hugely expensive but nice.  I expected to live here for a long while.  However, circumstances change and I may be moving again to a house owned by a charity, no carpets there.  The housing association has a policy of taking carpets out if there have been pets ( have a few but rarely come upstairs) so they will just be thrown out.

Is it likely to be prohibitively expensive to have them taken out and refitted?  They will probably have to be rejigged etc to fit upstairs in the new house.  Or is it really not worth it and I might as well get new ones - which I really can't afford!  I thought if I went back to the shop I got them from to do the refitting, they might have some offcuts if patching is needed - I don't mind patching upstairs.

Your thoughts please.  Thank you.

EJ

phoebe1989seb

When we were selling our house a few years ago the EA advised we'd be better replacing the dark green Turkey style fitted carpet in the living room with something more neutral to maximise potential buyers.

As my parents had bought us this carpet and it was fairly expensive, we had the fitters of the replacement take it up carefully and after selling/buying our new home we had different fitters (new area) fit it on the stairs. Because it was a large room/carpet there was easily enough for the staircase/upstairs landing (the ground floor hall had original parquet).

Otoh, I recall my parents saying that in the mid 1960s when they sold their first house and purchased their second after only two years, they took their recently fitted patterned stair carpet (and a bedroom carpet) with them. Apparently that was quite normal in those days. As a young child in the 1970s, before my parents got a new one, I remember the stair carpet not fitting terribly well on the landing with a few odd joins here and there 🙄

So, imho, it might be worth having the bedroom carpet(s) removed and refitted in your new home as this could a) save £££ and b) they could fit ok. The stairs not so much - although if sure you could still get matching carpet for patching, this may work out ok too 😉

Either way, far better than having no carpets/being cold in your new home...and, if they'll end up being thrown out otherwise, very MSE too!

Le_Kirk

Depends on the relative size of the rooms between old and new houses.  Measure them and see.  For stairs, providing the width is the same just count the number of stairs.  Carpet shops rarely (in my experience) keep the type and size of offcuts you will need as they tend to leave them in the house where they fitted the carpet.  If you can get hold of a local, independent carpet fitter he/she will probably be able to advise you and adjust the old carpets to fit in the new rooms provided that the new rooms are smaller and not too different in shape.

silvercar

If you go back to the shop you bought from they are quite likely to give you the number of their carpet fitter, so you can liaise directly and get a quote.

theoretica

Even if the carpets don't fit, would they be useful as rugs?

twopenny

Probably an odd job man would take them up for you.

But first ask the shop about refitting and see what they say. It can only be yes or no and then you can plan from there.

I know that locally they are still very busy fitting new with a few months waiting so be prepared. They will also tell you how much they charge per carpet.

Yes, I've refitting or had a patch. Depends on the fitter and the carpet how well this wears but when you're short of money it does the job.

I also asked around one time the local people I knew and found a fitter willing to do one on a Saturday morning. It took ages to find though. He did a great job.

Another option is charity shop or small back street shop and look for a large rug. There are room sized ones.

One thing that occoured to me. How are they fitted? There was a time when they used glue on the cheap carpets. That wouldn't go well and leave a mess which you may be charged for.

Slinky

silvercar said:

If you go back to the shop you bought from they are quite likely to give you the number of their carpet fitter, so you can liaise directly and get a quote.

I'd be very surprised if they did. While their trusted fitter is sorting out your job, out of which they make nothing, he's not working for them making them money.

goldfinches

Something that occurred to me when reading above was that you might be able to claim some of these funds.

Rishi Sunak tells Britons to brace for even higher energy costs in autumn | Cost of living crisis | The Guardian
"Local authorities will receive £150m to make discretionary payments to 300,000 poorer families who live in homes in a council tax band above D, while the number of households eligible for the warm homes discount – worth £150 from October – is to be increased by a third to 3m." 

I know the moneys are supposedly to help with energy costs but there might be some money towards measures for keeping warm and if you are given some cash then you could rebalance your budget to allow you to pay for refitting or new carpets.
I don't know whereabouts in the UK you are so suggest you try asking your local CAB and other similar organisations for information about how to access such funds.

TELLIT01

Even if the carpet shop does still have the same carpet, the carpet in the home for a couple of years will probably have faded to some degree so patching would look terrible.  If the rooms in the new house are smaller it would be worth taking the carpets, but not otherwise - in my opinion.