Yes, another appeal for advice on home improvement

[AlDente67 563]

I have two projects:

 

1)  Duct cleaning.  Ducts have not been cleaned in decades, if ever.  Anyone in the business or know a good company that would come to Mercer County (East Windsor), please PM me.

 

2) Carpets - We need to bag the carpets in a few rooms. We have hardwood underneath, but likely needs refinishing after a decade of dog pee accidents and whatnot.  Would you stick with the wood or recarpet?  Just looking for opinions.

 

I have seen the Empire Carpet commercials for many years.  Wife says they don't do steps, move furniture, or otherwise define a "room" as a room sized not larger than 9x9.  Is this true?  Who does carpet for a reasonable price these days?

[Displaced Texan 11,754]

Skip Empire. They use cheap carpet.

 

We used a local mom and pop carpet store and wound up with top of the line carpet for much less than Empire quoted for crap.

[ted527 21]

duct cleaning for the average house is a waste of money.

i have opened duct systems in many, many houses to replace hvac systems, 99% of them are clean inside.

[Howard 538]

duct cleaning for the average house is a waste of money.

i have opened duct systems in many, many houses to replace hvac systems, 99% of them are clean inside.

+1, don't waste your money.

[siderman 1,138]

Wood floors vs carpet is a personal decision.....I put wood downstairs and carpet up in the bdrms. In your case the decision may be made for you after you actually see the floor under the carpet. Anything from getting lucky with a light refinish to extensive rehab. The prep work required for a wood floor can include tearing up carpet&padding, removing a lot of staples for padding ,pulling up perimeter tack boards.,replacing floor trim, replacing bad wood and staining or bleaching existing discoloerd wood, sanding, staining and finish with poly which can stink out the house for a few days. Or an option is going over it with thin laminate flooring and matching as you see fit. Or just throw new carpet and done lol.

[West Jersey 0]

I'm in East Windsor also, the only vent I clean is my dryer vent as it exits from the first floor thru the attic. I've used the carpet store on the corner of 130 and 571 for my basement and they were very good. I've also used Home Depot for my shore house in the bedrooms and they were good also.

[djg0770 481]

I've also used Home Depot for my shore house in the bedrooms and they were good also.

 

HD uses different installers in different areas.  I had used them in Central NJ and had to have them come back 3x before they got the stairs right.  Several years later I had to have a carpet guy come in and restretch the carpet that they had installed in hallways and bedrooms.  Coincidentally, the bedroom I had done by myself did NOT need to be restretched.

 

Duct cleaning depends on many factors.  Were the previous owners smokers or pet owners, or were they meticulous about filter replacement and overall house cleaning?  If they were the former then duct cleaning may be worth your time, if they were the latter, then it may not benefit you at all.

[Respect2A 0]

Speaking of carpet stretching. What's the average cost for that? One room. Say 12 by 12

[BD104X 1]

I used to like carpet, but after having hardwood in my old apartment and seeing how much easier it is to keep clean, I'm over carpets. If the floors underneath are decent, have em refinished.

[TonyS. 12]

I went thru this. The carpeting in the dining and living rooms was shot due to my previous pooch peeing in about 4 places. I pulled it, sanded the h/w floors with a rented floor drum sander and a Ryobi corner sander, then used Zar Ultra-Max waterborne oil modified polyurethane. The Zar was highly recommended by some guys in the biz I knew. I did all this about 5 years ago and the floors still look great. What's nice about the Zar is if you need to touch up a spot you can simply lay down some UltraMax right where you need it, it's self-leveling, and you can't tell you touched it up. The whole job was a major PITA, but I save a ton of $ doing it myself. If I had to do it again 10 years from now that's one too many times for me!  Also, for the carpeting I would stay away from the big boxers (HD, Lowes) and go with a private store.

[paulnj088 9]

skip carpet    go with tile  lay wonderboard and then go to work with tile

[Sota 1,191]

stick with hardwood, put down area rugs as needed? best of both worlds?

[TonyS. 12]

stick with hardwood, put down area rugs as needed? best of both worlds?

 

Actually, I forgot to add that in my post. Yes, I would agree with Sota. Area rugs on the h/w floors is the best thing we've done and it looks great.

[DeerSlayer 241]

I'm a master HVAC contractor, duct cleaning is a scam. Keep your air filter changed every 30 days like recommend and your supply ductwork should never get dirty anyway. If you have an electronic air filter make sure you wipe down the fins on the media once a month and wash your pre-filters and your also good to go. The only true way to actually clean ductwork would be to physically disassemble all of it to clean it. The companies the claim to clean it drill holes all over the ducts and put a bogus brush with a vacuum hose inside, no way that cleans anything.

 

[djg0770 481]

For the record there are legit duct cleaning companies but it's likely that you wouldn't want to pay for them. The commercial companies do video inspection before and after and the difference can be dramatic.

 

That said, GOOD pleated filters will prevent the accumulation of dust in your supply ducts. Your return ducts are another story. Oh and don't cheap out on filters. If you can see thru the filter it's not filtering anything.

[maintenanceguy 510]

The little bit of dirt that is deposited on the inside of your ducts is not a problem. I'm the facilities manager for a pretty big organization. I oversee several million dollars in construction, renovations, and routine repairs to buildings every year. The only time we've had ducts cleaned is the few occasions when we've had somethign go wrong and ended up with an outbrake of mold somewhere.

 

Over the last several years, we've also happend to have done a lot of air quality testing in various areas. Dirty ducts have never been the source of any problems we've had.

 

 

As to carpet vs. hardwood. My personal preference is hardwood. Depending on how much the dog's peed, you might not have a choice. Discolored stains can be hard to remove. Either way, get two quotes and then make the decision based on references, not price. Sometimes the lowest priced guy does great work but sometimes you get what you pay for.

[oneshot 45]

I would stick with hardwood. It actually adds to the value of your home, carpet does not. IMO i think hardwood looks much nicer than carpet. Area rugs make a nice accent on hardwood beside protecting it. Like everyone else said, duct cleaning is a scam. If you have a shop vac ,take off the register covers and shove the vac hose in. will do just aa good a job as some duct cleaning company.

 

 

P.S. whichever way you go, do yourself a favor and do not hire Home depot to do any work. They pay the subs crap and it shows. You get what you pay for

[kc17 622]

Empire uses subs as well. Friend from work went through a major headache with them. End result he got his money back, after getting a lawyer involved and signing an agreement with them saying he'd never contact them again. Place mentioned on 130, I had bad experience with, was rude and doesn't understand the definition of "lifetime warranty". I've had positive results from smart carpet.

[AlDente67 563]

Good advice guys, thanks all.

 

For the duct cleaning, I can drop the shopvac into the registers, but I can't reach very far - maybe a couple of feet, and I can't reach the main trunk returns that way..  The stuff we pulled out from the first foot in one room could stuff a pillow.  We have always had Chows as pets.  They shed like mad.

[PeteF 1,044]

Good advice guys, thanks all.

 

For the duct cleaning, I can drop the shopvac into the registers, but I can't reach very far - maybe a couple of feet, and I can't reach the main trunk returns that way..  The stuff we pulled out from the first foot in one room could stuff a pillow.  We have always had Chows as pets.  They shed like mad.

Then you are one that does need a cleaning. Pets and age make the odds of really needing a cleaning much greater.

If you pulled that much hair and stuff out, then airflow is greatly restricted costing you money.