I just moved into a 1st floor/basement apartment. Its currently has tile floors wich are nice but are extremely cold to walk on in the winter. I was thinking about putting carpet down until I stumbled across carpet tiles in home depot. Since im renting I dont want to damage the current ceramic tile floor, should I lay down regular carpet or use carpet tiles? I don't care about grout lines and i dont want anything glued to the floor. It doesnt need to be the best job I will more then likely do it myself. If I lay regular carpet do I need padding? Or if I use carpet tiles, what kind of barrier should I have between the current floor and the carpet to proctect the ceramic tiles?
Why not just a CHEAP carpet remnant? No glue, no staples, no nothing. They're about $75, and up, depending on the size. None
I'd be more inclined to just get a roll of second hand used carpet cut to the size of the room tack it down around the edges against the walls making it easy to vacuum , so as the vacuum cleaner doesn't lift the carpet as you move about while cleaning. It would be a good idea to also obtain some underlay to help retain the heat in the room, co's just plain carpet won't keep the heat in, you need something under it! (that's why they sell the stuff) Cheers!!
Rolled carpet would be a better choice. Carpet tile would be difficult to vacuum if it was not glued down. For the same reason you couldn't put carpet pad under carpet squares. Carpet pad will help with warmth and also help reduce the tile grout joints from showing through to the carpet surface. Carpet pad is not structural, but it should help at least for a while. Think about your door bottom clearance. Do you have enough space between the bottom of your doors to add carpet?
Before you buy anything.....ask your manager/landlord FIRST. If they are ceramic floors - then YOU can NOT glue anything to them. You will probably only be able to buy area rugs.
