Congratulations to Amanda and Deborah, our Grand Prize and Runner Up winners of the Carpet Catastrophe Contest!
THANK YOU to all who entered! We received so many horrible, hilarious & heart-wrenching catastrophes it was tough to choose the top 2. Read the winners' stories and some other catastrophes we loved.
GRAND PRIZE WINNER: Amanda S.
"Dear Lumber Liquidators,
My name is Reese and I have a confession…. I have nervous
diarrhea. Oops, have I said too much?
Well it is all part of the carpet catastrophe story! I am a 75 pound
labradoodle and my best friend is a 7 pound toy poodle named Winston. When we
are separated, well that’s when the nervous diarrhea comes in. When our mom and
dad got married, they set us up in luxury accommodations that included creamy
ivory carpet and two wonderful dog sitters. What they forgot to tell the dog
sitters was about my nervous diarrhea. The day of mom and dad’s wedding we got
separated. Winston was in his cage in the kitchen and I was sleeping with my
dog sitter. That ominous feeling started in my gut; I was getting nervous not
having my little dog buddy around. I just couldn’t contain it; the diarrhea
came splashing out onto the pristine ivory carpet. It went down quickly from
there, that ivory carpet soaked those stains down deep into its fiber, mom found
out on her wedding day what I had done and my dog sitter had to clean it up in
her bridesmaid dress. The accident also happened hours before the groomsmen
were supposed to get ready in the room where the accident occurred and the
photographer had to strategically take pictures around the stains. The problem
is I have no way to ever pay back my dog sitters for the terrible accident that
occurred. Their carpets still bear the stains of that fateful day and while
they can now laugh about the incident, I would love to give them the beautiful
floors they deserve.
Love and tail wags,
Reese (and the dog sitters)"
RUNNER UP: Deborah M.
"Warning: This story is pretty gross, but I guess most
carpet catastrophes are! It was July 2011. My husband was deployed, and I was
three months pregnant and home alone with our lab. The typical exhaustion from
pregnancy was magnified when the dog had diarrhea for several days, as I was
getting up every couple hours to go downstairs to let her out (good practice
for the upcoming baby, I guess!). Unfortunately, at one point I must not have
heard her whining for me, because when I woke up and went downstairs I was
greeted with the foulest stench I’d ever encountered and it looked like someone
had spilled coffee all over the white carpet in our living room. I called my
husband crying, but what was he going to do? We had just moved to California
from Florida and had no family or friends nearby, so I had to tackle the mess
myself. My stomach, however, decided that it wanted to make the situation a
little more interesting. I was still at the point in my pregnancy when nasty
smells and even the thought of something gross would result in me tossing my
cookies. As I tried to sop up the mess, I proceeded to lose my dinner ON TOP of
the dog’s diarrhea. By the time I realized I should just throw up on the tile
to minimize the mess, I had left my own marks all over the living room and
hallway. I ended up having to leave the mess until the morning, when my stomach
was a little bit stronger. A steamer got the stains and smell out, but I have
to wonder what’s lurking under the carpet and in the padding. We still have the
same carpet down (gross!) and I’d love to know that my 16-month old daughter is
walking on sanitary hardwood! Such a costly upgrade hasn’t been in the budget
yet (the living room alone is 350 square feet), so winning this contest would
really help us out! P.S. I've attached a photo of the offender that was taken
while we were painting prior to move-in. I never took a photo of the diarrhea
and vomit, but would really have wanted to see that"
Now read some other big catastrophes:
Victoria M.
"Dear Lumber Liquidators,
It all started back before Christmas: Mom and Dad went to
the store and left a big fat juicy steak sitting on the counter to thaw. I just
couldn't help myself, so i grabbed it, took it onto the dining room carpet and
indulged a little...well actually ALOT! The steak was so juicy and bloody I
kind of made a little mess. Mom spent nearly an hour cleaning it all up! Well,
a few weeks later, I was home alone and chilling out in the dining room when I
got a whiff of that delicious steak. I looked all over the dining room but
couldn't see it! I thought maybe, just maybe, there were some leftovers hiding
under the carpet. I had to find it! So I dug, and dug, and dug some more. I dug
all the way through the carpet, the padding and down to the subfloor! But,
still no steak! I decided to take extreme measures and ripped back the whole
carpet just in case; but I STILL didn't find anything! By that time, mom walked
in the door and I was busted. Man was she upset with me!! I screwed up big
time. Well, now I'm stuck in this crate until mom and dad get hardwood floors
installed. Lumber Liquidators, please help me get out of this crate!!
Yours Truly, Zivah
PS~ I overheard them talking and they seem to think the
hardwood floors won't trick me into thinking my steak was under it!"
Michelle Armstrong
"Our family carpet catastrophe. . . .
Our family of four moved from Baltimore, Maryland to
Puyallup, Washington about nine years ago.
Our youngest son was not even two years old. He was a handful.
He could get out of his car seat. He tried to close
himself in the refrigerator in the middle of the night. He figured out how use things to stand on to
get to items above his reach. That gave
him a better vantage point to figure out how to unlock the doors and escape to
the outside. We were in a continual
state of panic.
That also meant that he could climb onto the washer and
get to the laundry detergent. He didn’t
ingest any of the huge, brand new container of laundry detergent. No. He
dumped it out on the carpet. I had to
wrap my head around the idea that he could open the door to the laundry room;
climb onto the washer; get a hold the very heavy bottle of detergent; and then
to be able to open and pour it out.
For me, that mess was overwhelming. My husband suggested that I call a carpet
cleaner to see what they could do. The
carpet guy said to use all of the dirty laundry in the house to soak up the
liquid. Then he would come over and use
a machine to extract what was left.
It took many cycles in the washer to rinse the detergent
out of the towels, clothes, and comforters.
Even now, after many years, that is the first thing that comes to our
mind when we think of carpet catastrophes."
Diane Shaner
"Nana's Hansel and Gretel story
I had gone to visit my daughter and her family. My
grandson Jack had a very bad case of 'the poops'. My daughter had to
run to the store for milk and left nana in charge. The car was not even out of
the driveway when there was an explosion in the diaper. OK....I can do this. I
put Jack on the soft carpet and proceeded to change him. All cleaned up but I
realized I left the diaper in his room down the hall. How long will it take to
run and get one.... well too long!I dropped the dirty one in the trash and
grabbed a new one only to arrive to and trail of goodies and they were not
cookie crumbs. Cleaned Jack up and the rug as best I could and breathed a sigh
of relief. Then went to his room to find that the dog had thought the diaper
was a 'treasure' and dragged it across the floor .... Yes carpet
again.....Nana was ready for a nap !!!!!!"
Amy Olinzock
"My dog Millie had a cyst explode in the middle of the
night and lost a ton of blood. When we
woke up in the morning we found her on the floor next to our bed in a
mess. Thankfully we got her in for
surgery right away and is doing well.
Too bad I can’t say the same for the carpet. Turns out she has breast cancer but the vet
thinks they got it all. Who knew dogs
could get that. Would love to get this
replaced so we don’t have a daily reminder of that awful night we almost lost
Millie."
Jamie Wells
"I received a jury summons and had to leave my newly adopted Boxer alone in the house for several hours. I picked up a few things I thought he may get into before leaving however I forgot about the 2 liters of soda and gatorade six packs I had purchased for a work party. As if jury duty wasn't bad enough I had to come home to this mess! He chewed open all the soda and gatorade and dumped them into the carpet. In addition to being quite colorful it was a very sticky mess. I had them professionally cleaned but the stains didn't come out and the carpet continued to be sticky."
Kate Quindlen
"My dog Bella has pretty bad seperation anxiety. We have to leave her in her crate when we leave because she gets too nervous and forgets where to go to the bathrooom. She is quite the escape artist though. SHe finds the most bizarre ways to get out of the metal crate. On day, I left to tutor on a Saturday morning. I returned home to find the entire house had blood everywhere. All over the living room, up the stairs, in the hall. It was like a horror movie!! She squeezed out of a two inch space in the crate door. She's a pit mix so that is quite a feat to accomplish. She cut her face during her mission and was dripping blood. She must have done a few victory laps through the house leaving a huge mess!!! Thankfully she is okay and has not escaped since. Fingers crossed that I didn't just jinx her!"
Lora Smurphat
"OMG my worst carpet disaster happened a couple of months ago. My daughter made a double chocolate chip cookie cake to take to her friend for her birthday. She left it on the counter to cool, not thinking to put it out of harms way. By harms way I mean our 4 dogs.....we have 2 boxers, a mini dachshund and a shi-tzu. Our 2 year old boxer is infamous for getting things off of the counter and I am sure there was plenty of encouragement from the gang to get that cookie cake down for them all to share. A few hours later I come home to an empty pan on the kitchen floor plus 4 dogs worth of chocolate vomit and chocolate diarrhea on my carpets. Now I am a chocoholic, but that clean up put me off chocolate for quite a while!!"
Rose Redmond
"Spilled nachos with melted cheese and salsa which almost
instantly penetrated and hardened on the carpet. Yuck!!! I worked with my
fingernails to get the congealed stuff out, then used the carpet cleaner and
diluted bleach to get the stain out."
Travis Ortner
"Wood stain, spilled on only carpet left in our
house. I was staining a small piece of
wood on the coffee table when one of our dogs bumped the table and spilled the
stain. Also happens to be our family
room, where we spend all of our time. My
wife is happy because we will have all wood floors in the house. "
Robert Stershic
"My daughter working on a school project at the dining
room table spilled rubber cement on the carpet.
Absolutely no way to get up, clean up or reduce attraction of dirt. Just had to buy a throw rug. We know it is there, though!!!! Help!"
Jennifer Rivera
"As a busy wife and mother of three young children, carpet
doesn't last long at all in our home.
Our biggest catastrophe...Well, during a class field trip to Old Salem
in North Carolina, my daughter wondered how awesome it would be to write as
they did in colonial times, with feather and ink. She talked me into buying a bottle of black
ink (you can see where this is going, right?).
Needless to say, as soon as we
got home, and she began to use it, down onto the floor it went. All over the carpet, all over our furniture,
splattered everywhere! We haven't had
the finances to replace it. We love
Lumber Liquidators flooring choices, and hope to find the finances soon, but
until then, a new floor is just a dream away. "
Laura Siedlarczyk
"Our daughter Monica agreed to "temporarily"
care for the ferret of a friend who was going through some difficulties. Monica
brought the cute little guy home with her over college break. He really was a
sweet little thing...playful, friendly, loving. We gave him the run of our
bedroom/bathroom, which seemed to work very well for the first couple weeks.
Until the day I heard him trying to escape the bedroom by digging under the
door! I came running upstairs to see what was happening, and when I threw open
the door, he zipped past me and made a mad dash for freedom. Seeing my bedroom
carpet in shreds, I immediately went into damage control mode and began working
on salvaging what I could. Unfortunately, while I was working, so was our
little furry friend. In the few minutes I was working on our bedroom carpet, he
managed to dig a similar hole at my daughter's bedroom door, a third on the
stairway landing, a fourth at the bottom of our stairs, a fifth in our family
room hall, a sixth in the family room itself, and a final one in the dining
room. I must say, the little guy was the most prolific digger I've ever met."
Matt Wertz
"It was the hottest
part of summer, with temperatures reaching over 100 when the filters on our 30
gallon fish tank started to clog. Water
from the tank began to slowly run down the outside of the tank, dampening the
carpet below. Not knowing what was going
on yet, we continued to fill the tank every day thinking it was just
evaporating. After a few days, we
started noticing a fishy smell in the corner of the room and under the
couch. This is when we felt around and
noticed all the fishy water that was soaking the carpet below! On top of that, mildew began to grow causing
an unbearable stench, which lofted throughout the house. We have attempted to clean this up, but the
carpet is badly discolored and still has a slight odor to it. Needless to say, I think it's time to rip it
up and put down some new flooring!!!
Fish tank resistant would work best!
ha!"
Patti Ammerman
"Due to the fact that we have a sunroom, our living room
gets no use in the summer...One summer morning as I was walking out to the
kitchen I felt a strange feeling under my bare feet. That strange feeling turned out to be
maggots. Sparing you a lot of details
the maggots had infested the living room carpet. We found the source to be a dead racoon found
in the chimney. After hours of steaming
and cleaning the only way to eliminate the maggots was going to be to remove the carpeting. Underneath the carpeting was oak flooring
with hundreds of nails the size of roofing nails. This was the previous owners remedy for
warped flooring. This was then covered
with carpeting. As you can see from the
attached picture we need to replace this hardwood. This is my embarrassing carpet catastrophe."
Crystal Budreau
"Well it all starts when grandpa came over to watch the
grand kids well we went Christmas shopping ....in the mean time grandpa was
assisting my oldest son ( who is 6) with his home work and my (who is 3)
youngest was coloring well she decided to take a PERMANET marker and color the
carpet... lets just say we were all devistated! Thanks to the Traverse City
Lumber Liquidators our houses looks better then it ever did before! And lets
just say no more coloring on the floor:-)
thanks so much you guys are true life savers!!!!!!!!"
Thanks again to everyone who entered! Stay tuned for upcoming contests and while you wait, check out great deals on www.lumberliquidators.com!
