Carpet Purchasing?

[robhurlburt]

Its time to replace the contractor grade carpet in the upstairs of our house. Its 10+ yrs old and really showing its age. The upstairs rarely gets much traffic, so we plan to put some cheaper stuff up there. Also we plan to rid of the house in 5 yrs or so, so thats about as long as it needs to last. When i had a "reputable" local company put carpet in they did a horrid job, and i had to file a complaint with BBB before i got a fix, which really wasn't a fix at all

Anywho, we went to lowes last night and looked at some of their stuff. They had the cheap contractor grade stuff (under $1 per sqft) to expensive stuff. There prices were as follows:
- $97 to install whole house
- $5 per stair
- $.30 per foot to remove old carpet
- $.13 per foot to remove furniture
- $.50 per foot for padding.

Any of the stuff we liked was around $2 per ft with padding and 10yr warranty.

Where have you guys gotten your carpet?

[NYCgolf]

those prices are in sqft or linear ft by a certain with? i am also looking for some carpeting tips / prices for my basment

[robhurlburt]

i am pretty sure sq ft

[Papa Dras]

We shopped around a lot and went with a local carpet place. We went the opposite route as you, though. We plan to be in this house for the next 10 years, so we went with a high quality nylon in the basement.

As far as installation, I don't think it matters a ton, because everyone just outsources the install anyway. As long as the company is reputable and backs up the install, you should be fine. As far as the carpet itself, after a ton of research, I found that the manufacturer will almost always have a way out of actually honoring the warranty.

[dunhamjr]

is that really $5 for each step of the stairs?

if so, damn.
Turns their $97 whole house install into a much larger bill at my house.

3 stories with all the stairs carpeted, haven't counted actual stairs but with a guess of average 12 per set... that is 48 stairs... so another $240.

still not a huge amount, but it definitely makes that "$97 whole house install" number a bit misleading. that $100 install is easily $400 in my house.

[Papa Dras]

I always assumed that a $97 install was actually legit in about .5% of cases after reading the fine print.

[robhurlburt]

she that was cheap. they are only doing it to match home depot's price, and that the typical price is $7-12 per stair.

[RENOG]

I just did this through home depot, we went cheap, real cheap. We ordered off the roll as a temporary hold over. That carpet was so bad it started matting in less than a year, and thats with a no shoe policy in place. Of course HD didn't believe us so they sent someone out to inspect it.
Once they saw its shape they gave us a full refund as a credit toward whatever we wanted to replace it with, as well as free removal and install. lesson, never get the crap off the roll, always get the stuff they have to order..
Cry once.

[VdubTX]

Would be worth a shot to give Empire a call. We went with them about 18 months ago and got some real nice carpet for same pricing as some cheap stuff at HD or Lowes. We had 16 stairs to do but I forget what we paid per stair/riser.

[dunhamjr]

curious if you ever did there carpet?
did you go with lowes? call empire? cheap stuff or good stuff? what type of carpet? (pattern, texture, loop)

we are looking at needing to get this done sooner then later.

talked to lowes.
the carpet we liked the best is about $2.5/sq.
the 'best' padding is $0.84/sq.

stairs are $8.32 each for waterfall or $17.50 for tucked bullnose style.

i haven't counted all the stairs yet but on the first go round there are 8. because on this 1st job we are only doing the upstairs and 1 set of stairs off the front door landing (there are 3 other sets of stairs to do).

[robhurlburt]

we ended up going with carpet one/carpet world. i think it was the same price as lowes, but they were super helpful. they came in and did a fantastic job, super professional.

[GeoffD]

I always use wool. It's expensive but I think it's worth it. Great wear, good at hiding stains, no stench of hydrocarbons leeching out. I'm having a bedroom carpeted on Friday. I'm using my local independent carpet shop. $72/yard ($8/square foot) installed with pad.

[VW1.8Tsunami]

I just did this through home depot, we went cheap, real cheap. We ordered off the roll as a temporary hold over. That carpet was so bad it started matting in less than a year, and thats with a no shoe policy in place. Of course HD didn't believe us so they sent someone out to inspect it.
Once they saw its shape they gave us a full refund as a credit toward whatever we wanted to replace it with, as well as free removal and install. lesson, never get the crap off the roll, always get the stuff they have to order..
Cry once.

FWIW, walking barefoot is hardest on carpets.

For longevity:
Socks > Shoes > Barefoot

Supposedly the oils from your feet build up on the carpets. Atleast that's what I was told when I worked for a carpet cleaner.

Lowes/HD were rediculously expensive compared to local shops. However, I live near Dalton (city based around carpet) and there seems to be some really good local shops. I've only gone to one place but they quoted me $80 to remove all the carpet from my 1260 sqft condo. I was only having ~400sqft or 45sqyrd carpeted again. It ended up being around $800 after everything for some decent grade carpet.

[stupakjim]

You can make cheap carpet feel better by going with a heavier padding. I went with an 8lb pad over the tradional 6lb. Also don't fall for the more exspensive carpet is better carpet bs. You grade carpet by taking your hand like your massaging a scalp, wiggle your finger tips. The faster you feel backing the poopier the carpet is. Carpet is made so thin, they color the backing so you can't see it. Hope this helps.