How to buy a new carpet?

[784caroline]

After a number of years its time to replace the bedroom carpets. Where to begin!

When buying a new carpet , what are some of the things you should look at (besides color and style). I went into Great Lakes Carpet and Flooring asking for a specific type of carpet and noticed that their carpets only had the manufacturers name and brand and installed price. What I was looking for was face weight, density, and twist ?? By no means am I a carpet expert but when I bought carpet in the past these were some of the things you looks in addition to warranty and trafic wear issues.

When I asked Great Lakes for this information they told me they do not have such information for the manufacturer did not provide it >>>> So im thinking to myself how do I compare carpets, by only their recommendation or their price??? I was totaly confused and finaly they said the only local places that provided that inforamtion was Home Depot or Lowes. SO I quickly exited that place and went to Lowes and sure enough they had the carpet we were looking for and had all the Manufacturers specs with each carpet...along with a price.

SO did I get wrong information at Great Lakes or have others experienced this also. How about other Carpet dealers in the area...how do they sell carpets! I also got the feeling that buying carpets from a local store was like visiting a used car salesman ...prices could be changed very easily depending upon teh questions you ask or what they need to do to close a sale. Definitely not that way at Lowes!!

[Villages Kahuna]

The largest floor covering company in the U.S. is Home Depot, followed by Lowes. They carry all the brand names, have better prices than most independent dealers, and offer a warrany better than almost any of the independents.

That's where I'd go.

[Bonanza]

[QUOTE=784caroline;822671]After a number of years its time to replace the bedroom carpets. Where to begin!

When buying a new carpet , what are some of the things you should look at (besides color and style). QUOTE]

I'm sure you made a good choice in the carpet you chose. Years ago I worked for a company that distributed Armstrong floor products. I was young and price was a factor (but isn't it always??!?), however I was given some sage advice from the man who ran that division. Everyone has a color that they want to go with. Once your color is determined, buy the least expensive carpet you can find within reason and within your color range, BUT . . . buy the absolute best padding you can afford. I lived with his advice for many years and it served me well.

[graciegirl]

After shopping around, we had our area rugs made by Carpet One and the owner was very savvy with that kind of information and well priced for the two large color banded rugs that were backed with rubber. We are delighted with them two years later.


And Villages Kahuna is right and makes an excellent point. If we were having wall to wall either of those places would be our first choice.


Most carpeting is now stain resistant and will probably last for fifty years.

[mulligan]

That information is available to dealers when they order. They either can't or won't pass it along to the customers. I'll bet they don't want you looking too closely at the products they're selling. Probably with good reason.

[alanmcdonald]

I guess I have to chime in here, since I work for Shaw you need to take everything I say with my "homer" instinct.

FYI, the developer uses exclusively Mohawk carpet (I had a good time with Shaw's vice president of builder marketing with that one when I came back here from purchasing my home in TV - which will have all the Mohawk carpet replaced with Shaw engineered hardwood next week). The basic carpet in new TV homes is Mohawk polyester.

First of all, nylon carpet is the most recyclable of the three major players (nylon, polyester and polypropylene). So if you are into the eco movement nylon is the way to go. Shaw and Mohawk each make all three. Nylon is also the most durable and most expensive.

On the nylon side there are two choices nylon 6 and nylon 6,6. Both are recyclable, but only nylon 6 can actually be transformed back into caprolactam, the building block of nylon 6, and made back into carpet again. Nylon 6.6 can be recycled into other products, but not back into carpet.

Almost all Mohawk nylon carpet is nylon 6,6. Most Shaw nylon carpet is nylon 6. We do make some 6,6 for the "big box" (Lowes, Home Depot).

The flooring dealer I used was Floors of the Villages, also known as Roberto's Flooring. Since I am a Shaw employee I bought my hardwood directly from the company and they are doing the installation.

[graciegirl]

I don't know who the hardwood came from, it was installed when the house was built two years ago, but we were very careful at first, hoping not to damage it, or ruin it's shine.


Two plus years later we have had a couple of dings caused by very heavy and pointed objects but we are overwhelmingly delighted with the almost impervious surface and the shine has weathered weekly damp mopping wonderfully well.


It isn't warm, or "giving" like the hardwood back home installed on a subfloor but it is doing the job and ranks right up there with tile. We love it.