Tips on Buying Carpet

We put in a mid-grade carpet in 1988, and it looked ratty within 2 months! Had it replaced with a continuous filament Stainmaster low-profile (to avoid crushing and obvious traffic patterns) frisee with a tone-on-tone coloration. It's a medium shade (not too light to show the dirt and not too dark to show the dust), and it is still looking pretty good after 20+ years!! Regarding pad: if you want a lot of "sink", you can find top of the line thick pad, but to combat the herds of kids/animals, what you want to ask for is "high-density" in a pad that will support the carpet and resist crushing in the high traffic areas, especially on the stairs and down hallways. Get as good a carpet as you can possibly afford so you don't have to get new like we did! What a pain that was, but the carpet company (not the chemical company that made the fiber) stood behind their product as long as I was trading up with one of their better products.

Hi, T.. I have been in the carpet business for 17 years and know carpet. You need a nylon fiber carpet, probably a frisee...this is a plush but is not too dense...doesn't show vacuum marks or footprints...very family friendly and has no loops for a dogs nails to get caught up in. Hope this helps. I have this type of carpet through my entire house and love it and sell it to families all the time.
D.

I agree with the others that the highest quality pad will make any carpet last longer. I also agree that the installation personnel is critical. We have had a carpet that keeps stretching and because we went with the local business, they stop by and fix it as I call (at no charge).

I like the warmth of carpet compared to wood, but we do have some area of our house that we have laminate and my daughter has tap danced on it without a stratch! Good luck as there are great deals out there now.

T., I just purchased carpet last year and although I don't know much about carpet i'm pretty happy with what I picked. I do know that you should go with a thicker pad and be sure it has a water proof top on the pad which prevents spills from soaking all the way through. I went with a california berber, it is really soft and a very loose shag which doesn't show vacuum marks and foot prints. We only have carpet in my family room so this type of carpet was perfect for laying on the floor and playing with the kids. Be sure to ask alot of questions they are usually pretty good at giving suggestions that best suit your needs. Good luck

The only thing that I didn't notice already mentioned was to watch out for carpet that your dogs nails can get caught in. We have carpet with loops (is it burber?) and we have snags and pulls in it all over from the dog.

No matter what they tell you, never get polyester carpet. Always get Nylon and try to get the Continuous Filament (no shedding and holds up better). Its nice to get a Stainmaster as well. Then from there its up to you about how far you want to go with luxury. You can get thicker carpets, but it'll cost a bit more. Then also, try to get the thickest pad you can.

My husband is an installer....(so is my whole family actually)
the longevity of the carpet is only as good as the pad you put under it....if you are going to scrimp anywhere...scrimp on the carpet, and put the money into the pad.
you can have a top of the line carpet, but if you put a cheap pad under it...you'll never get the life out of it that you are supposed to.
feel free to message me if you have more questions...

The best advice given to us by a couple of sources: get the thickest pad possible. It preserves even the least expensive of carpets and feels terrific. We priced carpet at the big box stores during the sales. Then took our quotes to locally recommended independent business. The owner beat the price(s). They have installers who have worked for them for many years. Big box stores outsource the installation. We are very pleased, and wish we had followed this advice when we first had our house built.

We bought the berber style carpet for our living room. It is wonderful. It shows absolutely no dirt. Here is site of the type that we have:

http://www.inglescarpetinc.com/id63.html

Whatever you buy get it scotchgaurded! I was not a believer until we moved into our current house. The people before us scotchguarded the basement carpet and it's amazing. Our puppy peed on it and it just sat there. It didn't soak in or anything. All I had to do was get a towel and soak it up. I even found some yucky soft #2 that looked a little old. Wiped it up with no marks as well. Super easy! No stain, mark or anything that left any eveidence of pee or #2. I am impressed and sold for life!

I have kids and dogs and am ever so thankful that we have wood floors. The one floor that was carpet we tore out and my hubby installed that floating laminate flooring that looks like real wood floors. Pushing a swiffer over the floors is so much nicer than vaccuuming. We do put out some area rugs for the winter though to add warmth and we all have slippers.
I don't think I could keep carpet looking nice with all the little ones in the house.

T.,

I would hesitate to put carpet in your dining room, especially if you use that room daily for meals. Children are constantly spilling food, drinks, etc. If you have to purchase a cheaper carpet without Scotch guard it will start to host mold colonies from the damp areas that did not dry quickly enough. I would go with a pergo or hard wood flooring instead.

I have had berber in the past and found it held onto dirt more than an open weave carpet. Because the fibers are rounded the dirt was not easily sucked up by the vacuum like on other carpet styles. Also, if you decide to purchase a textured carpet (cut in designs) you will have to vacuum the carpet from multiple directions to suck up all of the dirt and fuzz that collect there.

Stay away from cream or white colored carpets if your family wears their shoes in the house. Cream and white carpets really show stains quickly. I found a deep beige color for our last house that I loved and was the perfect color to balance the white walls of the rooms without weighing the room down too much.

Good luck with your decision.

-C..

You have had a lot of good advice. One more quick tip for you, even if you have already gotten the carpet--air out your house of the carpet fumes. They can be toxic to people and animals. Also, the carpet can have chemicals on it from stain treatment. My daughter walked around on our new carpet with bare feet and her feet broke out in a horrible rash and her feet were very swollen. I guess this is just more of a heads up. Enjoy your new carpet.

We just got berber in our living room from World of Floors and love it. One thing that is a must is to buy the best padding you can. It is 100% worth it. Not only does it make it more comfortable but if your tastes change in years to come, you can just replace the carpet but keep the padding as it's more long lasting. One thing about berber is that it hardly shows the mess and has been really easy to clean up. We've spilled dark cola, formula, juice, baby carrots, etc. on it and you can't even tell where it happened. Good luck. I believe new carpet can make a room.

The best carpet is from Rockford Flooring in downtown Rockford on Courtland. We bought carpet for our basement that we finished from there and now want to get some for upstairs also. Great stuff!

We have carpet in our dining area and it looks awful!!! There have been spills which lead to STAINS ;{ Having carpet in a dining area is not the best thing. So, I would have to say forgo the carpet in your dining room. But that is just my opinion.

Best of Luck!!

T. C.,

My advice is to NOT buy any solid color that is really dark. We were given some excellent quality very dark green carpet and it shows every little thing (fuzzies, lint, dirt, soiled, you name it). I knew it would be that way but this is very very expensive carpet that friends from our former church gave us to save us some money and we did not have the funds to replace it with some that we bought. It seems like it needs to be vacuumed about two times a day to keep it looking nice because the dark color shows every little blessed thing.

L. C.

I tore all my carpet out and put in wood because I couldn't find any carpet that I liked! But a few weeks ago I was at a friends house and she had berber carpet and I thought it was new...she informed me that it was 10 years old!!! And it's cream!! So my suggestion would be go with that. She's got 2 kids and 2 dogs and her carpet looks great...good luck!!