Q. I am looking for a good quality carpet that can withstand kids, cats,
dogs and traffic. I have a somewhat formal living room that you land in upon entering my house. To get to any other part of the house at that point, one needs to walk through that living room. My biggest problem is the traffic
marks from the front door, across the living room and down the hallway to the bedrooms. This gets dirty fast. Any help would be appreciated.
Answer:
There is only one carpet fiber that can potentially withstand all these
things, it is Nylon. A textured plush style will hide the footprints and show
dirt the least, depending on the color you select. Select a dense carpet with at
least 40 oz face weight, this will better withstand the traffic. A good tuft
twist of at least five to seven twists per lineal inch is important to keep your carpet looking
new longer. You will need to vacuum regularly at least
every other day, and have the carpet cleaned when it gets dirty, once or twice a
year. You might want to consider laying down a plastic runner in the heavy
traffic areas. Stay away from looped styles of carpet like Berber and never buy
Polyester carpet (P.E.T.) no matter what they tell you.
I have read that the new PET fiber is even more stain resistant than
nylon. Your web site indicated PET is the worst. Why is this?
Answer:.
Whether or not it is more stain resistant than Nylon is not the issue, it
is that P.E.T. Polyester carpets mat down quickly and have poor resiliency. That
means that Polyester carpet will not retain a new appearance very long. Clean it
all you like, it will still be matted down.
Q. Does this price range sound reasonable?
I
am installing a DriCore subfloor system in the 1,200 SF basement of my newly
constructed home. The basement will serve as a family room & play area for
my family which includes 2 children under the age of 5 and a declawed (front
& back) cat. I have been looking for a good quality frieze carpet to put
over the Subfloor. I have received a quote of $4.17/SF installed on the
Kathy Ireland carpet listed below. I have had carpet installed from these folks
before and have been very pleased with the installed carpet and the
professionalism of their installers. The installation is $.44/SF. The carpet pad
is an 8 lb. 7/16" rebond made from virgin materials which costs $.50/SF.
This leaves the cost of carpet only at $3.23/SF. Does
this price range sound reasonable for the style listed below? The carpet sample
from the store does not have any information on pile twist, density, face wt.,
etc.
Answer:
This is excellent carpet and may be just
right for you. Kathy Ireland is a brand name carpet and thus is higher priced
than other non-branded carpets. However, $5000+ is a lot to spend on 133 yards
of carpet! I think you can do it for about $4200 or less and still get the high
quality you are after, if you choose a less famous brand name.
The labor cost is reasonable. Wholesale cost on 7/16', 8lb. rebond pad is about
$1.80, so $3.50-4.50 retail would be reasonable. They are charging you $4.50.
My advice: If you want to save some money
here's what you can do: Select a non- branded carpet instead. Sure, Kathy
Ireland has great colors and some that cannot be matched, but take the carpet
sample, and shop at some other stores and see if you can find a comparable
carpet to the one you are considering now. You should be able to find a
comparable carpet for about $20-24.00 range. Padding cost should be $4.50 or
less. Labor is about right at $4.00
Since you have two young children, and
children spill a lot, you may want to consider a lesser grade of carpet and plan
to re-carpet in 5 to 10 years. Many people do this because in a few years the
children will not be as hard on the carpets and spills and stains will not be
such an issue. No carpet warranty covers all types of stains. Either way you go,
a nylon frieze is a good choice for you.
How much does carpet cost?
Follow up Answer:
Thank you for the reply Alan! I have been doing a lot of
research and price comparisons in the last few days including calling carpet
mills to obtain face wt., twist & density on the various frieze carpets I've
seen. Is there a reason why many carpet samples no longer include this
information? This makes the task monumental and very time consuming to get
apples to apples comparisons.
I ended up finding a carpet very similar to the Kathy Ireland
frieze but with a higher twist & higher density even though the face wt. is
a tad lower. The price came in right under $4,200 installed with a 8 lb.
1/2" rebond with spill guard to prevent moisture from penetrating the
carpet pad & the subfloor. The carpet was priced at $21.50/sq yd with a face
wt. of 46 oz., twist of 6.75, density of 2548. The PAR rating is 4.25. The
installation is $4/sq yd and pad was $3.50/sq yd.
I appreciate your response and I think your website is great.
And now I firmly believe that all carpet salesmen were used car salesmen in
their former lives...
Nylon Carpet Test?
Is there a simple test to see if a carpet if Nylon or Polyester?
Answer:
All fibers used to make carpet have different melting points, and there are
burn tests that can be performed to determine what fiber it is. I don't advise
consumers to perform these tests, but they can be found on the internet by
doing a simple web search. What
Grade of Carpet Should I Select?
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Stinky Carpet?
I’ve just installed Mohawk wall-to-wall carpet throughout my home. I do not
have the paperwork with me as I write this, but I remember it is a new type of
carpet that resists pet problems more than any other type, and the pad is the
standard type. The problem is a very strong odor has developed within 2 days
of the install. The odor resembles mildew...as if someone left wet towels
piled up. Every room smells and it seems to be getting stronger every day. Now
5 days later, we have moved to a motel while the carpet people contact a rep
from Mohawk and determine what the problem may be. They say they have never
experienced this. Any ideas?
Answer:
One of my most important rule for consumers for making a major purchase, (car,
appliance, carpet) is to never buy a product that has just been released to
the public. I always wait until all the bugs have been ironed out and make
sure that the product has stood the test of time. In this case, it sounds like
you have purchased Mohawk's newly released Odor Eaters Carpet. Now, while I do
not know what the smell is, I would be willing to make an educated guess that
it has something to do with a reaction between the Odor Eater chemicals, and
the type of padding you have used. I am very interested in knowing what the
carpet rep has to say. All about Carpet Fibers
Power stretchers
I got your ebook and it and this website have been very helpful. Based on your
book, I even developed my on 45-question worksheet for each and every carpet
company I talk to. It’s been a real education. As more anecdotal evidence of
why it’s absolutely necessary to get two bids, I called one guy who was listed
under carpet layers in the phone book. He said they also like to sell carpet and
came out to the house to measure. He then tried the lump sum pricing, which I
asked him to break down. He did so reluctantly, giving me the carpet price and
the pad price, and saying everything else was installation. It worked out that
installation was about $17 a sq. yard. Yikes. I went to another company and
without having him to the house asked about installation - $3.50/sq. yard +
$1.50 for removal, a bit more for stairs and $2/ft for transition metal (of
which we have maybe 20 feet), working out to about $5.50 sq. ft. I called a
carpet installation company and their pricing was similar to the second company.
Amazing.
Another anecdote - you don't recommend Berber for pets. We bought a remnant for
our dog to sleep on. Within a day he'd put a run in it. Not surprisingly, we
decided against doing Berber.
Anyway, now to the question. In your book and on your site, you strongly
recommend a power stretcher. All three companies say they'll use if it needed,
but, as a general rule won't for residential work unless there's a 50-foot room.
For a smaller room, it doesn't provide as much flexibility in angling (one
company showed us a picture and trade article). Any response for these guys?
All right - second question. Any experience with Mohawk's Forever Fresh
line or Beaulieu's Magic Fresh? I understand they are both good for pets smells
and that Beaulieu's carpet (by Hollytex) has a 5 year limited warranty where
they will replace the carpet (labor excluded) for any stain or smell. I do
understand that I have to use a double-sided moisture resistant pad to not void
these warranties. Any thoughts?
Alan's
Preferred Carpet
Dealer Directory
