Talk to me about carpet

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

Ive got a situation for the home improvement brain trust. When we bought our house, one room had pretty nasty carpet to start. We knew it had to go, but decided to wait until after we got a dog to pull the trigger. True to form, he made a huge mess of the room when he was sick right after his arrival, but now he's reliably house trained and we hit a wall where it is just too embarrassing to look at.

We had it measured yesterday, and for a mid-range carpet our estimate is $832 (with us doing removal and furniture moving). We'd prefer to get it a bit lower. As you can see, the room opens on to the yard, so it will get a little messy and we expect we'll need to replace it every few years. Currently this room is an office, but once we have a child it will also serve as a guest room (probably with a fold out couch). We want to keep it carpeted as opposed to adding hardwoods. We will be cash flowing the purchase-$832 is our absolute max.

How much would you spend to carpet one room? Any good or bad experiences with cheap vs. expensive carpets in indoor/outdoor spaces and with pets? Baxter likes to play in this room, so it will see some abuse from puppy nails. There is also the risk that if he gets another stomach bug or acts out we will have some messes to clean up. I'm also open to color suggestions; current plan is to stay with light tan.

formerlyGDaisy09 · October 2015

I very much prefer hard floors to carpeting (but I also have bad dust/mold allergies so wall to wall carpet is a big no-no anyways). we put laminate flooring down in our basement and it was about $400 to do almost 500 sqft, H installed it himself, and it looks great. I still need to AW some photos of all our construction progress...here's one of the basement rooms.

cbee817 · October 2015

I like hardwood floors- our entire house is hardwood (including the kitchen) but it was built in the 1930's so that was standard back then. We usually spend about $800 on a 100% wool 8x10 rug so $832 for a room seems ok. How big is the room? Can you get a discount for tearing up everything and having the floor prepped when the installers arrive?

als1982 · October 2015

Another hardwood lover here. I will never go back to carpet! So much more hygienic and easy to clean.

brij2006 · October 2015

We installed a cheap off-white berber in our living room 7 years ago. It cost about $500 for carpet, pad, and install. We are now replacing it with something mid-range in quality, and in a speckled color that will mask messes. Between cat, dog, and now a baby, it needed replaced 2 years after it was installed but my H wouldn't budget on getting rid of it (he still says he isn't convinced).

If you're okay with replacing it every few years, then I would say to go ahead with a cheaper option and just know you will shampoo it once every 6 months (this helped ours last a bit longer). If you don't want to be replacing it, then I would go with a mid-grade quality carpet that has some built in stain protectant and a higher life expectancy. Also in a color or blend of colors that will help mask messes.

We are getting carpet installed in about 1.500 square feet of our home at the end of the month. The other 1,500 square feet are hardwood/laminate. We could have gone with a low grade cheap stock carpet and saved about $2,000. My H was all for it, but he doesn't really care about the looks of the inside of our home. But I didn't want to run into the issues we've had with our cheap carpet in the living room. I'm constantly doing spot treatment, a spill on it always stains immediately, and it's just dirty and dingy. No matter how much I shampoo it, it looks disgusting.

dragonstarjk · October 2015

H and I are both anti-carpet, so I don't have much advice in that regard. I will say, hardwood floors are WAY easier to clean up dog messes from. If I had a room that was open to the outdoors, that our dogs spend a lot of time in, carpet would not even be a consideration

If I was going to carpet this area, because of the traffic and such, I'd probably go with a cheaper option as @brij suggested, and then top it off with an area rug in front of the door to help it last a little bit longer.

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

@formerlyGdaisy, that laminate looks awesome!

I know carpet is a controversial choice. There are a few reasons:

1) This is the only carpeted room in the house, and the hardwood in the rest is in great condition. It would bother the heck out of me to have hardwood in this room that doesn't match the rest of the house.

2) We feel bad that the dog slides around everywhere on the hardwood. He really likes this room to play in for that reason.

3) We also think it would be nice to have a carpeted room once we have a kid who wants to crawl around (parents, feel free to correct me there).

@brij2006, your feedback was super helpful. We are also planning on speckled, non-berber. This carpet is berber and between the previous owner's dog and our dog it is all pulled up and a total mess. I think we're really on the fence between going cheap and just going right for the midrange like you are about to do. The midrange comes with some warranties and guarantees, but I'm always distrustful for those. Your comment about stains getting hard to remove, however, is what I'm afraid of with low-end. We are planning to go back in tonight and ask if there are any remnants or specials going that could get us nicer material for a discount.

@cbee817 our estimate already includes us doing all carpet removal, disposal, and floor prep. The room is approximately 13' by 14', but in our estimate it looks like they are just charging us for two "rolls" of 12' by 19', which seems like a waste. There were some bulk-order options where I'm hoping we could avoid paying for the extra we're not even going to use.

brij2006 · October 2015

Not to mention, our cheap carpet smells. I despise our living room now, because of the stupid carpet. It stinks, looks disgusting, and I hate having my daughter crawl all over it.

The mid-grade carpet we picked out is supposed to last 10-15 years. I'm not really worried about the warranty or any guarantees, because I know they don't really mean anything. But I figure that if the stain protectant that's built into it allows me to wipe up messes before they get set in, then I will be a happier person.
Right now I shampoo our cheap carpet once every 6 months and sometimes sooner than that. If there's a spill, it's immediately soaked in and stained. I've even put bleach into my shampooer to try and slightly bleach the white back to a less dingy white. No such luck.

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

brij2006 said:
Not to mention, our cheap carpet smells. I despise our living room now, because of the stupid carpet. It stinks, looks disgusting, and I hate having my daughter crawl all over it.

The mid-grade carpet we picked out is supposed to last 10-15 years. I'm not really worried about the warranty or any guarantees, because I know they don't really mean anything. But I figure that if the stain protectant that's built into it allows me to wipe up messes before they get set in, then I will be a happier person.
Right now I shampoo our cheap carpet once every 6 months and sometimes sooner than that. If there's a spill, it's immediately soaked in and stained. I've even put bleach into my shampooer to try and slightly bleach the white back to a less dingy white. No such luck.

Our current carpet smells, too. It's gross. Alright, I'm convinced, mid-grade it is. Still will shop for a better deal, though.

hoffse · October 2015

So you know I grew up in the "carpet capital of the world" right? Wish I was joking, but I'm not. Most of the world's carpet is made in my hometown.

My family wasn't in the business, but I do know that with carpet you get what you pay for. With pets I would do something low-pile that's not hooked so they have a harder time destroying it with their nails. See if you can get a sample and let your dog play with it.

Another suggestion - and I apologize if this is gross - is to collect the dirt from the bottom of your shoes for a week or so and then sprinkle it on the carpet sample to see if it's visible. Dirt is different colors in different places, and you want the dirt in your home to blend in. It's going to get ground in, there's just no getting around that really, so you want to make sure it's not going to stain.

Since you have a pet and may have kids at some point, I would also look at carpet squares. They make some very nice industrial grade carpet squares in all patterns/colors. The nice thing about them is that they are virtually impossible to destroy, but if you do... you just replace the one square instead of the entire thing. Maintenance on them tends to be much cheaper for that reason.

If you want to stick to a single piece, I would also look at the big box stores. They sell the major carpet brands, and every couple of months one of them will run a free install deal. Carpet installation actually isn't that difficult, you just need a specific machine to tighten it properly. It's a lot less labor-intensive than having hardwoods installed, and I wouldn't worry about the guy HD/Lowes sends out doing a good job. A lot of the people I know who are in the business use these guys to do their own homes, etc.

Finally, I just wanted to let you know that any hardwood installers should be able to match your original wood. We had carpet taken out and hardwoods put down in two bedrooms, and they matched the original 1950's floors. You would have to know they are 60 years different to be able to tell. If you are on a slab, they can also do engineered hardwood that looks identical to real hardwood, even the really old stuff. We have some of that in our back room addition. It looks exactly the same as the 1950's wood from the kitchen that it blends into. With good engineered floors they lay it down naked (glued) and then sand, stain, and poly it just like you would with "real" hardwoods. As long as you don't get click-floors, matching it shouldn't be a huge problem. I would at least price it out and then think about how many times you would replace the carpet for that cost. We ultimately decided that hardwood would be cheaper in the long run because our cats LOVE to claw carpet/rugs.

julieanne912 · October 2015

We have hardwood in our entry hallway, kitchen, dining, and part of the great room. We thought to save money we'd put in carpet in the living area of the great room, and it's installed so it looks kind of like an area rug. Anyway, I hate that we did carpet, mainly because we picked a dark gray, which looks great when it's freshly vacuumed, but we have 2 shedding dogs so it looks bad about an hour after it is vacuumed. Would have been much easier with all wood.

I will say I like the type we have...since we are stuck with it. It's a very low tight pile with a pattern to it, but not berber, so the dog claws can't pull it up and everything vacuums up nicely from it. So maybe look for something like that? I included a picture so you can see sorta what I'm talking about.

abrewer5 · October 2015

Xstatic3333 said:

Ive got a situation for the home improvement brain trust. When we bought our house, one room had pretty nasty carpet to start. We knew it had to go, but decided to wait until after we got a dog to pull the trigger. True to form, he made a huge mess of the room when he was sick right after his arrival, but now he's reliably house trained and we hit a wall where it is just too embarrassing to look at. We had it measured yesterday, and for a mid-range carpet our estimate is $832 (with us doing removal and furniture moving). We'd prefer to get it a bit lower. As you can see, the room opens on to the yard, so it will get a little messy and we expect we'll need to replace it every few years. Currently this room is an office, but once we have a child it will also serve as a guest room (probably with a fold out couch). We want to keep it carpeted as opposed to adding hardwoods. We will be cash flowing the purchase-$832 is our absolute max. How much would you spend to carpet one room? Any good or bad experiences with cheap vs. expensive carpets in indoor/outdoor spaces and with pets? Baxter likes to play in this room, so it will see some abuse from puppy nails. There is also the risk that if he gets another stomach bug or acts out we will have some messes to clean up. I'm also open to color suggestions; current plan is to stay with light tan.

To the bolded-- If you're concerned about traffic/dirt from the door I would HIGHLY recommend tiling out a small section in front of the door. My H and I did this in our basement when we replaced the nasty old carpet and it has been amazing at keeping dirt off the new carpet. Total I would say we paid $100 for tile (8 - 12 x 12 pieces), grout, and the metal piece that the carpet gets stuffed under. (Our basement is the main entrance to our house because we park in the back) It took us a total of 4 hours maybe to put it down ourselves.

I will agree with PP that I prefer hard wood, but if I was going with carpet in a room that the dog plays in I would go mid-range. Not too expensive, but also not too cheap that it would need to be replaced quickly. We went with a mid-higher range carpet in our basement and I don't regret spending the money one bit even thou it was over $2000. Everything we've ever spilled on the carpet comes up immediately with just water and a cloth and it seemingly doesn't retain smell. The carpet guy we talked to also recommended if you go with a cheaper carpet to get a better carpet pad because that will improve the longevity.

formerlyGDaisy09 · October 2015

Xstatic3333 said:

@formerlyGdaisy, that laminate looks awesome!

-snip-

thanks! it's actually the cheap click-together traffic-master laminate...but in a basement (potential for flooding) and with the 2 dogs and 2 cats I felt better with that than investing in anything real, the upstairs of our house is real hardwood and porcelain tile. And I've found several decent area rugs to soften it up...and so the dogs don't slide all over the place.

Totally get your reasoning for not wanting to do hardwoods. but I do agree that pricing out getting something to match the rest of the house + area rugs for doggy and comparing that to how often you might need to replace wall-to-wall might be a good exercise. I priced out wall-to-wall for the basement and decided against it, but I think we had a lot more area to cover than you, and it didn't have to match the rest of the house because it's a totally seperate space.

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

Thanks to you both! @hoffse your ideas are really great. The dirt thing doesn't gross me out at all, it's a really great idea. We're already in the process with Home Depot, and I feel pretty comfortable with them. The guy who came to measure was extremely professional. I just need to keep an eye on the quotes, because they keep trying to slip in things like furniture removal (Ummmm, how are we paying you to do furniture removal when we already took the old carpet out? Too sneaky!) I had no idea about the squares option, but I'll definitely ask about it.

@julieanne912, I actually really wanted grey carpet but got talked out of it by H for exactly that reason. Major dog hair coverage. I do think low, tight pile like that would be a good way to go. Now leaning:

-Low, tight pile with no hooks

-Speckled tan color

-High end enough to have some stain repellant properties

I can't wait to go to talk to the HD carpet lady after work! So excited to finally get going on some house projects.

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

abrewer5 said:

Xstatic3333 said:

Ive got a situation for the home improvement brain trust. When we bought our house, one room had pretty nasty carpet to start. We knew it had to go, but decided to wait until after we got a dog to pull the trigger. True to form, he made a huge mess of the room when he was sick right after his arrival, but now he's reliably house trained and we hit a wall where it is just too embarrassing to look at. We had it measured yesterday, and for a mid-range carpet our estimate is $832 (with us doing removal and furniture moving). We'd prefer to get it a bit lower. As you can see, the room opens on to the yard, so it will get a little messy and we expect we'll need to replace it every few years. Currently this room is an office, but once we have a child it will also serve as a guest room (probably with a fold out couch). We want to keep it carpeted as opposed to adding hardwoods. We will be cash flowing the purchase-$832 is our absolute max. How much would you spend to carpet one room? Any good or bad experiences with cheap vs. expensive carpets in indoor/outdoor spaces and with pets? Baxter likes to play in this room, so it will see some abuse from puppy nails. There is also the risk that if he gets another stomach bug or acts out we will have some messes to clean up. I'm also open to color suggestions; current plan is to stay with light tan.

To the bolded-- If you're concerned about traffic/dirt from the door I would HIGHLY recommend tiling out a small section in front of the door. My H and I did this in our basement when we replaced the nasty old carpet and it has been amazing at keeping dirt off the new carpet. Total I would say we paid $100 for tile (8 - 12 x 12 pieces), grout, and the metal piece that the carpet gets stuffed under. (Our basement is the main entrance to our house because we park in the back) It took us a total of 4 hours maybe to put it down ourselves.

I will agree with PP that I prefer hard wood, but if I was going with carpet in a room that the dog plays in I would go mid-range. Not too expensive, but also not too cheap that it would need to be replaced quickly. We went with a mid-higher range carpet in our basement and I don't regret spending the money one bit even thou it was over $2000. Everything we've ever spilled on the carpet comes up immediately with just water and a cloth and it seemingly doesn't retain smell. The carpet guy we talked to also recommended if you go with a cheaper carpet to get a better carpet pad because that will improve the longevity.

I really like the tile idea. See, this is why I posted here! For some reason something so simple just never even occurred to me.

vlagrl29 · October 2015

I yearn for the day we can get hardwood floors on our entire main level. I want an estimate so I know what we are looking at for $$ - most likely we will have to finance half of it.

When we finish off the basement I want wood looking laminate and we will put a rug on it as well.

brij2006 · October 2015

Oh yes, definitely go with getting tile for right inside the door. We even did that with the laminate we laid this past winter. Still did tile to the back door since the dog comes in and out there, and I wanted a spot to wipe her paws before marking up the laminate.

formerlyGDaisy09 · October 2015

My parents did tile as a landing at the bottom of their stairs into the basement...the rest of the finished space is wall-to-wall carpet, it seems to have made a huge difference (you can go one way off the tile into the unfinished space, so it's kept that part of the carpet from traffic damage)

short+sassy · October 2015

vlagrl29 said:

I yearn for the day we can get hardwood floors on our entire main level. I want an estimate so I know what we are looking at for $$ - most likely we will have to finance half of it.

When we finish off the basement I want wood looking laminate and we will put a rug on it as well.

Check out wood looking porcelain/ceramic tiles also. They are easier to install (cheaper), more durable, and look as good if not better than wood laminate. Most of what is available is porcelain ($1.99-$2.99 sq. ft.), but I just scored some ceramic ones for only $1.39 sq. ft. I was super excited about that because I had budgeted for $1.99. This is what I bought, which is more of a distressed look, but they come in all different wood-like colors:

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

short+sassy said:

vlagrl29 said:

I yearn for the day we can get hardwood floors on our entire main level. I want an estimate so I know what we are looking at for $$ - most likely we will have to finance half of it.

When we finish off the basement I want wood looking laminate and we will put a rug on it as well.

Check out wood looking porcelain/ceramic tiles also. They are easier to install (cheaper), more durable, and look as good if not better than wood laminate. Most of what is available is porcelain ($1.99-$2.99 sq. ft.), but I just scored some ceramic ones for only $1.39 sq. ft. I was super excited about that because I had budgeted for $1.99. This is what I bought, which is more of a distressed look, but they come in all different wood-like colors:

LOVE those tiles. They feel so fancy but are such a great deal.

CuriousKiddosMama · October 2015

I would shop around as that seems high to me for one room. I got the upstairs in my rental property re carpeted for like $1200, which included an upgrade to the best carpet pad. It's not a super huge house but it's still about 8-900 square feet on the top level and the stairs. Maybe a little less because of the 2 bathrooms now that I'm thinking about it. We went through lowes when they were having their free installation event so that saved us like $100 right there.
If you can't get the carpet cheaper, honestly I would look around at wood stores like lumber liquidators to see if you can find something that will match close enough that it wouldn't bother you, and then get a rug for your pup.

BlueBirdMB · October 2015

Xstatic3333 said:

@formerlyGdaisy, that laminate looks awesome!

I know carpet is a controversial choice. There are a few reasons:

1) This is the only carpeted room in the house, and the hardwood in the rest is in great condition. It would bother the heck out of me to have hardwood in this room that doesn't match the rest of the house.

2) We feel bad that the dog slides around everywhere on the hardwood. He really likes this room to play in for that reason.

3) We also think it would be nice to have a carpeted room once we have a kid who wants to crawl around (parents, feel free to correct me there).

@brij2006, your feedback was super helpful. We are also planning on speckled, non-berber. This carpet is berber and between the previous owner's dog and our dog it is all pulled up and a total mess. I think we're really on the fence between going cheap and just going right for the midrange like you are about to do. The midrange comes with some warranties and guarantees, but I'm always distrustful for those. Your comment about stains getting hard to remove, however, is what I'm afraid of with low-end. We are planning to go back in tonight and ask if there are any remnants or specials going that could get us nicer material for a discount.

@cbee817 our estimate already includes us doing all carpet removal, disposal, and floor prep. The room is approximately 13' by 14', but in our estimate it looks like they are just charging us for two "rolls" of 12' by 19', which seems like a waste. There were some bulk-order options where I'm hoping we could avoid paying for the extra we're not even going to use.

The price you were quoted sounds reasonable for an ok quality carpet. If you decide to go with hardwood though, it's very simple to match up hardwoods. We added hardwood to our bedrooms- the hallway outside was already wood, and we matched it pretty damn well. It wasn't difficult and it blends well that unless you looked super hard, you wouldn't notice.

jtmh2012 · October 2015

Just thought I'd toss this in there. When we were selling our last house, we got an awesome deal on a roll of carpet that happened to be the right color and was way better than what we had, but it was a carpet they weren't going to carry anymore. So maybe ask about carpets they're going to discontinue?

Xstatic3333 · October 2015

We went back to HD last night, spoke with a super knowledgeable person, and she pointed us at some bulk order carpet that is actually higher quality than my last pick, but much cheaper since they have it all in stock. She got our price down to $625, which is right where I wanted to be. We brought home squares yesterday and will finalize our color choice tonight.

Thanks to you all for your great suggestions!

Sisugal · October 2015

You might want to consider a rectangular patch of tile near your doors to cut down on the mess that gets tracked in -- not only cleaner, but will also expend the life of your new rug.

I am a hardwood fan - and then have area rugs in some of my rooms.

lbonga1 · October 2015

Count me in with those that prefer hardwood, laminate, or tile, but I may be biased because we've been stuck in apartments with the cheapest carpeting they could find. But because of this I've gotten to try a bunch of different ways to clean it, so I know what works well! It turns out that using a light colored pine sol instead of normal carpet shampoo in a steam cleaner works really well. I've also heard 409 works well for spot treatment, but I haven't tried that yet.

That's great that you were able to get the cost down. Be sure to show us a picture when it's finished!

BlueBirdMB · October 2015

What about carpet tile? It's pretty cheap, you can change it out at will (one piece at a time), and it's crazy easy to install yourself.

vlagrl29 · October 2015

lbonga1 said:

Count me in with those that prefer hardwood, laminate, or tile, but I may be biased because we've been stuck in apartments with the cheapest carpeting they could find. But because of this I've gotten to try a bunch of different ways to clean it, so I know what works well! It turns out that using a light colored pine sol instead of normal carpet shampoo in a steam cleaner works really well. I've also heard 409 works well for spot treatment, but I haven't tried that yet.

That's great that you were able to get the cost down. Be sure to show us a picture when it's finished!

Yeah - I steam clean our family room and hallway carpet once a month - the only way I can keep sane! I was vacuuming today and told DH I just can't wait but we need to. The time line is DH's studio project, baby, then hardwood floors. We are going to get a quote so we can at least save half of the money and finance the rest.

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