Carpet Pricing and Buying Advice?

[coolspot]

Hi All,

I'm looking to replace my carpets on my second floor with a Stainmaster treated carpet that looks like this:

http://www.stainmaster.com/images/selector/SAND/LOOP/BEDROOM/LARGE.JPG

For roughly 1500 sq feet of carpeted area, including my staircase, I'm being quoted roughly 6K including upgraded 12mm underpad, disposal, installation, and taxes.

Is this a good price?

When buying carpets are there any specific specifications I should be looking at or specific questions I should ask?

Thanks!

[speedyforme]

It will be nice to hear about the value since I also plan on redoing my stairs and upper hallway.

[felix2000]

Well I'm no expert but I was talking with some flooring people the other day and it seems like $2 a sq ft was an average price for carpet. So that alone brings you to $3k, under pad for midrange decent stuff is like $.60 sq ft if I remember correct so that takes us to $3900. Don't remember installation costs for carpet but removal/installation and taxes seems sound right for the remaining $2100.

Though I would definitely recommend getting quotes from a few other places as well. I was talking to people from a Carpet One in mississauga.

[CSK'sMom]

That's in the ballpark. Save yourself some money and do the rip out and disposal yourself. Most municipal garbage programs will take carpet and pad if it's cut in 2 foot strips and rolled...

[coolspot]

That's in the ballpark. Save yourself some money and do the rip out and disposal yourself. Most municipal garbage programs will take carpet and pad if it's cut in 2 foot strips and rolled...

The places I called are only charging 10c per sq foot for disposal, so it's only $150 for all the carpet. I think it's worth getting their guys to dispose of the carpet? :D

As for the price of the carpet, the store did mention it was a higher-end carpet; above the average of $40.00 per square yard.

The carpet I'm looking at is a Comfort Peerless "South Side" Stainmaster... I believe it's about 40oz+ range per square yard.

I'm am getting a second quote from another company, but it seems with carpet shopping it's a bit like mattress shopping; each store carries similar products with different names, brand lines, etc.

[bryan35]

May want to check with Home Depot. They had some good sales on recently.

[coolspot]

May want to check with Home Depot. They had some good sales on recently.

I just gave them a call; can't believe Home Depot charges 60.00 to do the estimate.

[CSK'sMom]

Yep, it's not uncommon these days for a lot of places to charge for estimates. Someone needs to come out and measure and then figure out the cut plan which all takes time and costs money. Most, if not all places will credit back the estimate fee if you choose to go with them.

[canuck88]

$4/sq ft including disposal is a fine price. I paid about $3.75/sq ft for the same carpet without disposal at Carpet One/Factory Flooring.

[Ctrl-Z]

I recently bought carpet from Home Depot for my whole house. Price was fairly good after a 15% discount but the experience was an ordeal due to Home Depot incompetence. It took 2 and 1/2 months from ordering the carpet to having the install complete. Their one installer (independent) was a good man but grossly overbooked. The original carpet we picked out was discovered to not be available 2 weeks later (though HD continued to prominently display that unavailable carpet for a long time after that). The basement underlay and nailing strips were installed one morning and then I was told the basement carpet wasn't in - because no one had actually ordered it!! This despite me personally checking with them that the carpet was in 2 weeks prior.

No one claimed responsibility for that. Home Depot pretended to put in a rush order in on the missing carpet but it was another month waiting while the underlay was slowly damaged and much pain inflicted on the feet from stepping on the nailing strips. When the carpet finally came in, the installer was too busy to install it for another 10 days or so.

Home Depot refused any compensation for their screwups and the massive inconvience it caused us. I spent almost 8K on carpet and it was like not being able to use our house for 2 months with furniture and stuff continuously being shuffled from room to room depending on if the installer had the time (and the carpet) to do any installing on a particular day. I've learned the hard way that a big carpet job is best handled by a real carpet company that knows their business and has real deadlines for completing the job. In this regard, Home Depot REEKS.

[coolspot]

I went to Home Depot to get a quote, their prices seems much higher than a regular carpet store, for example:

2.75 per square yard for disposal alone
32.00 to dispose of packaging (they don't specify per room, per job, etc.)

Other stores are charging 10c per square feet or 90c per square yard.

Stairs are extra, I think they charge 60.00 per step?

Anyhow, overall Home Depot was ~20 - 25% more expensive.

[fireguy9]

I just gave them a call; can't believe Home Depot charges 60.00 to do the estimate.

you get that put towards the cost if you book with them. Get the price estimate first and if you happy then buy and that cost means nothing. We have used HD for two carpet purchases and they were best price by far. We bought carpet with the all in one special purchase price,, which included free install , free underpad, and free carpet cleaning for 3yrs. Whole process both times was flawless.

Stairs were extra,, at the time $5 per step. They took packaging with them at no charge. We disposed of carpet ourselves. (think we posted free carpet and someone picked up most of it)

[coolspot]

Just called Costco too; but they only deal with higher end carpets starting at 5.00+ per square feet :(

[CSK'sMom]

Stairs are always extra and the charge is dependant on the type of stair. There is no way they charge $60 per stair, there is only 1 type of stair that is anywhere near that price (a full birdcage one side, double birdcage is more).

[monomono]

I just got carpet installed from Lowes for a 200sf room.
They had a special of 20% off which expired end of March, but it might be possible to still negotiate that, I don't know.

I shopped around many places and found that Lowes had the best price for what I was looking for (plush/saxony). Their selection is huge.

The install time was very fast - they told me to expect 4 weeks, but it was installed within 10 days of the order. Customer service was good too. As a side note, I think Lowes may go out of business eventually. They seem have many more staff compared to Home Depot.

[speedyforme]

I just got carpet installed from Lowes for a 200sf room.
They had a special of 20% off which expired end of March, but it might be possible to still negotiate that, I don't know.

I shopped around many places and found that Lowes had the best price for what I was looking for (plush/saxony). Their selection is huge.

The install time was very fast - they told me to expect 4 weeks, but it was installed within 10 days of the order. Customer service was good too. As a side note, I think Lowes may go out of business eventually. They seem have many more staff compared to Home Depot.

Did they give you an installation quote per sq ft? I checked out Rona and it was a minimum $300 labour charge regardles of size.

[mmhassa2]

Back in September we went through the search to carpet our house and went through HD and a handful different smaller stores but decided to go with Perfect Flooring as their price was the most reasonable. HD will charge you some crazy prices and by the time you pay for, disposing, removing existing carpet, extra charges for stairs you’ll be left with little money to spend on the actual carpet and underpad.

We got our house carpeted (1600sq of the area to be carpeted plus stairs, with berber) for $3400 (No taxes since we paid cash). The guys did a really good job and we get compliments on the floor by family/friends visiting our home all the time.

The price above also included removing the existing carpet and disposing it. The place is called "Perfect Flooring", it's close to downsview subway.

[monomono]

Did they give you an installation quote per sq ft? I checked out Rona and it was a minimum $300 labour charge regardles of size.

I think I paid $200 for install which is their minimum.