Buying carpet- best deals? Your experience?

[crazymomof4]

Hi all fellow budget-minded DISers!

We are about to drop a significant amount of $ carpeting several rooms in our home. My head is spinning with all of the choices out there.

It's difficult comparing prices from one place to the next so I wanted your input.

Where did you find the best prices/service? Large home improvement stores like Lowe's or Home Depot? Shop at Home services like Empire? Small family owned dealers?

Any tips/recommendations will be appreciated.

 

[Darcy03231]

I found we did the best at a small family owned company. Prices were comparable to Home Depot and Lowes, but service and installation were so much better. We had an issue with the carpet about 6 months after it was installed and they came right out and fixed it. No questions, no problems.

 

[crazymomof4]

Thanks
My husband say tonight that he wanted to try a small place nearby.

 

[Bren's Mom]

I agree...we went with a small, local place. They were less expensive than Home Depot and Lowe's. We dealt with the same person each time throughout the process...and we know that they want more business from us so they worked hard to keep us happy!

BTW...we saved some money because we weren't particular on the exact color we wanted...I specifically asked if they had any leftover from another job that would fit our room...and they did so they knocked off the price for us! If you aren't going all with one color carpet in the whole house be sure to ask about that!

 

[Todd&Copper]

Regarding Empire: I have a friend who wad to have all of the carpets removed from her house and replaced with wood/wood laminate (her infant son had severe allergies), so she called Empire for a quote. They gave her an estimate and told her they'd give her 50% off IF she had the installation done the next day, but she had to have it done the next day for the discount. She agreed, bit it was a Friday and her husband was at work until late, so she was left havign to move a lot of furniture by herself to prepare for the installation.
She was happy with the end results, but warned me that if I get a quote from Empire, make sure i am ready for next-day installation if I want a dioscount.

 

[rbork]

Carpeted the 2 levels of the house < yr ago. Cost was between 9-10k.
We shopped and shopped.. found a plush we liked and a berber for the basement we liked, then compared apples to apples. We took the name/model # and square footage and asked the exact questions at every store. We used a store that specialized in carpet/flooring nothing else. Finally took a trip into the 'not so good' part of the city to the distributing warehouse, we negotiated over 2 days and they came in 2K less than the others. Also note we could have saved more $ by removing and disposing of the old carpet first but elected not to due to the amount of old carpet. (old -was 2 year old carpet that the previous homeowners let their animals reek havock on. KWIM. ) If you have decent padding you may be able to keep it??? thus cutting cost also.

p.s. We did get a 'run' in the berber about 2months later, called and they cam out and fixed it no questions asked.
Good Luck and do what's right for you

 

[TenThousandVolts]

We just got carpet installed from Home Depot (yesterday). Very happy with the finished product. I was shocked at how low the price was but I didn't really compare shop. It is a nice berber, the best quality pad, installed for $2150. 1200 sq feet plus 2 staircases -that price included the installers moving all the furniture. very happy!

 

[decaff38]

We bought carpet from the factories in Georgia and installed it our selves. Got the brand and style # and had them send me a sample so I was sure it was the same. We had it delivered to my husband's work ( much cheaper shipping) . Hubby used to install flooring a few years before. You could hire an installer and have them do it. We bought the entire roll but they cut it for us and then sent it. Love my carpet and it was 7.00 a yard as compared to the store price of 24.00 a yard. Well worth it . You have to prepared to do the hard work yourself.

 

[crazymomof4]

Thanks so much to everyone for taking the time to reply!

decaff38- That was a BIG savings!-- how did you find the factory in GA?- online? Why was the shipping cheaper to your husband's work? This would work for us as one of my husband's co-workers used to install carpeting professionally and has offered to do it for us - we would pay him, of course!

TenThousandVolts- Home Depot and Lowes are very tempting too, bc. both now offer installation for $199 if you buy 2 or more rooms. They move the furniture and dispose of the old carpet. That appeals to DH!

Todd&Copper- thanks for the warning! I have always been leary of in-home salesmen- a long time ago we had a "free vacuum demonstration" that turned out to be a nightmare!

Bren's Mom- I'm glad you mentioned the "remnant" idea. We did that years ago, but I'd forgotten. We may be able to do that for one of the smaller rooms we're getting done.

So much to factor in to a decision like this-- it's a lot of $$ and you want to get the most for it. Taking all your suggestions into account- they're very helpful!

 

[Golf4food]

We just put in carper in two rooms and a hallway and wound up using a Carpet & Drapes store - chain, but best combination of price and service we found in our search of 5 or 6 places nearby, and we got a great carpet from them that they had bought as a special buy so it was cheaper from them than an nearly identical model we had seen at another store. Sometimes you just get lucky.

 

[ColoradoMom!!]

OK - I am bumping this old thread because I am in need of advice - did a search already, and want some more current feedback.

Anyone ever use Costco for carpet?

 

[readingteacher]

We built a house 3 years ago and bought all our carpet in KC, MO 3 hours from us b/c it was so much cheaper than Lowes and HD. The place is called PRO Source. Supposed to be a contractor but if you flip houses every few years that counts too. Basically you pay $30 to join and you can get carpet, granite, tile... for 40% off anything you can find at any other stores. Saved us Alot of $$. They have a website with locations.

 

[itchin2go]

We used Lowe's last year. They were running an installation special, something like $99 for the entire house, which included moving the furniture and everything. We asked a contractor if he could match that deal, and he couldn't. We ended up getting a nice berber that was less than $2 a square foot. The end result was GORGEOUS.

Side note: If you've never had carpet installed, you should know that it's the noisiest, most jarring home improvement job I've ever experienced. I would recommend that everyone (including pets) be out of the house while it's being done. We had just the upstairs done, and really, an earthquake would have been quieter.

 

[TaraPA]

We've had 3 houses & a rental property in the last 15 years, and we've replaced or installlled new carpet in all of them. We've shopped Lowes, Home Depot, the local carpet place & Empire. Without a doubt for us the best deal, fastest installation & best quality was from the local carpet place.

The guy that came out from Empire actually creeped me out - he was VERY high pressure sales & tried to upsell everything. Had to excuse himself with his cell many times to "chew down the price with his supervisor." In the end they had the higest estimate. Lowe's & Home Depot had a fair price but were weeks behind in installation. We did use them once (HD) and the quality & installation were awful. It took repeated calls to get them to come back & fix their mistakes.

The local carpet place was willing to match any price, they were courteous, knowledgeable & fast. They were out to measure the next day & instaled when I wanted, within the week. We also used remnants like another poster mentioned, in our rental property, and saved a lot of money.

 

[tink_n_pooh]

Just wanted to chime in that we had most of our home refloored in the past few months (carpet & laminant), we thought we would get the best price from one of the big box stores so we paid the $40-ish to have them come out to the house and give us an estimate. We should have saved the $40 to begin with

I think we ended up paying about half of what lowes & home depot wanted by going with the local guys and we ended up with better carpet to boot

 

[kpauley]

We just purchased 163 yards of carpet from Home Depot in June and love the carpet. When you purchase a large amount, they can submit your potential purchase to the contractor "bid room" and see if a contractor will come in under the store advertised price. This saved us a couple of hundred dollars. This "bid" process is only on the carpet .... not the pad. Also check with your local HD store, not online, for special financing and credit card offers as these vary from store-to-store. We got $200 off for opening a charge card and 6 months free financing. We will have this paid off within 6 months so this was a good option for us.

By the way, we had this happen and I've read it is common with the "big box stores", but our carpet ended up being backordered and it took 6 weeks to arrive.

 

[ceecee]

I went to a place in a small town (a 45 mi drive) and we got 3 bedrooms, hall, stairs, large living room and dining room carpeted. DuraCeramic tile in 2 entry ways and kitchen and vinyl in two baths with life time quaranteed padding, installed for $5000.00. Rite Rug (a chain) and Lowes estimate was almost double. They sold by the yard, a lot of the other sell be the foot-so it seems cheaper at first glance but it isn't. I sent a friend there and she saved $1000.00.

 

[GraysMom]

We've had 3 houses & a rental property in the last 15 years, and we've replaced or installlled new carpet in all of them. We've shopped Lowes, Home Depot, the local carpet place & Empire. Without a doubt for us the best deal, fastest installation & best quality was from the local carpet place.

The guy that came out from Empire actually creeped me out - he was VERY high pressure sales & tried to upsell everything. Had to excuse himself with his cell many times to "chew down the price with his supervisor." In the end they had the higest estimate. Lowe's & Home Depot had a fair price but were weeks behind in installation. We did use them once (HD) and the quality & installation were awful. It took repeated calls to get them to come back & fix their mistakes.

The local carpet place was willing to match any price, they were courteous, knowledgeable & fast. They were out to measure the next day & instaled when I wanted, within the week. We also used remnants like another poster mentioned, in our rental property, and saved a lot of money.

Tara, what local place did you guys use? We'll be needing new carpet downstairs soon and I have no idea where to look.

 

[cnj]

I was really happy with Home Depot with our carpet installation in May.

 

[TaraPA]

Tara, what local place did you guys use? We'll be needing new carpet downstairs soon and I have no idea where to look.

Hey Jessamy!

I have to go look throught th paperwork - I know in the past we used Crest Wholesale on 222 in Trexlertown - for this house we used a place also on 222 in Trexlertown - but not sure if it was Crest. There used to be one down on the corner by Rt 100/222 - it wasn't that one. It was up more towards the new Wal-Mart Supercenter...I'm drawing a complete blank on the name! I have the papers packed away but need to look something else up too, so I wil do that at some point today.. OR - if you know that Crest Wholesale is the one up by WalMart then there's your answer!

Don't you love how wishy washy that answer was!