Newly installed Carpet for small room, ready to sell house.
Here in the US, replacing floor carpeting is bound to happen during our lifetime. When we were planning to sell our town house, we decided to replace the carpet because the contractor grade carpet and padding was really meant to be replaced after 10 years or less. For us it was pushing 17 years old and it has seen better days.
I liked the quality of work of the carpet guy who worked with the general contractor who did our basement. He was hard working and took pride in his craft. I did ask for his card and his source for materials(carpet and padding). While I was at it, I asked him to give me a quote for the 3 bedrooms and a stair case. He gave me the estimate of how much material needed and his labor. Of course, the SOP(standard operating procedure) is to ask for quotes from at least 3 contractors. The other two contractors, 1 was from a big box store and the other is from a national floor covering store. We went to the warehouse where our carpet guy gets his materials and picked out a decent quality carpet(keeping in mind that we may end up staying in the house longer). We compared quotes, our carpet guy beat big box store and floor covering store by half. He told me that we didn’t need so much material that the other guys were estimating and the labor included middle men over head. He didn’t charge an outrageous fee for the stairs which the 2 other guys quoted at a much higher rate per square foot.
Carpet Secret: We learned that there are only a very few carpet manufacturers in this country, these are the big brand names you see in the big box stores. When we went to the carpet supplier, the big brand name carpet manufacturers have different product labels. They do this so that customers cannot compare apples to apples with the “official” flooring stores that carry their brands. In a big box store, our budget could have only given us a low grade product but in the carpet supplier we were able to buy higher quality for the same price.
So in the end, we had an upgraded carpet which was rated a “green” product with a very reasonable price. Lesson learned: find a great carpet guy who tells you to buy the material straight from the supplier and pay for his labor. There are carpet guys who are sub-contracted by flooring stores. It’s easier to find a carpet supplier and ask for contractors who buy from them then ask for quotes. For about 2 hours of inconvenience, we saved $1,500 in the process.
When selling a home, the question arises about wether to replace the carpet or offer a carpet allowance. For our situation, the carpet added the “new” feel to the place. The carpet would have cost us more if we offered fair market value allowance for it.
