Carpet floors??????????????

well, our plan for hardwood floors throughout the house did not work: the floors upstairs are painted (yes, paint on the wood underneath the yucky carpet we removed!) and i'm afraid it might be lead, so we're not messing with it...i have pretty newly done wood floors dowstars, but the stairs and bedrooms will have to be carpeted...how muh does this cost per square foot? installation?? are stairs more expensive? i have no time for people to come to my house and give me estimates, so any suggestion would help!!!!

[mudder17]

We haven't had to do carpet recently, but I do remember growing up in Chicago and always hearing the Empire commercial (sing-song voice: 588-2300, Empire...). They were supposed to have the best prices around. They have gone nationwide and apparently will bring samples into your home, etc. Check out their website:

http://www.empirecarpet.com/Carpets.asp

I know it's not an approximate price, which is what you were looking for, but hope it helps some!

Eileen

Mother of Beautiful Kaya
born 22 February 2004

http://lilypie.com/baby1/050222/2/16/0/+10/.png

http://www.gynosaur.com/assets/ribbo..._garnet_6m.gif Breastfed 6 months and counting

http://www.chemicalgraphics.com/kaya

Eri, my father has a carpet guy that he really liked - I believe right near your school. He is out of the country now - I'll ask him when he returns next week.

I haven't forgotten about your other thing either! Life is just returning to normal from vacation - I'll email you soon.

[chlobo]

I think carpet has a wide range of prices depending on material, brand, coating, etc. I was just recently shopping for carpet and at the place I was at the prices ranged from about $3/sqft to about $8/sqft (I think that was installed).

Be sure to research any strain resistant coatings you want to get. I was just reading on another website that said the best kind of carpet to get (for your own health as well as your child's) is a natural fiber (wool, cotton, etc) with no stain resistant coating. However, it might be hard to stomach the thought of not having any stain protection.

[JElaineB]

We had new carpet put in thoughout most of our house just over 2 years ago before DS was born. We found carpet ranging from around $2.00 to over $5 per square foot. I'm sure there are some that are way more. The prices generally included installation. At some carpet warehouse type stores installation was extra and they didn't do it themselves (they had subcontractors do it), but the carpet price was cheaper to compensate. I personally didn't want that, I wanted the store to be responsible for everything indcluding the installation. I think ours ended up being around $2.50 per square foot including installation and a decent pad (or we might have paid a little more for the better pad, I can't remember). Anyway, I thought that was pretty good considering I really like the carpet and it is holding up very well. Stairs are not more expensive. The easiest thing to do is to go to a few stores and look at their samples. It may take some time though to find something you like that is within your budget (if you can spend freely then it would be much quicker, just go in and find something you like and be done with it!) Generally the store will need to come to your house and measure after that. Ours would not order without measuring themself because they did not want to underorder. It took a few weeks to get in, then they came and installed the whole house in one day. So you will need to have ALL items moved on the to-be-carpeted area the night before the installation.

Jennifer
mom to Jacob 9/27/02

Thanks everyone!! At least this gives us a ballpark in terms of what we can afford...And I appreciate the comment about the natural fibers one.I worry about all the stuff they add to the carpets...I was raised in an apartment that had white-ish tile floors throughout, easy to keep clean, and NO chemicals!!

Thanks so much, Andrea, you have been such a resource!!!!