OT-Buying new carpet

[cara1]

I don't know anything about this! We're looking for a super-plush carpet, that's also okay for kids and cat vomit. Anyone know what to look for? Brands? Key words ? I know nothing...

[parkersmama]

We just got new carpet in the summer and I love it! I can't remember what brand it is but it's got that Stainmaster guarantee. Maybe Stainmaster is the brand? but I don't think so. Anyway, we just went in to the carpet store (one we've dealt with before...they put in the inital carpet when we built this house) and started talking to them. We also went to Lowe's for info and a quote. We ended up with carpet from the carpet store. It is very good quality and was on sale. It's plush and cushy. One key is too get the best pad you can afford. Even if you put a slightly lower grade carpet on it, good padding underneath makes it feel a lot better! Compared to our other carpet, this carpet (with extra-good pad) feels like walking on a cloud! LOL! The lady actually pulled the carpet samples I was interested in and got out a couple of grades of pad and we put them on the floor and let me walk on them barefooted to see which I liked best. It was very helpful. They also let me "check out" 2X3 foot squares to bring home and try colors and quality comparisons at home. That was also quite helpful especially in deciding the color. Don't let them force you to take tiny samples because the color will be very hard to tell unless you have a fair-sized sample. HTH! Have fun!

[pritchettzoo]

Carpet for cat vomit--that's what my dining room is for! It's the vomitarium or whatever the word is...whacko Romans used to use one after they would eat themselves silly...

Anyway, brands of carpet are all fairly similar. I think there are about 3 major carpet manufacturers in the US and they make all the different lines, so "brands" are pretty useless. They're mostly made right up the expressway in Dalton, GA.

Look for the stain resistant coating to be in the yarn itself rather than sprayed on the finished carpeting. There's a special padding you can get that's made for kids and pets--one is endorsed by Arm & Hammer. Ask for recommendations from friends and neighbors. Check around to different places and get written estimates! Write down the manufacturer and the name of the carpet, but different dealers will carry the same exact carpet under a different name.

There are probably some online "tutorials" as well. This website has some really informative articles about flooring. I researched laminate wood products here before purchasing. http://www.ifloor.com/cat_7/Carpet.html

Good luck!

Anna
Mama to Gracie (9/16/03)

[hez]

I was a carpet-novice too-- so I crammed a little before we replaced the carpet in the dining room/living room & stairs/upstairs hallway. I used this site: http://www.carpetguru.com and a couple others to educate myself a little before we dove in. We happened to walk in to an unadvertised sale, so we got great prices (which I knew from doing my homework!).

We were able to take the samples home, too, and my interior designer friend helped us out with coordinating the paint samples (we wanted to paint the rooms at the same time), to keep us from going too yellow or too brown on our off-white.

One point she & the carpet saleslady both made was that if you're carpeting a room with low traffic, you can get away with a lower grade-- but we did NOT skimp on the stairs/hallway due to the high traffic. Oh, and we have a couple seams in funny places due to the room sizes, so we had remnants bound professionally, and they're covering the seams where there's dog traffic. The whole reason we had to replace carpet in the first place was the dog would go on these crazy runs around the house & he dug up the carpet at the original seams!