Carpet

[greencreeper]

I'm going to be in the market for some carpet in the next few months. Just being measuring up. I gave up on the stairs - all those surface area calculations took me back to school days and maths lessons :disturbd: Will have to get someone to measure it for me. I've measured the bedroom carpet though. I'm interesting in people's experiences. I've read some dodgy things about CarpetRight, for example. My mate sourced his carpet from Leeds Market and seems fine, but I'm not sure.

[Jules]

Try Max's carpets they will come and measure for free and I am not sure but I think they do free fitting as well

[greencreeper]

Where are they, Jules?

[Jules]

Capital Parade were ever that is, they use to have a lot of special offers, give me a nudge if you want me to pm the phone number.

[lauzjp]

luckily (I think!) my mum lives in an area of luton called bury park, and it has lots of asian shops - so when we do rip up all the carpet and put simulated flooring of some description down, we shall call upon their cheap services! um, so perhaps have a look at some retailers you might not normally consider? ;)

[homealone]

I'm going to be in the market for some carpet in the next few months. Just being measuring up. I gave up on the stairs - all those surface area calculations took me back to school days and maths lessons :disturbd: Will have to get someone to measure it for me. I've measured the bedroom carpet though. I'm interesting in people's experiences. I've read some dodgy things about CarpetRight, for example. My mate sourced his carpet from Leeds Market and seems fine, but I'm not sure.

get it fitted as part of the deal, - especially as you mentioned stairs - have you a local department store that does carpets, curtains, blinds, etc, John, that is where we went for our new carpets?

[greencreeper]

Yeah - will have it fitted. I fitted carpet before - not easy at all. I don't think there is such a store in Leeds :scratch: We have department stores - just not ones that do carpets.

I heard with Carpet Right that they sub-contract the fitters. A colleague at work confirmed this - she bought the carpet but had to pay the fitter seperately on the day. Well dodgy if you ask me.

[bopdude]

And in my experience and IMHO, get the best you can afford atm, I would rather pay a little over that for peace of mind, knowing that I'm not gonna be pulling it up again in 3 months time, deep pile, forget it, nice to look at but try shifting furniture and then trying to shift the 'dents' and yes, I've tried ice cubes / damp towels and hair dryers :(

[greencreeper]

I'm after something with a short pile and tough wearing. The flat I had years ago had a glued down, short pile carpet. Grey speckled colour. Liquids would not soak in - just pooled on the surface. Great carpet. I'd like something similar, but not glued down and with underlay for warmth/comfort.

[Fingy]

I got my living room capret from Carpet Right about a year or so ago. Yes you do pay the fitter seperately on the day which you are told about when you purchase it. But that happens with loads of things these days, i.e. buying doors from the door store, they recommend a fitter but you don't have to use them, if you do they are paid seperately.

From my experience, the carpet fitter was far nicer and a lot more helpful/knowledgeable than the people in the shop. Long story short, they did not order a % more than our room measurements despite being asked to, and the factory cut it even shorter than the room measurement at one end.

I had to have a few polite words *cough* with the store manager and then wait longer for them to re-order a bigger carpet. The fitter told me exactly what to say to the shop so they could not argue their way out of not ordering me a new carpet.

[SMG]

I'm going to be in the market for some carpet in the next few months. I'm interesting in people's experiences. I've read some dodgy things about CarpetRight

I agree with Fingy. I have used Carpet right several times, they do sub contract the fitters, but my carpets were laid OK, & I`m well happy.

[greencreeper]

I nipped into Carpet Right today. Some lovely (but expensive) carpets. I asked the salesman about costs of fitting, etc. Underlay - between £5 and £10 a square meter. Fitting - £2.50 a square meter. Then there's delivery. Oh and a stair carpet is difficult and time consuming to fit - so that's an extra £30. So, for example, a carpet at £5 a square meter, quickly becomes £12.50 if you including fitting and underlay. I can hear the till ringing. They know how to make their money!

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Buy the underlay and fit it yourself. Just tell them that the underlay is already there. Its a doddle to fit and will save you a few quid

[greencreeper]

Ah - my last post is worded badly :dozey: I'm not well.

The fitting of the underlay is included in the £2.50 to fit the carpet, which is generous of them :erm:

[Wicked_and_Crazy]

Not really generous of them, it will be cheap rubbish underlay and one thing that makes a carpet feel right or better than the price of the carpet is to have good quality underlay.

I know you wont see it but its worth spending money on having your underfelt ;)

[danielf]

I'm after something with a short pile and tough wearing. You know you want a **** carpet really ;)

[greencreeper]

So many inappropriate comments, WaC, that I could make :D

I'm going to have a look at a place in Leeds Market where my mate got his carpet - see what they have. It crossed my mind to fit it myself, but it's probably better done by an expert, especially on the stairs where my efforts might constitute a Healthy and Safety issue :p:

[greencreeper]

Right - an update.

Purchased two 5x4 yard carpets, plus underlay, from the market, which came to just under £200. Fitting was a further £75. It's a short pile in a mottled brown colour. I said that I had gripper rods, because on the lower stairs I know I do, and I figured that if the stairs had gripper rods, surely the bedroom should. Hmmm. So that was another £15 and a lot of blood letting on gripper rods - when I took up the carpets, I found that the bedroom and the upper stairs (and landing) were minus rods. The metal plates over the door thresholds were in a bad state. Instead of planing the door bottom, whoever fitted the doors elected to hammer the door plate instead. Sensible. So that was another £10 on two door plates. I found an unused one, for carpet and laminate, so that saved me a few quid. When the fitters arrived (strange bloke and a cute guy), it turned out that the plate I'd bought for the bathroom door (carpet to vinyl) was wrong - so they gave me one free :D I kept them supplied with tea, coffee and water, as requested, which is always a good idea. The "strange bloke" fitter was strange because he was a bundle of contradictions. Looked to be in his late forties, but dressed in trendy trainers, and wearing a lot of facial metal, including a bar through his nose bridge. And then he mentions he wants to finish early if he can, because he's going fishing. It's like many men merged into one. Most odd. The cute fitter was nice though <girly giggle> :D Oh and they've done a great job. I'm just waiting for it to settle, then I can go over it with the vac. Oh and just enough was left over to carpet the meter cupboard :tu:

Greenmount Stores - just opposite a cafe, sort of central market, I think.

[tick]

glad you got it sorted .
I do this for a living .
did you get the fitters number for future use?
might find it handy.
Like the bit about tea and coffee my kind of customer.

[greencreeper]

I do this for a living
It's an under-rated skill is carpet fitting. I made a bit of an hash of carpeting the meter cupboard (less than straight down the sides), so heaven knows what state a bedroom would be in :D


did you get the fitters number for future use?
You mean the cute one? More than likely married, such is my gaydar - the aerial came off long ago. That is what you meant :erm: :p: Nah - no number. Hopefully the carpet will stay down :erm:


Like the bit about tea and coffee my kind of customer.
It's very important is the provision of refreshments. A cared for worker is more likely to care, IMHO.



Forgot to mention that it took about 5 hours to fit the carpet. About 45 minutes or so to fit the bedroom carpet, including moving furniture, and about 4 hours to do the stairs. Really complicated are stairs. I worked that out when I measured them - all different sizes. Lot of tricky measuring and calculations.

[fiddler]

Hi Guys
I have just measured up my landing and stairs - just to get an idea - didn't know how to measure so googled it and came up with carpet index.com which gave sensible instructions on how to measure your landing and stairs etc.
I was planning to toddle oof down to Carpetright this afternoon to see what is available. Was interested in what you had to say about underfelt as the stuff that is under my present carpet, which has been down about 30 years! is, or rather was, foam based and disintegrates when you try to move it.

Laid in the attic I still have some of the underfelt my dad used to get (he was in the textile industry) it is almost 1" thick and was made of Shoddy. I am also getting new carpet fro the attic and have no intention of discarding this underfelt as it is still in excellent condition - will give it a good hoovering (dysoning?) first.

Is it still possible to get this type of underfelt? Cheers - Ms Fiddler :angel:

[Raistlin]

Ms Fiddler,

1. :welcome:

2. Get new underlay, modern underlays have far better thermal values and wear tolerances than older underlays do. This is especially important if you're putting it on the stairs. Short and sweet - go for the best underlay that you can afford, you won't regret it.

3. Don't worry too much about the measuring, Carpetright will do a free measuring and estimating service (that way it's their fault if it's wrong).

4. I can't see any information on the site you linked to regarding measuring carpets, if you need any further help on this let me know - I used to be a carpet estimator ;-)

[fiddler]

Thanks for all that Raistlin - I have been to Carpetright and got a few things to think about - I think I shall go for 100% wool berber type carpet with a felt backing. I will need 6 metres of 4m wide carpet (which I make at 24 sq m) the man said that would be £115 for fitting he said the fact that it was stairs was not relevent - they just charge per meter. They do 2 underfelts - one at £4.99 psm and one at £6.99.

They will, as you say, measure it up for me and fit it so I am well pleased - I shall go back and order that tomorrow.

Try carpet-index.com then go down the left side to measuring, then in the ensuing text it will tell you click 'here' for hall, stairs and landing.

I input 'measuring hall and stairs' and it was one or two down the list - very good.

Cheers - Ms fiddler;)

[Raistlin]

Okaaaaay.....

1. When you say 'Berber' do you mean berber as in 'mottled appearance' or berber as in 'made up of lots of loops'? If it's the loops you might want to consider a couple of things: a) if you have pets (dogs, cats) then their claws can and most likely will get snagged in the loops occasionaly and will damage the appearance, and b) if you cut through a loop it splits and looks frayed, what do you think will happen when they cut the stair pieces to width? Exactly. Ask them if they can guarantee that the edges won't look frayed where the loops get cut through ;)

2. 100% wool carpet is nice, but you'd be better with a wool/<insert man made fibre here> mix. Wool has a lot of natural 'bounce' making it a nice choice on the stairs because it won't tend to flatten as much. The 20% (or even 10%/10%) of man made fibre included in some is there to give it some extra durability, wool's quite soft on its own and sometimes needs a little help :)

3. You're right, Carpetright don't charge any extra for fitting on the stairs, however..... They used to levy a 'Delivery Charge' on every order they fit (it was £10, don't know what it is now), they also used to levy an additional £15 charge (which you paid to the store) if there was a hall-stairs-landing to be fitted. You might want to ask if they still charge these, if they're still at those levels then they add another £25 to the bill.

4. I'm guessing (and I might be wrong) that the 4.99 underlay was a yellow coloured waffle type affair, and that the more expensive one was more solid? If so then either should be ok (certainly at that price point I wouldn't expect any problems).

5. What's on the stairs at the moment? Do you know if you have the wooden gripper rods (horrible things with lots of little spikes on, running around the hall and landing and across at the back of each step)? If you don't then you will need those too, they used to be about £1.40 per meter.

6. 6x4? Wouldn't know, depends entirely on the sizes of the areas involved. *Don't* order that amount on your sizes alone though, get them to come and measure up and do you a proper quote first!

My advice? 80/20 Wool/ManMade twist pile, with a hessian (or other woven) backing.

[fiddler]

Well thankyou for all that Raistlin, you've certainly given me something to think about and some questions to answer when I go to purchase my carpet tomorrow. So here goes:-
(1) My cat of 20 years had to be put down last week as she had a heart murmur - no more cats for me! I will certainly ask the question about the cut loops (Yes - it is the loops I want - it also has a barely mottled appearance.

(2) They had a 100% man made berbers with small loops - looked thin and cheap (on offer at £6.99 psm). Then I saw the 100% wool one and liked it.(on offer at £9.99 psm) I enquired about the 80/20 and the man said that was more expensive still. I don't want to spend the earth however, my kids have all grown up and moved away either to the other - end of the country or - side of the world, so I don't get too many visits from grandchildren. So there's just me and I usually don't wear shoes in the house and have that rule for guests - so my carpet shouldn't get too much wear.

(3) Thanks for the info re the hidden charges - I will ask about those.

(4)You're right about the waffle - I thought they both looked tacky but, like I said before - I'm used to the more substantial looking stuff we used to have - there is something with disintegrated foam under my present carpet!

(5) Yes - there are gripper rods on the stairs and landing though I believe I will need some more to go on the stairs to the attic.

(6)I measured my landing from the bathroom door to the window and it measures 6metres. apparently most carpets come in 4metre widths so - unless I want a join on my landing - which would look naff, that makes a piece of carpet 6m x 4m. In fact - there will be sufficient carpet in a piece that size to do the stairs to the attic as well. I had thought I could make do with what is down but they don't charge £25 extra for stairs - they just have a set figure at so much per metre - I didn't ask whether I payed them or the fitter. I am hoping that when I have plied the fitter with tea/coffee and biscuits etc that I can persuade him/her to come back and fit the carpet I have for the attic! This is one passed on by a family member and as my attic is almost 18ft square (less chimney breasts etc) I am pleased to be getting a freebie for up there.

Thankyou very much for your advice - I usually go to back street mill sort of places for my carpets but with it being such an important central carpet I thought I should go to a reputable company. Do you know of any others in the Huddersfield area? I also have to get it fitted well before Christmas as my family are visiting from New Zealand and the bairns are sleeping in the attic...

Cheers - Ms Fiddler

[tick]

go with a 80-20 on stairs will be fine and a bit kinder on feet,

[Shaun]

Always play one supplier off against the other - Allied promise to price match.

We knocked £400 off our carpets that way!!

I was so shocked as I never thought they'd be able to make anything taking that much off but it seems they were both happy to rip us off by hundreds!! :(

[Raistlin]

Well thankyou for all that Raistlin, you've certainly given me something to think about and some questions to answer when I go to purchase my carpet tomorrow. So here goes:-
(1) My cat of 20 years had to be put down last week as she had a heart murmur - no more cats for me! I will certainly ask the question about the cut loops (Yes - it is the loops I want - it also has a barely mottled appearance.

Sorry to hear about the cat. Definitely worth asking about the appearance.

(2) They had a 100% man made berbers with small loops - looked thin and cheap (on offer at £6.99 psm). Then I saw the 100% wool one and liked it.(on offer at £9.99 psm) I enquired about the 80/20 and the man said that was more expensive still. I don't want to spend the earth however, my kids have all grown up and moved away either to the other - end of the country or - side of the world, so I don't get too many visits from grandchildren. So there's just me and I usually don't wear shoes in the house and have that rule for guests - so my carpet shouldn't get too much wear.

Sounds fair enough.

(3) Thanks for the info re the hidden charges - I will ask about those.

They're not normally hidden, they're certainly detailed on the invoice, they just tend to get snuck in at the end ;)

(4)You're right about the waffle - I thought they both looked tacky but, like I said before - I'm used to the more substantial looking stuff we used to have - there is something with disintegrated foam under my present carpet!

If it's the one I'm thinking of it isn't a great underlay, but it will certainly suffice for the installation that you've described to me so far.

(5) Yes - there are gripper rods on the stairs and landing though I believe I will need some more to go on the stairs to the attic.

Cool, either get the estimator to quote for those (if it's part of the same job) or get the fitter to provide them as part of fitting the carpet into the attack (if they're going to do that for you privately)

(6)I measured my landing from the bathroom door to the window and it measures 6metres. apparently most carpets come in 4metre widths so - unless I want a join on my landing - which would look naff, that makes a piece of carpet 6m x 4m. In fact - there will be sufficient carpet in a piece that size to do the stairs to the attic as well.

That's cool, you should get the stairs done in one long run rather than in ots of bits (with the exception on one step probably).

I had thought I could make do with what is down but they don't charge £25 extra for stairs - they just have a set figure at so much per metre - I didn't ask whether I payed them or the fitter.

Glad to hear they've dropped that nasty little charge, they were still doing it until quite recently, good news there.

Unless other things have changed substantially, Carpetright contract the fitting out so you will probably need to pay the fitter (check this with Carpetright, also check payment methods as well - most prefer cash.....)


I am hoping that when I have plied the fitter with tea/coffee and biscuits etc that I can persuade him/her to come back and fit the carpet I have for the attic! This is one passed on by a family member and as my attic is almost 18ft square (less chimney breasts etc) I am pleased to be getting a freebie for up there.

Definitely keep the fitter sweet, if he's any good he'll be worth his weight in gold :) I'm sure you'll have little problem persuading him to fit the attic carpet for you.

Thankyou very much for your advice - I usually go to back street mill sort of places for my carpets but with it being such an important central carpet I thought I should go to a reputable company. Do you know of any others in the Huddersfield area? I also have to get it fitted well before Christmas as my family are visiting from New Zealand and the bairns are sleeping in the attic...

Cheers - Ms Fiddler


You're more than welcome, I hope it all goes well and that you're happy with the finished result :) Don't know any other carpet companies in that area I'm afraid, don't even know Huddersfield (other than where it is).