recommendations for carpet?

benny123

I want to replace lounge and stair carpet, carpetright seem to have good prices but i can't help listening to the bad press carpetright has generally with hidden costs, poor customer service,etc, does anyone have other experiences or have any other recommendations of any other stores?
thank you

allan673

ive bought all mine from carpetright.and have no complaints with them
i bought carpets only, then i got a carpet fitter to fit them and supply underlay and grippers.
i saved a fortune!!!
do you know a carpet fitter? or know anyone that does?

Numpty_Monkey

A few years ago i used to work in the carpet trade, and a rough guide to retail as from trade was price per square yard = double +£1
The prices of carpets deepends on the ammount of wool and weight(twists) and depending on type tufts per inch (axminsters,wiltons)
The more wool the better an 80% wool 20% man made fibre is or was the top end
and it worked down to 100% man made
Same as weight manly used for twist pile, the heavier the better
used to be 58oz per square yard was the top, down to 24 oz

If you know someone who can get to a carpet wholesalers or trade place the biggest saving you will make is on the underlay and gripper and door plates, the mark up on them is silly
a few examples
A roll of underlay is 18 square yards trade cost £25 retail £150+:eek:
Gripper, we used to sell it £17.50 for 100 5foot lengths
retail £5 per 5 foot length or £500 per box:eek:

Fitters used to charge about £4 / £4.50 a square yard to fit or a flat rate depending on size


HTH :A

underlay_guru

I would recommend a local independent carpet shop, and possibly buy your underlay and grippers online.MASSIVE MASSIVE profits are made on their underlays and grippers, so I would recommend buying these from an online store.......www.tradeprice.com www.carpet-underlay-shop.co.uk

Regarding discounts on your carpets I would reject the following:

"WE CAN WAIVE THE DELIVERY CHARGE" - Reject this as a discount, after all, the fitters cannot fit it to your floor without delivering it!

"AN EXTRA 5-10%" - The multiples usually add extra to product prices, specifically in case customers are "cheeky" enough to ask for a discount!

"HALF PRICE ON GRIPPERS AND DOOR PLATES" - Forget it! Doorplates sell to trade at around £1.50 each, and standard gripper at around £22 for a 152m box

"FREE FITTING IF YOU BUY THE UNDERLAY" - No Chance! I assure you the fitting price is built into the price of the underlay...every time!

"I CAN OFFER A FURTHER X% IF YOU PUT DOWN A DEPOSIT TODAY" -Basically a pressure sales technique to get you to commit to buy, before you go shopping around. If they are that desperate for the business, they will knock of the discount another time anyway.

"FREE FITTING IF YOU BUY THE SAME AMOUNT OF UNDERLAY AS CARPET" - In the majority of fits, you will NOT need to buy as much underlay as you do carpet. The excess underlay you have paid for will be collected up and resold.

"GO COMPARE OUR PRICES ELSEWHERE-WE CANNOT BE BEATEN" - FALSE! Most of the multiples will rename all of their products, ensuring you are unable to shop around for them (Although they will be widely available in most other carpet shops). So if you find the same product cheaper elsewhere, their excuse will be "It hasn't got the same name, so its not the same product".....They know fine well it is the same product, but the name change is their handy "GET-OUT CLAUSE!"


...realistically, you could get your bill down by 40% if youre savvy about it. Mention you have seen the same products elsewhere, cheaper, and get quotes for them, along with samples. If they mess around...not same carpet etc etc. FORGET IT! Go down to your local independent retailer with your Storeys/Carpetright/Allied etc quote, and watch them LAUGH while they beat the price by ££££££'s guaranteed... I can give you reccomendations if you let me know which area of the UK you are!


Good luck

underlay_guru

Numpty_Monkey wrote: »

A roll of underlay is 18 square yards trade cost £25 retail £150+
Gripper, we used to sell it £17.50 for 100 5foot lengths
retail £5 per 5 foot length or £500 per box

A little deceiving this...
...what grade/thickness of underlay was it? £25 at trade would get you a medium domestic-type product, possibly Chinese made. For something slightly better in quality, the cost would go up........ The cheaper rubber underlays contain more chalk in the rubber mix, which effectively bulks up the product, but will dry out and crumble quicker.

....what make of gripper were you selling? Short pin? Medium pin? Long pin? Wood floor? Concrete floor? Dual purpose? Unnailed? Made in China? Made in UK? Golden gripper? Extra-wide? There are HUNDREDS of different types and grades of gripper, all at different prices.

Alan_M_2

We bought our new carpet recently at John Lewis for £22 sq/m and we got a reasonable quality.

We used a recommended local fitter who we asked to supply a decent quality underlay.

Much better quality/service than the big carpet warehouses and certainly no more expensive.

longbaygirl

Don't Axminster and Wilton have 'factory' shops where you can buy last season carpet of end of rolls of top quaility stuff a bit cheaper?

chalkysoil

We're just about to buy a lot of carpet and it's going to be expensive. We want cloud 9 underlay ( have this in one room already and it's nice) and bomb proof carpet ( live in the countryside, very muddy and up a dirt track) and have been looking at non wool pile that will be steamable clean. Can go up to £20 or so a metre for the carpet depending on the cost of the extras. Carpet is for lounge, diner, hallway, stairs, landing, and a family room.
We live in Canterbury Kent - any advice or tips would be most gratefully received. Thanks

hethmar

Dont go to carpetright for gawds sake! We made the mistake of buying some cheaper stuff there after we changed our old axminster. It looked tat in 6 months and ratty after 3 years. Waste of money and dreadful service - took them 3 goes to fit it, first time had a big black line down the middle of the roll, second time they didnt bring enough of it, third time it didnt actually match the bit they had managed to lay the second time but we had given up after 3 months of this performance. We are now replacing it with axminster again.

Have a look online at Brintons axminster carpets. You can order up samples - they arrived in a day when I did. Ridiculously priced at £65 a sq metre in one local shop, did a bit of trawling locally and can get it £45 sq metre including fitting.

http://www.brintons.net/

Seems a lot of money but our last axminster lasted 15 years (slightly threadbear on first three steps of stairs) but that was with 3 boys, 3 dogs and a husband who never thinks about muddy boots or bringing in bits of engine to repair! Of course, if you live in a much more ordered state then may be you can have cheaper stuff

You do get what you pay for in carpets.

cattie

chalkysoil wrote: »

We're just about to buy a lot of carpet and it's going to be expensive. We want cloud 9 underlay ( have this in one room already and it's nice) and bomb proof carpet ( live in the countryside, very muddy and up a dirt track) and have been looking at non wool pile that will be steamable clean. Can go up to £20 or so a metre for the carpet depending on the cost of the extras. Carpet is for lounge, diner, hallway, stairs, landing, and a family room.
We live in Canterbury Kent - any advice or tips would be most gratefully received. Thanks

If you want a carpet that will keep it's good looks & steam clean to bring it up as good as new then you really do need a high wool content. Look for an 80/20 mix. Synthetic carpets are like dirt magnets & look shoddy within a short space of time with heavy use.