Carpetting in our first family home?

Savvybunny2009

Hi I hope someone can help.

We are moving house in three weeks and two bedrooms and the hallway/stairs/entrance hall have no carpets, underlay or gripper rods (there were gripper rod 'pieces' randomly strewn around the edges but not sufficient to do the job and badly damaged underlay).

This is the family house move and the first time we have had to do carpets. The estimated space that needs carpetting is 25sm. The stairs has one bend.

I must have been kidding myself that we could have the carpet, underlay and gripper rods bought and fitted by professionals for around the £200 mark. Guess who was wrong!

We can't leave the place uncarpetted but I don't want to be spending more than £350 (if that). Am I being unrealistic, is there anyway I can cut the costs? Is it doable for us to fit it all or is it really best to get someone in to do it for us?

Thanks everyone, I appreciate you reading my post

simple_but_sweet

Have you thought of just choosing a feltback carpet that way theres no need for the underlay. You can buy gripper from the likes of b&q and fit it yourself although it probably wont make much of a difference. Although the underlay will beef the carpet up and make it last longer.

Regardless, good luck in your new home

crumblepie

I bought felt back carpet so didn't need underlay which saved on costs. Bought the carpet off ebay the downside is you can't see the carpet before you buy it although some will send you samples.

I had someone do the lounge and stairs as I didn't like the idea of a sloppy stair carpet being fitted and the lounge has lots of fiddly corners. But I did the bedrooms bit of effort and a sharp stanley knife was all I needed as the rooms were square. Didn't even bother with gripper rods round the edge of the rooms upstairs but the guy used a glue of some description in the lounge.

Are there any local independant carpet shops nearby? Sometimes they have quite big end of roll pieces that would do a room and are more likely to give you a good deal.

Becles

Are you in the North East?

Check out Franks Factory Flooring shops. They're always on the radio claiming they can carpet your whole house for next to nothing and stuff like that. No idea what the carpets are like mind, I've just heard the adverts!

Candles_by_Lisa

I agree with the idea of felt backed carpets (as sometimes the underlay can cost more than the carpets!!!). I wouldn't arrange for the shop to fit the carpets if you can avoid it. Do you know of any carpet fitters you could phone? You may need to wait until the end of their working day until you get your carpets fitted but it works out cheaper than getting the shop to arrange the fitting.

MX5huggy

Why do you need carpet? Just buy a small section and tape it to your feet, then you can have the feel of quality carpet between your toes without the expense.

Seriously I lived the first 10 years of my life with just gripper strip on my parents stairs. Did not do me much harm.

Doozergirl

I think I'd leave it until I could afford it or do the most important room first. Remove the gripper that's there for safety, get a hoover attachment on full between every floor board and, if you're so inclined, give the floor a good scrub. Kids grow up in houses without carpet all the time

I think even a felt carpet without underlay isn't going to last that long before it starts looking ropey and show off the lines of your boards underneath. It depends on whether you want to do that knowing that it might have to be done again. I've just bought the cheapest felt back carpet for our stairs but I genuinely liked the pattern and I'm not sure if we're staying here. Gripper and underlay are down, so I can just change the carpet to something better as and when. It cost us £140 just to to do the stairs fitted with carpet, underlay & gripper.

The carpet shop we went didn't have that many carpets stocked, so the offcuts they had meant that a lot of them, whilst different sizes, were the same carpet. I bet over a little bit of time you could collect enough of the right offcuts to do most of the house, just not sure that £350 is going to do it.

Or laminate? You could get a lot of laminate for that price. See if you can fit most of it yourselves and someone a bit more skilled for the bits round doors etc?

cox377

When I got my carpets done last year, I bought the underlay (cloud 9) and gripper rods from http://www.wilsons-carpet-underlays.co.uk

I fitted myself, didn't take long and saved quite a lot on the overall price.. every penny counted in this instance. Also, because of the shape of my house I was having to buy 60SQM of carpet for an area of 45SQM and was being charged underlay prices for the full 60SQM. Saved 25% straight off the bat for underlay as I was only buying what was required. Fitter just came round and fitted the carpet on top. cloud 9 feels lovely under foot.

Regarding your price

I got a looped 100% PP, looks much better than the samples I've had off the net and it came to £13per SQM all in.

simple_but_sweet

in my experience cloud 9 isn't the cheapest of underlays (think its made by f. ball - very good products just cost a little more). if you are thinking of buying you're own underlay it may be best to get a pu underlay around 8mm thick, anything less wouldn't really be much cop.

bevhousehastings

When we bought our first family house, five years ago, where there were carpets they were so so dirty and holey that we ripped them straight out. We laminated the hall and kitchen floor with cheapie Ikea laminate (needs replacing in the kitchen now though). We got a local guy to carpet the stairs and upstairs hall, think it cost about £300 but is a really nice carpet and is still in great condition, bar a bit the dog ate.
In a couple of rooms the floorboards were in decent condition so we scrubbed them then varnished them and they look lovely. In another couple, they weren't not so great so we've painted them.
The living room floor was painted white - some floor paint, some odds and ends. To be honest it has looked good, definitely needs another coat now, and yes, shows up dirt quickly but is a real shabby chic style. We've got a few rugs too.
I guess I'm saying, don't worry, children love our house, yours will love yours carpets or no, and with a bit of creativity you can make it your own.

craigsville_2

If you want underlay and not felt backed, this is the cheapest way Ive found when doing my developments.

Gripper and underlay from ebay (cloud 9 is great)- shop fitters charge £1+ per meter for gripper when you can get it for pennies (all quality is the same).

Door bars from scewfix or anywhere thats not a carpet shop (£10 each for a product that you can get for a couple of quid!!!)

Dont use the shop fitters, they are the same people advertising in your local paper and the shop just skims a load off the top. phone up your local people (I once got a house redone for £1 p/m2!!) The price will include fitting the grippers and underlay by the way.

Shop around for the carpet, they all sell the same stuff, last lot I got for next to nothing as the shop was genuinely shutting down.

If your getting a lot of carpet, haggle with the salesman, youve nothing to loose.

get it folded and put in your car, saves delivery.

Hope this helps, Im a developer and this has saved me a fortune!