New carpets - local shop or national chain?

martin2345uk

Hello people,

I know that when choosing things like double glazing and new doors etc the recommendation is usually to go for a reputable local company rather than the big nationals like Everest etc., but what about when buying carpet for a lounge?

Are places like Allied Carpets and the like okay? Or would people again recommend a smaller local firm?

daveyjp

Local firm every time. Better advice, wider choice, better deals and if like ours the fitters are employed by them, not freelance which is usually the case with the big chains.

You also put money back into the local economy.

xyz123

When we bought our house two years ago. we changed carpet in 4 rooms. We looked in many local places. Most wanted to charge a fortune for carpet. Most annoyingly three of our local ones wanted to charge a surcharge of £2 per metre simply for me buying underlay online and not from them. We in the end went with national chain and absolutely no problem at all.

We had similar experience with kitchen and other furniture. In North west London wherr we are, most of so called local retailers were charging fortune for hardly any additional services.

Make ur decision but don't discount national chains purely because local ones seem to have reputation for offering better service when you may not need the service or it hardly matters. As for better information, most information is available online now a days.

wallbash

Check out the 'sheds'.
Remember CarpetRight sells carpets they do not manufacture them.
CarpetRight buys their carpet from the same place as any independent / local carpet place.Just buying in bulk can pass the savings on .
If carpetRight sells an Axminster..... its an Axminster.

Do you buy your hienze beans from Tesco or the corner shop ??
Same tin of beans , but which has the lower price??

But forget the 50/60 % off its the final price that matters.
As for choice , huge range in a shed, they have the space.
As for fitters...... your carpetRight fitter could be with you in the morning and fitting a carpet for John Lewis in the afternoon , same service.

cattie

wallbash wrote: »

Check out the 'sheds'.
Remember CarpetRight sells carpets they do not manufacture them.
CarpetRight buys their carpet from the same place as any independent / local carpet place.Just buying in bulk can pass the savings on .
If carpetRight sells an Axminster..... its an Axminster.

But as every experienced flooring/carpet tradesperson knows, when large manufacturers make carpets they are given a Range Name, such as Cormar's New Oakland. What Carpetright often do is change the name of the Range & have stickers on the back of the samples showing the the maker's details etc, but the name of the range of carpet will not be the maker's original as sold in independent stores, but the one that Carpetright have assigned to it.

This is done to make it more difficult for you to do a price comparison with other stores for the particular carpet you are interested in. There is a website that flooring trades people frequent where they can often tell you the manufacture's range name for the carpet once they know the who the manufacturer is & the range name that Carpetright have assigned to that particular carpet.

In the same way, John Lewis sell carpets from some of the best of British carpet manufacturer's, including Victoria carpets & Brinton's, but the majority of their carpets are sold under the John Lewis brand.

And you won't find a carpet fitter working for John Lewis also working for Carpetright. Carpetright uses self employed fitters, whereas JL don't as they have their own.

Just do proper homework before buying a carpet to ensure you are getting the very best deal you can before buying by shopping around before making a decision.

wallbash

An Axminster is still an Axminster,



The 'independent fitter from CarpetRight who expertly fitted one of my carpets last year , fits JL carpets.

Bit of snobbery going on here, but you pays your money and make your own choice.

drummer_666

I just got two carpets fitted. Independents were more expensive for not as good quality carpets.

Bought from Carpet Right, fitted 2 days later.

Could've bought cheaper and same quality through eBay but wanted fitted asap, and would've had to find my own fitter then - although Carpet Right outsource to fitters, Carpet Right arrange it - you just pay fitters themselves on the day.

Biggles

Local independent all the time. The carpet sheds have great headline prices but, by the time they've added on all the extras, the local man is usually cheaper and the service is better.

Bigphil1474

Get 'all in fitted' quotes on carpets you like from locals and nationals - if you like all the carpets you've got quotes for, and you know the total cost, the cheapest is best.

sleepymans

I used Carpetright once...never again! - fitting was contracted out to a couple of cowboys who ruined the expensive floorcovering. Carpetright denied any liability and I swore I would never use them again.

Use Carpetright at your peril!

I have since always used local independent carpet shops and have always had far superior service and in fact better quality of carpet for competitive prices which has been fitted well.

lackingwedge

I went to a couple of local carpet suppliers and they were no less of a rip off than the nationals.

So i sourced some Cormar carpet from the internat as well as cloud 9 underlay and my own grippers and my local independent refused to fit as they were not making enough of a margin (ie no scope to rip me off).

Went on http://www.nicfltd.org.uk/ and put in my postcode and contacted a handful of fitters and got quotes.
all done to a high standard with the carpet and underlay i wanted rather that what people were trying to sell me all for a fair bit cheaper than what I was quoted.