Carpet - maximum width & fitting advice?

ashe

Hi,

Mrs has decided she wants carpet in the living room now. It's currently carpeted but previously she fancied laminate.

Looked around a few shops and prices vary wildly and assume they do the dance between low fitting costs and low up front costs with free fitting, so just need to find one we like and do the sums - is it generally advised to get it fitted by a private local firm or to just go with whatever firm the shop uses? I am assuming the former, but dont know if this impacts on things like guarantees from the stores?

Also we have a query around the width - our room is 5.68m wide by 5.19m wide but in an L shape - the shops I went into yesterday told me that the widest that carpets are made is 5m so there will be a join somewhere. Try as I might I cant find where this is currently - he did say they apparently join it together with heat or something - is the join usually not noticeable? my POV is that if we cant see it now and it must be there, then we shouldn't see it on the new one, but she is concerned there will be a noticeable gap.

Based on the measurements of the room he told us we will need 28 square meters of carpet and 24 square meters of underlay (there isn't currently any underlay down under the existing carpet) and that the join would be best off by the front window where its shortest. Is this correct? Seems fairly logical, but wanted to check

Image below (ignore that it shows a wood floor as she has obviously changed her mind since then!)



If that doesn't work: https://imgur.com/a/djFqEH9

happy35

Yes 5m is normally the widest in a domestic carpet shop, I would consider looking at contract carpet as I assume that could be wider.

I went down the Amtico route in my last house as IMO you can always see a join, another route I was going to pursue was Bronte carpets as they do make wide carpets but I assume they would be expensive.

ashe

Looked at the amitico site and they don’t seen to do carpets

Bronte are 50-60 per square meter apparently so that rules that out.

The carpet that is down now is definitely nothing premium - are there any other options?

Section106

ashe wrote: »

The carpet that is down now is definitely nothing premium - are there any other options?

Have you considered doing the corridor area between the two doors (the right hand side of the 'L' on your image) as laminate and the rest of the room as carpet? It might be a good compromise between having the lounge area more cosy, and keeping the area which gets walked on the most (and therefore gets dirty and wears more) easier to clean.

It would also get round the max 5m width issue.

Of course it is all down to personal taste and details like how the carpet of choice would look next to laminate, and also whether it would affect the appearance of the room e.g. making it look smaller.

A good carpet fitter should be able to make a join more or less invisible, but it helps if the join is not in an area which gets walked over a lot, and if the two pieces are laid in the same orientation. Unfortunately, for reasons of economy and speed of fitting, attention to those sort of details sometimes gets ignored.

CityLite

If someone has told you they could carpet this room for 28 square meters of carpet, you should ask them to explain in detail how they plan to do that.

The cheapest way to carpet this room I suspect would be with 3m wide carpet running top to bottom of the image, with a join covered to a large extent by the settee shown

I'm assuming the 5.98m dimension shown on the RHS is an error that should read 5.68m as on the LHS.

Even so, that will cost you over 34 square meters of carpet.

You could have a shorter join running in line with the upper doorway using 4m wide carpet running left to right of the image, but that would cost you in excess of 40 square meters of carpet

Joins are always visible, but as you seem to have found, become barely noticeable after time if done correctly. There should certainly be no gap!

We have always used the fitter as provided by the retailer; saves any complications if you have any issues once the carpet is laid - particularly important where the carpet laying involves additional complications such as joining.

(actually, the cheapest way, but not by much, to carpet this would probably be 3m wide carpet running left to right, but I discounted that option as it would leave a join almost as long as running top to bottom, most of which will be visible, and also in high traffic areas)

CityLite

Another option to consider if your Mrs really doesn't want an obvious carpet join across the room, would be possibly to have a border all around the room, with a contrasting carpet design.

Or you could go retro and not have a wall to wall carpet at all






Any skilled and experienced carpet retailer should be able to discuss these options, and possibly more. Keep away from the big chains, and rely on the expertise of local, experienced craftsmen.

cattie

In my previous home I had a room where a join was necessary with the carpet & one fitted there was absolutely no way you could tell that the carpet had been joined. This was a plain 80/20 wool twist carpet too, which you might expect any join to be noticeable but if you've a good experienced carpet fitter & a good quality carpet, it's not possible to see where any join has been made.

ashe

Thanks for the replies guys

In summary there is no chance she will want contrasting carpet borders or mixed carpet and laminate so think will ask at some stores if they can show us examples of their joins for her reassurance.

ashe

CityLite wrote: »

If someone has told you they could carpet this room for 28 square meters of carpet, you should ask them to explain in detail how they plan to do that.

The cheapest way to carpet this room I suspect would be with 3m wide carpet running top to bottom of the image, with a join covered to a large extent by the settee shown

I'm assuming the 5.98m dimension shown on the RHS is an error that should read 5.68m as on the LHS.

Even so, that will cost you over 34 square meters of carpet.

You could have a shorter join running in line with the upper doorway using 4m wide carpet running left to right of the image, but that would cost you in excess of 40 square meters of carpet

Joins are always visible, but as you seem to have found, become barely noticeable after time if done correctly. There should certainly be no gap!

We have always used the fitter as provided by the retailer; saves any complications if you have any issues once the carpet is laid - particularly important where the carpet laying involves additional complications such as joining.

(actually, the cheapest way, but not by much, to carpet this would probably be 3m wide carpet running left to right, but I discounted that option as it would leave a join almost as long as running top to bottom, most of which will be visible, and also in high traffic areas)

Yes no idea how it’s done that as it was a web all that auto resizes with the room, bizarre, 5.68 not 5.98.

Silvertabby

A good quality natural wood (we have engineered oak) and a large rug. It's a whole new world away from laminate, and no pesky carpet joins !