Buying carpet online then paying local carpet shop to fit it?

sourpuss2021

I’m looking to get a large room carpeted.   There’s a local carpet shop I’ve used for a couple of other rooms.  The thing is I’d like to give them the business but I don’t really like the carpets that they stock, not enough to have in this room anyway.

I asked the guy, if I see some carpet I like elsewhere, can you order it in?  He said maybe.

But later I thought, perhaps I could just order a carpet online, get it delivered here, and then just pay them to come fit it.  There’ll be underlay and gripper-strips needed too.
 

Is this something that they would likely consider?  Some business from me is better than no business after all.  Or will they get the hump with me?

JohnB47

Hmmm. Well, carpet shops regularly (always?) advertise free fitting. Of course they make their money on the profit from the carpet they sell you.

They may well not be happy with your suggestion but in any case, I think they're estimate for fitting your carpet for you will be more pricey than you think.

I would be thinking of finding a carpet fitter to do it for you as a sort of weekend job, rather than going to the carpet shop itself. How you make contact with such a person is another thing.

So yes, give them details of the carpet you want and see if they can get hold of it and give you an overall price for supply and fitting.

JGB1955

Our local carpet shop uses self-employed independent carpet fitters.  We pay the fitter directly, upon completion of the job.  Typical costs are in the region of £50 for a bedroom.  About to pay £140 for hall, stairs and landing.  Perhaps best to employ a carpet fitter directly?

CliveOfIndia

JohnB47 said:

I would be thinking of finding a carpet fitter to do it for you as a sort of weekend job, rather than going to the carpet shop itself. How you make contact with such a person is another thing.

This is a good suggestion.  As ever, might be worth asking on your local community Facebook page if you have one.

Alternatively, many (I'm not saying all) carpet shops use freelance fitters rather than employing them directly.  You could possibly ask the local carpet shop who they use, then contact the fitter directly to get a price?

diystarter7

Hi

Even the likes of carpetright do that, the last few times we used them, ie you buy the carpet etc, you use the fitter at your own risk

NB - with the above, you pay for delivery, but if fitted as above the fitter picks up

This was a few years ago and may have changed and may vary from store to store

Thnaks

sourpuss2021

Thanks, all!   The guy from the carpet shop is booked to come round to measure the room, which seemed a bit unnecessary to me as I’ve already told him the dimensions.  But he will be able to tell me what size roll it would be.  

If they used third-party fitters then I wouldn’t have the cheek to go in there to ask for their fitters details.  But I believe they do it themselves, with one of their sons helping.

I had this thing before where I booked the local glaziers to replace a part of a sash window. (A spiral sash balance).  They quoted me £300 and were booked to come and do it.  Then the day before, taking fright at the price, I went in there and asked if I could just buy the part and then I’d find someone else to fit it.   They were not happy at all,  and point blank refused to sell it to me.  The guy walked off mid-conversation, a total moody.

I was then able to find the part online for £20 and got someone else to fit it for £80.  Putting it generously, this made me realise how many other costs are involved when you’re buying from even a small local high street.   Or ungenerously, how inflated their prices are.

The glaziers are never short of business so I don’t feel bad about it.  Though I do always hurry past their shop in case the guy is outside!   And I’d rather not have this happen again with the carpet shop since I walk past them multiple times a week!

I don’t mind if the price of fitting alone is a bit inflated, if I’ve saved money buying the carpet roll itself online.   So long as it all ends up the same price overall and I’ve put some business their way.

Belenus

My advice for a large living room is to order a complete service, supply of carpet, underlay, and grippers and the fitting from one company. That way, if things go wrong, you don't have the fitter blaming the carpet and the carpet supplier blaming the fitter.

When we had our living room, hall, stairs and landing carpeted a few years ago we chose John Lewis whose quote was competitive. Their fitters turned up on when agreed and did a good job.

A few years ago we converted the rear two thirds of our integral garage into a storage room. We bought an end of line roll of carpet for under £100 from a local DIY shed and paid a local semi retired fitter to supply underlay and grippers and to fit everything. That also went well but I wouldn't take that approach with a large living room. It was fine for a room that is non habitable and used for dry storage only and where total costs were under £200. Not so good for a living room where you are probably spending four figures.

Choose a carpet you like and see if your local shop can supply it. Also try John Lewis. They have a very wide range of carpets and are usually competitive in price.

Belenus

sourpuss2021 said:

Thanks, all!   The guy from the carpet shop is booked to come round to measure the room, which seemed a bit unnecessary to me as I’ve already told him the dimensions.  But he will be able to tell me what size roll it would be.  

They have probably learned from experience not to rely on customers measurements.

Will the customer measure accurately? Will they take into account recesses into patio doors, alcoves etc. Will they confuse yards and metres? Is the room reasonably true with right angled corners or is it misshapen?

.

sourpuss2021

Thanks Belenus, that’s a very useful perspective!

I don’t want to spend more than £1k.  The room is about 20-22 square metres.  It’s the top floor of a Victorian terrace flat conversion.  So the lounge was the house’s master bedroom.   

I’m mostly getting it for noise insulation since I do like to listen to music.   I’m getting 9mm ply underwood screwed over the floorboards too and I have the joiner booked in to do that already.

The room does get cold in the winter months and it’s expensive to heat, so improving its heat retention is definitely something I’m looking forward to as well.

But my cat will likely damage any carpet so even if I had a lot more to spend it would probably be a bad idea.   So it may be that it’s my limited budget rather than the stock held by the carpet shop which is the issue here…

greensalad

That's what I did. I ordered from Carpets & More (highly recommended, they were recommended to me by my MIL and they're great). Then I found a local fitter who was willing to supply gripper strips, transition strips etc and fit the underlay and carpet I bought.

Of course, the room was a square so it was very easy to measure up and order the correct amount. When it came to doing the complicated bedroom + stairs in the same carpet, I got a local firm to supply the same carpet that I specified, but they measured and ordered in.

sourpuss2021

Belenus said:

sourpuss2021 said:

Thanks, all!   The guy from the carpet shop is booked to come round to measure the room, which seemed a bit unnecessary to me as I’ve already told him the dimensions.  But he will be able to tell me what size roll it would be.  

They have probably learned from experience not to rely on customers measurements.

Will the customer measure accurately? Will they take into account recesses into patio doors, alcoves etc. Will they confuse yards and metres? Is the room reasonably true with right angled corners or is it misshapen?

.

True! Though a home visit may also increase the likelihood of the customer placing an order with the shop since he feels committed!

The room has alcoves and a bay window and even I am smart enough to realise they needed to be included in the measurement .