Carpet prices 😯

Britannia12345

We're buying our first home after decades of renting. For the first time ever I'll be able to buy nice carpets i stead of £2.99 a square yard cord carpet 😆
We visited a local carpet shop after recommendations from neighbours. They gave us a ball park figure of nearly £3000 for carpeting 4 bedrooms and a study. 3 of the rooms need carpet and we want LVT for the other two rooms. 
Does this sound excessive or is this what quality flooring costs? I have no clue but I know this flooring will probably be the last I'll need to buy 😊

housebuyer143

Are there any discounted carpet places near you? Maybe ask on local Facebook group. Near me we have have carpet warehouse (it's literally in a warehouse) and they have hundreds of carpet all on rolls and you choose it from what's there and when it's sold, it's sold. They do remnants as well. It changes frequently as a result, especially as they are super popular, but the prices are half that of carpet right for the same thing. 

You also might be best buying the carpet and paying a local fitter. The fitter I use did a 3 bed house, bedrooms, stairs landing, vinyl in bathroom and kitchen for £240. 

You will be able to find it cheaper, but you need to know where to look. 

CliveOfIndia

Without knowing the area to be carpeted, it's impossible to make a guess as to whether that represents good value or not.

But even knowing the measurements, carpets are hugely variable in price.  Just picking a carpet supplier at random from t'interweb, they've got carpets ranging from £7 per square metre to over £100 per square metre.

Then you've got the underlay - it's often said that a good quality underlay can make a huge difference to the "comfort" of the carpet, as well as affecting how long it lasts.

Britannia12345 said:

I have no clue but I know this flooring will probably be the last I'll need to buy 😊

No carpet or flooring will last forever.  For sure, you could reasonably expect a better quality one to last a fair bit longer than an inferior one, but it'll need replacing eventually.

daveyjp

Without an indication of sq m and price of the carpet £3,000 may be very cheap, it may be expensive.  It is a few years since I bought carpet but for good quality 80:20 wool mix it was about £25 sq m fitted from my local independent store and online prices indicate this is still the case.

Recycled wool fibre felt underlay was £2 sq m.

Rdwill

Like you infer, you get what you pay for.

For context, I recently carpeted our living room through a local supplier, rather than an National. The room is about 5m by 5.5 and all in including carpet, underlay and fitting, I didn't have much change out of £1500.

Edit - Removal and disposal of the old carpet and underlay was also a cost, about £100. I could have done that myself to save some cash, but would have meant me cutting it up and taking it to the HWRC in my car over several trips, when I had a couple of guys there with a big van.

I hope that helps.  

moneysaver1978

If any of the rooms are small, check if they have any remnants which can be discounted massively.

Be wary to check for type of carpet (and underlay) suitable for the study as office chairs can damage them in no time at all as it did for my friend who chose the wrong underlay.

That said, quality of the carpet doesn't vary much across suppliers. It's down to the fitters who can make the difference.

moneysaver1978

Also quick tip if you have no carpets currently, this is a great opportunity to check for any loose or creaky floorboards (or perhaps seal big gaps) and fix now!

FreeBear

moneysaver1978 said:

Also quick tip if you have no carpets currently, this is a great opportunity to check for any loose or creaky floorboards (or perhaps seal big gaps) and fix now!

Covered the floor in my lounge with 5mm thick woodfibre laminate underlay. On top of that, put down 11mm foam underlay before having the carpet fitted. Had to use screws in place of nails to secure the gripper roads. It kiiled all the draughts coming up through gaps in the floorboards and has made a huge difference in comfort levels.

Albermarle

daveyjp said:

Without an indication of sq m and price of the carpet £3,000 may be very cheap, it may be expensive.  It is a few years since I bought carpet but for good quality 80:20 wool mix it was about £25 sq m fitted from my local independent store and online prices indicate this is still the case.

Recycled wool fibre felt underlay was £2 sq m.

I had some fitted about 3 years ago. A good quality 80:20 wool mix, suitable for high traffic areas was around £25 M2 just for the carpet ( you could pay more or less of course )  Better quality foam underlay is worth paying more for.

OP The quote seems not outrageous, but as said the quality of the carpet ( and the LVT) is a key factor in the price.

TELLIT01

We paid over £30 per square metre, plus underlay cost, 20 years ago. 

EssexExile

TELLIT01 said:

We paid over £30 per square metre, plus underlay cost, 20 years ago. 

Same here. We thought it would last a lifetime, of course we moved a year later!