Anyone install their own carpet?

[Viper98912]

Hello GJer's,

I finished a small room in the basement a few months ago, and had the local big box store do the carpet install for me (well, outsourced). The room and stairs aren't that big, probably about 250 sq ft worth. I specifically chose a "cheap" carpet because it matched the cheap builder-grade upstairs carpet, and I didn't want the basement room to have nicer stuff nor different looking stuff than the upstairs.

Well, in my usual Sunday morning "what can I do today" moment, I've decided that I'm finally fed up with the cheap carpet upstairs. It's thin, it's cheap, and in certain areas if you look closely enough you can see the backing through the carpet. Terrible. This house is only ~1 year old.

So I headed over to the big box store again to try to score some ~$2.00/sq ft new carpet (in their sale section), but finally settled on something in the $2.75-$3.50 range that had a good face weight and fleck colors we liked. Thinking that we can re-use the existing pad since it's basically new (and we only normally cruise the stairs and master bedroom), I was not aware that I must buy a new pad for them to include the free haul-away & installation, at an additional $0.65-0.95.

So this all becomes an annoyance now, because if I have about 1,000 sqft upstairs, plus the 250 downstairs, my ~$2,000 initial project of just replacing only-carpet now creeps up toward near $5,000.

So now I'm back to trying to see how to save a few bucks. The carpet I'm choosing isn't million-dollar home carpet, it's just some budget stuff that looks nice and has good face weight. I don't want to go back to under-$2.00 carpet since I don't want to get something that could potentially be the same garbage I have now that I'm trying to replace from my new home. So of course, I have the regret of not spending the money up front when I built the home (unfortunately I didn't have carpet-knowledge back then), plus the ~$700 bucks I already spent on the basement.

So now that you've read this stupidly long story, has anyone here installed their own carpet? Was it worth it? Did you get the results you were looking for? Or should I just **** it up and pay?

 

[Kaizen]

**** it up and pay. Not hard but as with everything else we try results sometimes are not professional looking. I did two rooms so did not need to do a seam. I was pissed everyone wanted me to take a day off work for their guy to come measure.
Had to rent kicker and stretcher. In the end just not worth the trouble or the punctures from the tack strips. Spend the money on the pad. I think the pad cost more then the carpet I got. Nuts


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[jhelrey]

Dream Weaver makes great carpet for a great price. We paid less than $3 a sq foot installed.

 

[PWC Repair]

Plenty of tradesman around. My go to is Facebook, just post up looking for someone, these guys are around and can surely use cash this time of year.

 

[Viper98912]

Dream Weaver makes great carpet for a great price. We paid less than $3 a sq foot installed.

Thank you for the recommendation, I've ordered some samples from Carpet Express.

 

[PoorOwner]

just pay them to install it, a carpet in the $3.50-$4 range can last 20-30 years, what's a few more dollars right now?

 

[Viper98912]

Yea, I definitely won't be in this house for 20 or 30 years...maybe 3, max.

 

[jhelrey]

We also got the thicker carpet. It has a soft backing so the walls, etc. won't get nearly as damaged.

I lied! We paid $3.75 a sq foot installed including pad. Stairs were no additional charge.

Doesn't look nor feel cheap.

Sageview was the color.

 

[tymbo]

Seaming can be tricky, and if you don't do a good job, you will notice it every time you walk in the room.

 

[b-boy]

I helped my Dad do this once. My knee still hurts from using the kicker.

I'd hire it out. It's very hard to do a professional job. If it was a basement, or a small room I might try it, but not on the main floor.

 

[larry_g]

We have good friends in the flooring business. She educated me on carpets and one thing she insisted on was premium padding. She said that is where the comfort and life comes from and after having it installed I believe her. Another thing she educated me on is 'Seconds'. Seconds are rolls that may not color match the sample book, may have some color variation across the width, or the color pattern may not match the texture pattern. Usually something the common customer couldn't see. Third thing is that most carpet comes from only a couple of mills. All the sellers have their own name on it but if you know the code numbers then you can decipher and compare prices on the same carpet regardless of the name the seller has on it.

lg
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