Carpet

[benjamming]

We will soon be purchasing ~ 2053 ft2 (228 yd2) of carpet for our house. It will be in the hallway, bedrooms, living room, family room, and steps leading to the basement. Garage of course is concrete although our builder said he did carpet one guy's garage.

We want the same carpet throughout the house.

I believe we want 100% nylon. We have looked at DuPont Sorona brand polyester fiber used in Mohawk carpet. I don't think it has been out long, maybe 1 year. That is a big drawback in and of itself. Most of what we have looked at is Shaw carpet which they use the big three brand nylon: Anso by Honeywell, StainMaster by DuPont, and Wear-dated by Solutia. Any thoughts on material selection, brands, etc.?

We have priced Tuftex (out of CA been owned by Shaw for a few years now) Homeward Bound Berber style Z6217 color 0712B Balsa wood made with Anso CrushResistant Nylon. It has a 10-year warranty against defects, 10-year no-wrinkle with SoftBac Platinum, 10-year against crushing, and 10-year soil & stain (R2X). It has a 4.0/5.0 on the Hexapod test. The cheapest of the two stores we priced it was $2.79/ft2 installed with 6# pad. This is before haggling.

What about the pad? I figure we might go with a 8# pad. Am I correct in assuming that the Microbial stuff on the pads is not worth the money? Any pad materials, etc. to recommend and/or stay away from?

 

[Papa Bear]

Ben ... you can only get away with a carpeted garage if you drive a Honda.

 

[benjamming]

We actually do own an '02 Accord! (We have a '94 Grand Am as well.) Of course, I still wouldn't want a carpeted garage.
This guy drove a BMW which got quite a few remarks, especially out here in redneck country, in regards to first he drives a BMW and 2nd it was a carpeted garage. I believe it's safe to say that he didn't do any work out in the garage.

 

[Papa Bear]

Yes, I see you over at the Accord forum.

Just wanted to say "Hi".
Now I'll let the carpet experts help you. Merry Christmas !!

 

[Al]

Consider putting laminate in the hallway. Carpet in a hallway won't last. We take exceptionally good care of our carpet in the hallway, have no kids and are very careful to track in no dirt. We come in the house through the garage and it has a rug. After 5 years the carpet is shot. Laminate is going in.

 

[Stewart Fan]

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Carpet in a hallway won't last.

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Quality carpet will last just fine. Our carpet is 6 years old and looks as good as it did when we had it installed. We have two kids (5 and 1) plus a Black Lab,thats a test of carpet quality if ther ever was one. I'm always amazed at just how good it looks after its cleaned.

You need to be sure its Nylon and has good strand twist and density.

 

[friendly_jacek]

Lowes has 30% off on carpet till 12/31. While their labor is higher than average, it's imposible to beat the price. I'm redoing carpet in my bedrooms. However, I have ceramic tiles in kitchen and bathrooms and hardwood in living room, office, dining room and hallways.
Get only 6.6 continues strand nylon fiber with good density (~3000) and fiber weight (>40). Request the specs in writing as typical salesman lie all the time.

 

[Stewart Fan]

Skip the Polyester and be sure to get a 100% Nylon carpet. The only advantage to Poly is that its more stain resistant than Nylon. Poly will matt and crush far worse than Nylon.

Check the stain warranty on the carpet,read the fine print. When we bought carpet we got the 10 year stain warranty,but if you read the fine print you'll find its worthless. Basically all the warranty covers is water. There are about 25 exclusions to most stain warrantys. Things you'd think would typically stain a carpet usually aren't covered.

Things like ketchup or mustard aren't covered,the warranty says they should come out,but if they don't, sorry you're SOL. The same thing applies to things like Coffee,tea,wine,soda pop,ect.

The tricky wording also applies to the wear warranty. By the definition of "wear" by most manufacturers,its next to impossible to wear out even a cheap carpet. The carpet will usually "ugly" (mat and crush) out (usually not covered) before it wears out.

Is the pad a 6# re-bond (little pieces of foam glued together),or is it something else. The pad installed under the carpet is the biggest factor in how long it will last. I'd upgrade the pad,but I wouldn't use the re-bond. I like a heavy felt pad.

 

[michaelc80]

Quote:

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Quote:

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Carpet in a hallway won't last.

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Quality carpet will last just fine. Our carpet is 6 years old and looks as good as it did when we had it installed. We have two kids (5 and 1) plus a Black Lab,thats a test of carpet quality if ther ever was one. I'm always amazed at just how good it looks after its cleaned.

You need to be sure its Nylon and has good strand twist and density.

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I agree. Carpet that lasts only 5 years was poor quality to begin with. Our hallway carpet is just over 10 years old and still looks like new.

 

[benjamming]

Thanks for all the good replies.
Stewart Fan,
What carpet do you have that has lasted so well?

Why would I only want nylon 6,6 (Solutia)? Is Anso & StainMaster not very good? Is there a difference between BCF nylon and Tactesse nylon?

I figured as much about the warranty on carpets. It doesn't drive me to get one over the other.

The 6# pad is for rebond so is their upgrade to 8#. They do have an upgrade to 8.5# Stainmaster pad which has a vapor barrier on one side but is still rebond. It increases the warranty by 3 years on a StainMaster carpet, but that is probably meaningless as well. We found a 6.5# double vapor barrier urethane pad today made by Karastan. It was the same price upgrade as the 8.5# Stainmaster pad. Would this be the pad to get?

Also, we found wool carpet made by Karastan. You want to talk about expensive, this is it.

 

[Stewart Fan]

I can't remember exactly what the carpet is offhand,but I'll try to dig up the paperwork. I do remember that the carpet was expensive. Along the lines of $60 a yard installed. The face weight is about 80oz.,the density is in the neighborhood of 3800 and the twist is about 7. Technically the carpet is considered a plush,but its far from "plush". Its really firm with the faceweight and density. Not real fun to play on,but its REALLY durable.

IIRC Tactesse is a style of carpet made to have a soft touch. BCF is the way the carpet is made.A BCF fiber is like a rope woven through the backing and then sheared to create the texture of the carpet. A non BCF fiber is pushed into the backing and more likely to fuzz and shed.

 

[Primus]

Think Antron is still the best material for carpets. Pity that DuPont sold this business.

http://antron.net/dcf/ReqLiteratureServlet_A