Whether you’re a homeowner looking to buy carpets for your home or someone buying them for commercial usage such as in offices, etc, there are some guidelines and rules you should be aware of in order to make sure you get the best deal and quality. The use to which you’re going to put the carpet, the different types of carpets available, cleaning and maintenance required should be some of the factors you should consider before you buy a carpet.
- Place for laying the carpet: Before you buy decide where the carpet will be laid and measure the area in those rooms. Check out stores and vendors available in your city. The internet is also a great source to find carpets, browse through numerous sellers online to select a seller of your choice.
- Types of carpets: Check out the various types and styles of carpeting available both in real time and online to figure out what suits you best. Popular styles are ‘plush’, ‘textured plush’, ‘frieze’, ‘sculptured’, ‘Saxony’, ‘Berber’ and ‘cut-pile Berber’. With each carpet type, you will also need to decide what kind of fiber you want – pick from nylon, olefin, polyester from among artificial fibers or more expensive materials such as wool, special carpet fibers made by DuPont such as Sorona® or Smartstrand®. Another factor to be taken into account is the amount of padding required beneath the carpet, available kinds are foam, rebond, hair or fiber pads. Check with the manufacturer on what is the best type of padding for the carpet you’ve chosen.
- Consider your requirements: It is important to consider how much you’re willing to spend, whether your need is for long-term usage, etc. Carpets are sold by the square yard and the price can range anywhere from $10 onwards, pricier material like wool retail at $30 or more per square yard. Also factor in padding and installation costs which will vary as per carpet type and retailers.
- Tips to avoid getting cheated: Paying professional to measure and lay out the carpeting can be a good idea, provided you know what’s happening and don’t end up getting scammed. It’s always a good idea to learn some basic facts such as how measuring of areas for installation is to be done, or how a carpet is to be installed. A simple way of measuring is taking the length and width measuring of the area where the carpet is to be laid and to multiply the two to get the total square yardage required. Other tips to keep track of – do your own homework, do not go by what the salesperson just tells you; make comparisons between different retailers and the goods available with them, compare on price, quality, after-sales service, etc;
- Installation: Now that you’ve made a selection, it’s time to have your carpet installed. What you should remember at this time is that there are 3 basic steps in installation – first, fix wooden strips at all perimeters of the room, against the walls, second, lay the padding over this area and secure, and finally, roll out carpet widths in the same direction. You can do this yourself or hire a professional carpet installer. Make sure you’ve empties the room where the carpet is to be installed, of all belongings.
We’ve just gone through some of the basic ideas to follow-up on when you decide to but carpets. There is much more detailed information which will be available in any decent how-to book published in real-time or on-line. Investing some time and effort in getting a more thorough knowledge of carpet-buying will help pay-off definitely in the long run.
