Let me start by saying that I think selecting
new carpet in the comfort of your own living room is a very wonderful
concept. There are plenty of knowledgeable and reputable carpet sellers who
offer quality in-home carpet sales and installation. To these hard working
professionals I say thank you and I hope your business thrives.
Now to those who are in the business of
taking advantage of unsuspecting consumers I say shame on you! You are the
sneaky people we all want to avoid. You give the carpet industry a bad
rap when you over-charge and under-deliver.
Carpet Measuring
Measuring for carpet accurately is an art
that takes years to become proficient because carpet must run in a certain
direction in most cases. Since most carpets come 12 feet wide, measuring
must take into account rooms that are wider than 12 feet and allow for
enough extra carpet to "fill" in the wider areas properly. If
there is a pattern to the carpet, the pattern match must also be taken into
consideration so that enough carpet is ordered to fit the size and the
pattern match in each room.
Too Much Carpet
Sly carpet salespeople never order too little carpet. They
always allow plenty of extra material. Not only do they never have to worry
about coming up short, they also make more commissions. It has become
standard practice for salespeople to not disclose the amount of carpet they
figured you need. They just give you a total price for the whole job:
Carpet, padding, and installation. If you are charged for more carpet than
you actually need, you will also be paying for more padding than you need
and you will be paying for more installation costs than you should. This can
easily add up to hundreds of dollars.
Not Enough Carpet
Inexperienced carpet salespeople are always
afraid they will not order enough carpet and the job won't be completed
without having to order more. This could take a bite out of their
commissions, make the customer angry, make the store owner angry and make
them look bad. You certainly don't want them have to order more carpet. It
could take weeks for it to arrive, or it may not be available anymore.
Either way, it will be a real headache for you to have to deal with this.
Moving furniture, taking time off work, paying more money and having a less
than perfect carpet job.
Accurate Carpet Measurements
An experienced carpet professional will not need to order
any more material than is absolutely necessary and will not need to hide the
accounting or measurement figures from you. You should be free to
discuss all project details with the carpet salesperson including
layout, seam placements, padding selection and installation.
When it's all said and done, you should know all the details
of your selection including carpet specifications, padding specifications
and have an itemized invoice including the cost of the carpet separated from
the rest of the job total.
Important: You must have the
price of the carpet (by the square foot, or by the square yard) and the
amount of carpet ordered printed on the invoice. This is a requirement of
the carpet manufacturer to keep your warranty in force.
Insist on it!
Carpet Dye-Lot Problems
Then there is the matter of dye-lots. No two
rolls of carpet are made exactly the same. The colors could be off a little
or a lot, depending on when the carpet is manufactured. If two rolls of
carpet have the same dye lot number, made on the same run, then they should
match very well. If however, the rolls have different dye lot numbers and
were made in different batches, then they may not match very well at all.
The reason this could matter to you, is that if the carpet salesperson
doesn't measure your carpet accurately and fails to order enough carpet,
then they will need to order more carpet in order to finish the job. In this
situation there is no guarantee that there will be any of the same dye lot
available. If they use a carpet with a different dye lot to finish the job,
you may end up with two different colors of carpet in the same room or area.
That can really look bad.
Alan's
Top Ten Carpet Information Pages:
-
The
History of Carpet
-
In-Home
Carpet Scams
-
The
Bait and Switch Scam
-
Measuring
Scams (You
are here)
-
How
to Choose Carpet
-
Determine
Your Level of Foot Traffic
-
Carpet
Fibers 1 Nylon and Olefin
-
Carpet
Fibers
Polyester and Sorona®
-
Alan's
Preferred
Carpet Dealer Directory
-
The
2011 Complete Carpet Buying Guide
Alan's
Preferred Carpet Dealers
It's
getting harder to find a reputable carpet dealer these days! That's why I've
created a special hand-picked list of over 350 locally owned Carpet Dealers
who offer Free estimates, Knowledgeable staff, Honest measuring, Fair prices
and Qualified installers.
See
Who I Recommend Near You!
