I
recommend locally owned carpet retailers who give free estimates, offer fair
prices, have knowledgeable staff, provide honest measuring and hire qualified
installers.
By
Alan Fletcher- Carpet Expert & Consumer Advocate.
Here
are 25 recent email snippets from homeowners who bought new carpet without
reading my Carpet Buying Guide ebook. They have come to me for help and
advice
with their various carpet problems.
Most of these
carpet problems could have been easily avoided if they would have done their
"carpet homework" before they purchased new carpet.
In most cases the damage is
already done and there is little or no recourse for these consumers. My ebook has all the
information you need to make wise and informed carpet buying choices and
will help you avoid costly carpet problems like these.
Defective
carpet
I
have had my carpet for 11 months. After 3 or 4 months I noticed different
shades in the carpet. I bought the best carpet. I put in a complaint
4 months ago. The warranty means nothing. In the living room half is one
shade and the other half darker. I have big dark spots other places and in
the bedroom circles of very light color. It looks like some one spilled
something and tried to clean it.
Improper
selection
At
first our new carpet was beautiful, but it didn't take me long to realize
that I didn't like to walk on it barefoot. Also, it seemed to mat
down very quickly. We have high traffic areas and steps since our
home is a split-level and the carpet really started looking
"old" and "worn" within the first 6 months. In a
nutshell - I HATE this carpet!!!!
Poor
maintenance
I
purchased new carpet 8 years ago. About 4 years ago we noticed that one
bedroom carpet has areas of pink, then the dining room, now the living
room. This is in the upstairs over a full, finished downstairs!
Help! I have asked everyone in town and had carpet cleaners try to
clean. They don't know what is causing it and the pink won't come
out!
Chose
wrong fiber
I
had a Berber carpet installed just a couple of years ago and already
it looks dingy in the high traffic areas. I had it cleaned by Coit for the
first time and now it seems to be worse not better. Is there anything I
can do to make it look better? I know that the carpet isn't that
worn as there are only 2 adults here and we work 5 days a week so not much
wear but on weekends and evenings, and most of the time shoeless !!! HELP
!!
Bad
installation
Hi
Alan, I hope you can help me out before I’m stuck with my builder trying
to tell me my carpet is supposed to look the way it does. We are having a
new home built after being in hurricane Ivan. They laid the new carpet in
three bedrooms. They all have ripples in them and one room has the worst
ripples. Could you please tell me why that is so I don’t look stupid
when I argue the point with the builder? We are closing in a couple of
weeks.
Chose
wrong fiber
I
recently had new carpeting installed. It is suppose to be nylon. The issue
I have is every time I vacuum it I wind up with a ton of what I call
carpet fluff in the vacuum. Is this typical? Or is this just cheap
carpeting?
Bad
installation
The
carpet we have was not installed correctly and we have rolls and visible
seams. The carpet has been professionally cleaned, but the gentleman
complained that he was not able to eradicate stains as the carpet was so
badly rolling and loose that he could not remove the spots completely.
It looked like he did a good job at first, but stains reappeared after a
time.
Chose
wrong fiber
We
have just moved into a new construction that has Mohawk Somerset
installed. It’s been 45 days of hell. The rug sheds continuously. We
have contacted the Mohawk rep and he said that this might continue for up
to a year. Meanwhile we are sneezing, itching and inhaling these fibers
into our system. We are very dissatisfied with this carpet and it is
throughout our house. We have a two year old son who is always playing on
the floor. It is causing some real problems for us. We have spoken with
our neighbors who have the same carpet and they said the same thing.
Construction
defect
I
just had carpet installed a week ago. It is a textured cut
pile manufactured from Camelot Carpet Mills. I kept several extra
pieces. One of the pieces had some water spilled on it and I noticed
after an hour or so later that the primary and secondary backing had
separated. What does this mean?
Bad
installation
We
purchased a Mohawk soft back carpet and within a year experienced
tremendous rippling. We had it restretched and a year later the
rippling is back worse than ever. The manufacturer claims the installation
is to blame rather than the carpet.
Wrong
padding
We
have a new two year old home and we thought we got good carpeting and most
of all a good depth of padding., They put in Stainmaster Carpet. We
have begun to have 'ripples' in the carpeting! What in the world
causes this? We are just two senior citizens living here and don't have
much company at all. Where we first began to notice the ripples is
in a room which is hardly used - other than to walk through, clean and sit
to read a newspaper.
Bait
and switch scam
I
purchased a plush carpet for a living room, dining room, stairs and a
hallway. My concern is the sample I
based my decision on is different than the laid carpet. The laid
carpet feels softer than the sample but it seems to shows more foot
traffic.
Poor
quality
Our
home is 2 years old and is a spec house in which the builder used all
cheap flooring, appliances, fixtures etc. Most of our house has
plush carpet that is stained, worn down and worn out.
Carpet
defect
I
recently had Mohawk carpet installed in my home. This is the
problem. The insert piece in the living room and bedroom is a darker
color than the main piece of carpet in each room which causes a stripe to
appear down one side of each room. I'm perplexed because I had this
exact same carpet installed in my previous home with no problems.
Carpet
defect
We
recently had some carpet installed and the carpet seems to have several
“lines” developing across the pattern. The installer and manufacturer
and an “independent” analyst have all insisted this is a normal
“defect” in the carpet. Is this normal? The lines look like someone
took a child’s wagon and wheeled it up and down the hallway.
Poor
quality padding
I
recently had an expensive, high quality synthetic carpet over a jute and
hair mat installed in my bedroom by a large company that specializes in
carpets and caters only to designers. Now, when I walk across the room,
the rug "crunches" ((has a squeaking sound) The carpet on the
stairs was installed by a second person, and does not have the crunching
sound. What is the problem? (carpet too loose???) and how can it be
corrected?
Poor
quality padding
I
just recently had brand new carpet installed and it is literally acting
funny. When you walk on it it has a strange crunchy/squeaky feel to it
under your feet. It is everywhere you walk and every one feels it. Any
ideas what this is?
Moisture
problem
We
had Mohawk Horizon carpet installed in our basement. It has been
stretched 2 times (including the initial installation). One section
in the middle of the basement is rippling again. Could this be
installation, carpet or some other issue? The basement is dry, so it
is not moisture.
Carpet
defect
I
had Beaulieu Hollytex carpets installed and there was a problem with a
side match. They replaced it and still there was a problem with it.
The next time we changed the color and the pieces matched, but now we have
a line like a cut down the middle. I blame the manufacturer or mill for
not inspecting it better.
Defective
carpet
I
have a dilemma with our master bedroom wool carpet from Glen Eden Mills.
Shortly after having the carpet installed, I noticed a sort of shading
appear just inside the bedroom doorway. After vacuuming and getting on my
hands and knees to see what could be wrong. The fibers were going in
different directions making a sort of water line well into the room.
After many calls and letters to Glen Eden, we received several articles on
water marking or pooling from the manufacturer. None of us wanted to
accept this bogus explanation, so I wrote a letter myself and asked that
an independent carpet inspector come out and take a look. They
finally sent an inspector out and he agreed that the excuse seemed bogus,
but that he had to report what he saw and that was water marking. Glen
Eden chose not to do anything for us. We had the carpet less than 9
months when I started the investigation and we spent $4000.00 on one room
of carpet! (Not a huge room either.) I then wrote another
letter, this time to the president of Glen Eden, hoping to appeal to his
caring side. We have heard nothing in response and I imagine we
never will. It has been at least four months since I wrote.
What do you know about water marking and is there anything else you
can think of for me to do?
Bait
and switch scam
We
have already purchased and installed an Evans Black, Carpet One carpet.
My husband and I don't feel like it is the same one we chose -- which I
know is a common scam.
Carpet
defect
We
just had Nylon repeat pattern carpet put in our family room. When you
enter the room on the left as you view within 4 feet you see what I would
think the carpet should look like but as your eyes move to the right it
looks like someone has scattered sand across the carpet. It is something
to do with the nap but I hate it. If you move to the right and look back
then the pattern appears. Help ME!
Poor
quality padding
We
are in the process of building a new home, and an option we chose was
"Glacier Spill-Proof Carpet Padding". Now that the carpet is in,
when you walk around the house, it sounds like your walking on trash bags.
Originally, I was told it was a defect in the padding where it was
bunching up. They supposedly replaced the padding. Still does it. They
have now supposedly "upgraded" it to the "BMW of
spill-proof carpet pads". Still does it. Now I am being told that
again supposedly a rep from the factory came out, and deemed it a
"characteristic" of the carpet pad due to the spill proof layer
on top.
Chose
wrong carpet style
We
purchased a soft Berber for our basement. It is the newest Mohawk
smart strand carpet.
3 days after it was installed, we noticed there was already a loop pulled.
Looks like 3 loops or more have already pulled up. We also
found 3-4 areas where the loop looks to be separated/broken on the top.
And, we found at least 2 areas where the top of a loop is separated but it
appears almost to be tied. So, at the top the loop is separated but
something has it together at the very top, and then the two frayed ends
are sticking out from there.
My dealer came out and said the pulled area must have been from something
catching on it, perhaps our dog, child or a box, or almost anything.
Nothing they could do about that but repair it. The other areas
where the loop is separated, he said well, that can happen. As for
the loops that look tied, he said he has never seen that before.
My question is: did we just pick the wrong carpet for our
basement??? Does three days to 1 week sound unreasonable to be
having so many problems already? And, what might our recourse be?
Bad
installation
We've
lived in this rental home for 4 years, our carpet started wrinkling about
a year after we moved in- the wrinkles were in carpet before I got it
professionally cleaned. The carpet cleaner said the carpet was not
installed properly. The property owner is saying the carpet
cleaner ruined it, although wrinkles were there already. I've
spoken to others and were told that carpet was not stretched properly at
installation and needs to be re-stretched. What is your opinion? Help!
Take
a look at my list of preferred
carpet dealers across America. I have about 150
listed so far. They are all hand-picked by me personally. They have to meet my
standards and guidelines before I will list them in my directory. You need to
buy from a reputable carpet dealer!
If you like what you've read on my
free website...
You'll Love My Incredible Carpet Buying
Guide!
Testimonials
Alan, Your e book has been a great source of
information." - Kelly W
I appreciate all the things I have learned from
your ebook on about buying carpet. - J. Craft
I
never knew there was so much to consider when buying carpet but truly appreciate
all the assistance you have provided us. We definitely want to make the
best decision since this is such a costly purchase. -Rachel
Hi Alan,
You cannot know how much I appreciate your advice. I read everything you sent,
took notes, did some further research (can you tell I'm a librarian?) -Lisa
I would like to say that I appreciate your
e book- I
didn't realize that carpet buying could be so complicated but am glad for the
information since it is such a large financial investment. - Tom P.
Alan,
Thank you. Great e book. Your e book is worth far more than you ask. Thank you so much and have your
best day ever.
-Michael F.
