Save Money When Purchasing New Carpet

A few weeks ago we had new carpet installed.  I find it funny that it is so easy to type that in a short, little, neat sentence.  Getting new carpet was anything but short, little and neat.  Let me preface this discussion by saying that I often make projects (especially home improvement projects) a MUCH bigger deal and MUCH more stressful than they have to be.  I shall blame this personality flaw on genetics.  I am by no means an expert in the carpet installation process, but I thought it might be worthwhile to share some of the things that I learned along my two month journey to new carpet.

• CARPET:
• Remnants:  Remnants are very small pieces of leftover carpet sold at a deep discount.  These sizes could be useful when made into rugs or for small rooms.  You would simply have to call or visit stores to discover what they have as remnants.
• In-store Clearance Carpet:  Stores often sell the remainder of carpet rolls at a discount. 
• Order carpet online:  We took advantage of this option.  I went to a local carpet store, found a value-priced (we only plan to be in our house for a couple more years) carpet that I liked.  Have the salesperson write down the brand name, color and product number.  Then go online and search to see if that carpet is available for purchase through a wholesaler or direct from the manufacturer.  Georgia seems to be the carpet capital of our country.  We purchased our carpet through American Carpet Wholesalers.  The twist is that we didn't end up getting the carpet I found in the store.  The website had a clearance section, and they are willing to send up to 3 samples for free via UPS.  We ended up falling in love with a higher quality carpet priced the same in the clearance section as the value-priced carpet was online.  The carpet we purchased was $1.07 a square foot. 
• After purchase, this carpet is shipped to your house on a semi-truck.  Allow time and a portion of your budget for shipping.  You will need a couple of strong people (men) there to unload it.
• PADDING:
• Ask your sales person (whether in-store or on the phone if ordering online) about the thickness/density minimums for your carpet.  We were advised we could get a 6 lb 1/2 inch pad, which was less expensive than the 8lb pad. 
• If ordering online, ask your sales person about padding 'seconds'.  Essentially, all this means is that the measurements are the same, but maybe the colors don't match, they are made by different manufacturers or are slightly different types of padding....but who cares?!?  It will be underneath your carpet!  For example, our padding 'seconds' were made up in half by Stain Master padding.  For that type of padding at $0.22 a square foot, we made out like bandits. 
• LABOR:
• Old carpet removal/prep work:  Do it yourself to save money.  Discuss the possibility of having the carpet installed in two or more days, and you can move stuff around to parts of the house that are not being installed.  If you cut up your carpet and pad into 3 to 4 foot strips and neatly tape/tie it together, the Fort Wayne garbage service will take it for free.  A tip from our installer:  cut the carpet from backside when cutting it into strips.
• New carpet installation:  I have heard that this is not a job that should be done by novices trying to save some money.  It requires the knowledge of how to do it along with specialized tools.  Ask family and friends if they know of anyone who installs carpet.  I would imagine an independent contractor would be the most reasonably priced.  My good friend's fiance installed our carpet and did a great job.
• Cleanup after installation:  Be sure to ask if cleanup is included in the price of installation.  Obviously you will probably want to run over the carpet with the vacuum a few times yourself, but ask if he takes out the big scraps and does a once-over to get big pieces.  Consider offering to do this yourself if the price can reflect that.
• MISCELLANEOUS:
• It is important to have your house professionally measured to find out exactly how much carpet you need. My husband's 'estimate' of how much carpet we needed was off by over 200 square feet.
• Be aware of the units of measure.  Make sure you know whether you are working in square yards or square feet. 1 square yard = 9 square feet.
• Do enough research to know what is a good price for the type of carpet you want.

Like I said, this is the first time that I have had to go through this process, so I am by no means an expert.  I did feel extremely overwhelmed at the start because I didn't know what to do or how to go about replacing our carpet frugally.  I went to about six local stores.  After deciding online purchasing was the route we were going to take, I talked to the same lady at least three times and had two rounds of samples sent.  I stressed about how we were going to get 400 lbs of carpet off a semi into our garage.  I dreaded moving our entire house into the kitchen and garage.  I hated the idea of moving out with the three little gremlins for three days while my husband moved furniture and cut up the carpet.  The cleanup and moving back process also took a couple days (thanks to the gremlins).  BUT, after all that, it was FAR worth it to do it the way we did as I estimate we saved about a thousand dollars.  I'll take a few headaches for a thousand dollars. 

Please do not hesitate to leave a comment or email frugalfortwayne @ gmail dot com (omit spaces) if you have questions or if you have additional/better ways to replace your carpet!