So it was time to replace the carpet in my house since I moved in 15 years ago and it was in terrible shape. It did not go smoothly.
First, I went to the local home improvement store warehouse and picked up samples, telling the carpet person that I would want it by the end of the month, they said: “no problem” and nothing else. I brought the samples home and got opinions and made decisions.
I went back a few days later, and once again told the guy my decision and my timeline and we arranged a measurement appointment. Now, I was apparently there on the last day of the sale, so I paid my deposit to lock it in. In included “free” installation, and no additional stair installation, and moving of heavy furniture, so I was happy.
The guy who measured was great and we had great conversations while he did it. He measured 5 rooms and the upstairs hallway and the stairs. He saw what was in each room and what was not in each room. His estimation for my square footage was the same that I had guesstimated, so that was cool.
So, next, I got my quote after calling for two days. (I was supposed to hear back the next day.) To my surprise, the price was near $1000 more than I expected.
So I took myself back home to said home improvement warehouse and sought to discover the issue. First, it turned out that I was charged $100 a room for having an entertainment center that they had to take apart. I did not, in fact, have any entertainment centers. Two of the five rooms had flat screen TV’s and a third room had a tiny, unplugged TV, and the 4th room had a computer monitor on the desk. I made them wave the fees. Another reason for the price overage was that they had changed the carpet pad to a more expensive pad than I had chosen.
So after getting those issues ironed out, I want to set my installation date, and to my surprise, the carpet I chose would not be available until after the first of the next month. Well. OK. I thought we had this conversation! So I had to then give up my carpet choice and pick a carpet that could be available in 3 days or in 7 days. (Why did no one tell me that before?).
These carpets weren’t as nice, by the way, even though they were roughly the same price. I pulled a few of these samples and had them quote each one while I went home and made my new decision (similar style, lighter color, slightly lighter weight). I went back the next to finalize the transaction and to set the installation appointment. But, my quote kept coming up $1000 more than it should. The computer automatically kept resetting to the more expensive carpet and adding back in the entertainment center charge per room. Because I had written down the quote on the back of each piece of carpet, I was able to sit right there and show them the price on the back of my carpet sample and let them sort out the difference. Finally, there was still a difference of about $100 because the price of the carpet went up over night… interesting. They adjusted that too.
I gave myself a week to prepare the house for the installation. It was for one room on the first floor, the home office, plus the stairs, upstairs hall, and all bedrooms and closets. My bad, it could have gone more smoothly. My guys could have also cooperated more. They could have moved more boxes to the basement as I packed them (we are preparing for a bigger move.) The installation company, however, could have also given me better instructions.
Final night before the installation, I got all of our small items moved down to the dining room and living room. My poor young adult daughter, having been away at college and internships for the better part of 4 years she had a lot of work to do, and I slaved away at my closet all night.
In the meantime, I got a confirmation call and asked what all I had to do to prepare, and they were just like “move the small stuff out of the way, which we were working diligently at. The next morning, I got another confirmation call telling me the installers would be there between 10 and 1. I said, “that is not going to work because they have to install the entire upstairs of my house” and the person said, “Well, I am just the person who called to tell you what time they would arrive”. I replied “well, I’m just the person telling you that they need to install 1600 square feet of carpet and they need to come closer to 10. They arrived at 8 am after that conversation. (don't even know why that conversation was necessary).
So when they arrived, I thought they would start in my bedroom since it is the biggest, and I could finish my daughter’s spaces, but no… her room was the smallest and they wanted to move everything upstairs into that room, and then do it last, so the final push was frustrating, but we got it done and got the small items out of the way so they could work.
Fortunately, the install went smoothly. They were fast and efficient, but the home improvement warehouse should have told us to 1: cover everything down stairs with sheets. There is dust everywhere. 2. That in a big job like this, all furniture is moved to 1 room and then that room is done last because we could have planned better. 3. They also should have shown me the 15-foot wide carpet. There told me there was none, later they said there was very little. I strongly believe they decided it was out of my price range. That was my decision to make. I would have preferred fewer seams… no, I can’t see them, but I know how they laid the carpet in the rooms. 4. They should have also not played with the pricing so much. That was infuriating and left me suspicious. 5, there was also the problem of the installers opening the door and leaving it opened all day no matter how much I closed it. I am still fighting flies and other miscellaneous insects two days later.
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