This review is specifically for having carpet installed. It's also aimed at Lowe's and not so much the installer. In short it's a pretty laborious process of back and forth with phone calls and waiting, and having to go to the store two times to make this happen. I think a more efficient method could be devised. Maybe I'm just being picky and you can just skip my review? From the initial selection of the carpet to installed date was 14 days. We only wanted 1 room carpeted.
We went to Lowe's on a Saturday to pick out a color. We liked the Stainmaster Nitro brand as it was geared toward having pets. We didn't want to purchase expensive carpet just to get beat up with cats scratching it, shedding on it and the occasional barfing. We picked out the color and they said they had plenty of it in stock. Great.
I already knew the square footage needed but that doesn't matter. We paid a $35 deposit. They then forward our information to a place called Cesar's Floor Covering to install. The $35 is applied to the carpet purchase.
Cesar's isn't open on the weekends so I get home from work Monday night I find they still haven't called. I immediately left a voicemail saying we need to get an appointment with them to have the room measured the way they need it measured. They called back Tuesday and we made an appointment. The person from Cesar's came over Thursday to measure. He then said we would need to wait to hear back from Lowe's as it can take a couple days for the measurements to get sent to Lowe's.
Lowe's calls on Saturday saying we need to come down to pay for the carpet and sign the contract. I went down and they had a 10% discount if you applied for the Lowe's card so I did that. I also waived the disposal of the old carpet charge which was $70. An overall savings of $150, sweet. I can throw out the carpet at the local dump for free. They tell me to wait for another call.
Wednesday rolls around and Lowe's calls they received the measurements from Cesar's. They said they'll call back to verify they have the carpet in stock. You had it in stock 11 days ago when I had my square footage already computed and picked out the carpet. Grr. Friday comes and still no call. I called Cesar's directly at this point. They made an appointment for me the following day on Saturday.
It was an appointment for 8-11 and the guys arrived at 10. I had already removed the carpet and cleaned the floor thoroughly to ensure a speedy install. It took them 2 hours to carpet just the living room. The only room we were getting done. We needed to remove the curtains and unfortunately the guy with the glue is pouring it down while we're removing curtains. So guess what? One of us steps in it and tracks glue into the other room. Fortunately it was a tiled floor and easy to remove. Watch out for the glue guy because he ain't watching out for you.
I thought it looked fine when they were done. The following day I noticed the row of padding was thicker on one edge of the room as you can feel a slope as you walk toward the center. So if this matters to you check the floor before they leave.
We had a 10' x 10' piece left over. Don't know why they couldn't use my estimate to save a whole 7 days of waiting?
Maybe this is a pretty standard install I don't know. Overall not too bad.
$799 for a 24' x 14' room.
Now I'm off to McFarland's to have them cut some runners from the left over carpet and have them bind the edges.