Carpet Sales, Installation and Repair

Where does carpet still make sense?

In bedrooms, on stairs, in media rooms, and in offices — anywhere warmth, quiet and softness underfoot matter more than water resistance.

Hard surfaces have taken over most of the house, and mostly for good reasons. But a bedroom floor is walked on barefoot at 6am, and a hallway with three doors off it carries sound to every one of them. Carpet solves both problems in a way no hard surface does.

On stairs it is also a safety question. A carpeted stair is significantly less slippery than a finished wood one, which matters in a house with small children or anyone unsteady.

What should I look for when choosing carpet?

Fiber, first.

• Nylon — the most durable and the most resilient. It recovers from crushing better than anything else, which is what actually makes a carpet look old. The right choice for stairs and hallways.
• Polyester (PET) — softer and better at resisting stains, less good at recovering from crushing. Excellent in a bedroom, poor in a hallway.
• Triexta — good stain resistance with better resilience than polyester.
• Wool — beautiful, naturally flame-resistant, expensive, and needs proper care.

Then density, not pile height. Bend a sample back on itself: if you can easily see the backing, the carpet is sparse and it will mat. A dense, short pile outlasts a plush, loose one every time.

Then the pad. People spend carefully on carpet and then take whatever pad is offered. The pad determines how the carpet feels and how long it lasts, and replacing it later means pulling the carpet up again. On stairs a firmer, thinner pad is correct — a thick soft pad makes a stair feel unsafe.

Why does carpet ripple, and can it be fixed?

Ripples mean the carpet was not stretched tightly enough at installation, or it has relaxed since — often after heavy furniture has been dragged, or in a room that gets very humid.

It is fixable, and re-stretching is much cheaper than replacement. A power stretcher pulls the carpet tight and re-seats it on the tack strip. Done properly the ripples do not come back.

Ripples are also a trip hazard, so it is worth doing rather than living with. If someone installed your carpet with a knee-kicker instead of a power stretcher, this is the outcome, and it is one of the more common repair calls we get.

What repairs are worth doing?

• Re-stretching — ripples and waves. Always worth it.
• Seam repair — a seam that has opened or frayed.
• Patching — burns, bleach marks or pet damage. We cut in a patch from a closet or an offcut, and done well it is invisible.
• Transition and threshold repair — where carpet meets another surface at a doorway.

Keeping leftover carpet after an installation is worth more than people realize. A patch cut from the same dye lot disappears; a patch from a new roll never quite does.

What is custom binding?

Binding finishes the raw edge of a cut piece of carpet so it becomes a rug. It means you can have an area rug in exactly the size, shape and carpet you want, and it is often less expensive than buying a comparable rug.

It is particularly useful for stair runners, for oddly shaped rooms, and for protecting a hardwood floor in a high-traffic area with something that matches the rest of the house.

What about allergies?

The old assumption that carpet is bad for allergies is more complicated than it sounds. Carpet traps particles rather than letting them circulate, which helps — as long as it is vacuumed properly and often. Where it goes wrong is a carpet that is not maintained, or one in a damp room where it can support mold.

For an allergy household, look for CRI Green Label Plus certification on both the carpet and the pad, keep carpet out of damp rooms entirely, and vacuum with a sealed HEPA machine.