Complete OT rant about carpet and increasing prices

I spent over $6500 last Nov/Dec to have my whole house recarpeted.  The heavily sculpted light berber (which felt like walking on some kind of foot massager with NO padding underneath) was 15-16 years old (put in 3 years before I bought the house).  It wore like iron, but the high traffic areas would no longer come clearn and dog toenails or the vacuum would snag it and then cause whole rows to unravel!

So, I get a new frieze carpet.  It has recently become apparent that, eventually, the high traffic area in the family room and up the steps to the kitchen is going to wear out long before the other areas of the house. (Having the CHow that goes to the kitchen every hour on the hour to drink does not help, LOL!) My house has a weird multi-level layout that makes it hard to NOT have the same flooring everywhere (except maybe the bedrooms and the office), so the best option seemed to be to buy enough extra carpet (while it is still available!!) to redo the family room, steps, and landing in front of the kitchen.  I will just store it in plastic in the garage until I need to have it installed.

Of course, the carpet price has gone up considerably since I ordered the original batch in November... so I just paid as much per square foot for JUST the carpet as I paid 6 months ago for the carpet, the medium quality padding, AND the installation! 
$910 for JUST the carpet! 

The salesman (the same one I used initially) was very apologetic, and even showed me their cost for the carpet, and I know thatb the prices are going to do nothing but continue to rise, so this WAS the most economical solution, but still...  OUCH!  So much for trying to save my tax return or use it for tuition.

Lora

that sucks!

I feel for you.  We are having the whole house recarpeted next week.  I am trying not to think of the money as it is something that has to be done. 

Not only is it expensive, it is a giant PITA!

Lora

Had to smile at this. Being a landlord, I would be lucky if the carpet lasted 3 years. With us, the repairs from dogs and cats have to be done right down to the floor underneath. Often have to seal them because of the accidents that get soaked into the wood underneath the carpet.
When it comes to cleaning, only use a professional service that has a truck-mounted unit. Save some of that carpet for repairs. A good installer can replace the damaged sections and you would never know there was a seam there.
Once a landlord had a bet going on the internet that he could clean this carpet that an alocholic had repeatedly vomited on as well as did other things to it. He won the bet. Collected a lot of goodies. You would think the carpet was new.
You might want to try a product called Allure. Every landlord I know is using this in place of carpet and loves it. So do the tenants. Some have years of experience with it under really bad conditions and it stands up. One even had a house flood. He was able to take it up in one piece and it was unaffected by the flooding.
Using something like this you could then use the carpet for areas like your bedroom.
If you bought enough at the store that carries it you could even get a bid room price for it.
If you want to start a firestorm, go on the landlord bulletin board and ask anything about carpeting.
By the way, as Japan rebuilds, most of us expect the price of anything to do with building and furnishing homes to go sky high.