How To Buy Carpet and Flooring Wisely

Bad Carpet Measuring?

Carpet Measuring Scams Can Cost You Hundreds!

You stand to lose hundreds if your home is improperly measured. Most carpet salespeople are not very good at measuring. It takes years to learn to measure like a pro.

Is the salesperson coming over to measure your home tonight to measure how much carpet you need? Great! Whatever you do, don't sign on the dotted line until you verify their measurements! If you don't verify the measurements, you may be the next victim of the "mis-measuring" or over-measuring carpet scam!

Who should you trust to measure your home?

How do you determine how much carpet and pad you need? If you trust the carpet salesperson to determine your measurements you could easily over-pay. In fact, it is very common for consumers to be charged hundreds extra for the job just because the salesperson added a few extra yards to the order.

Consider this:

Many two-bedroom ranch style homes require about 100 yards of carpet. That's a living room, dining room, hall and two bedrooms. If you were to choose carpet, pad and installation that added up to $30 per yard ($3.33 per foot), for 100 yards, your total price would be $3000.00.

Now, if the carpet salesperson measures your home incorrectly (or deliberately over-measures) and tells you that you need 120 yards of carpet, your total price would be $3600.00, a difference of $600! (If it is a deliberate over-measure, they may just pocket the extra $600 and only order the correct amount of carpet that you actually need!)

Anyone could be over-measured by 20 yards...

Or more and probably never be aware of it. This is a common problem in the carpet business and you'll want to learn all tricks to getting accurate measuring for your home before you make your final carpet selection.

One way to verify measurements is to get at least three bids or estimates from local flooring dealers and then compare their measurements side by side. In most cases there will be different measurements from all three proposals you get.

You don't want to automatically assume that the lowest proposal is the right one. You need to ask each salesperson questions about seam placements and exactly how much material waste there will be.

If you are buying a carpet that has a "pattern match" you must order enough extra material to be able to line up the pattern repeat. This can be tricky.

Measure Your Rooms Yourself!

Another great way to help determine if their measurements are accurate is to measure your rooms for carpet yourself! It takes some effort to learn how to do a rough estimate, but it can be very worthwhile in potential savings.

Measuring for carpet can be very difficult and is easy to do incorrectly, especially if you have a large home with more than one level. Learn How to Measure for Carpet in 4 Simple Steps