Flooring, Carpets and Rugs

When you look at carpet prices in a store or online you will generally see the price quoted as so much per square foot or so much per meter squared. You would then think all you had to do to compare prices and find cheap carpets (or quality carpets that are less expensive than others) would be to look at the lowest price. And all you had to do to work out the total price for your room would be to find out how many square feet or meters it is.

Unfortunately carpet pricing is not as easy as that.

The thing is that carpets come in standard width rolls and you have to buy a length from the roll. So if you have a 12ft wide roll of carpet and an 11ft wide room then you will need to calculate 12 feet by the length of your room to get the square footage. It can work out cheaper because of this to buy a more expensive carpet which comes in a width closer to one of the dimensions of your room than it is to buy a cheap carpet where there will be a lot of waste.

And if you have an awkwardly shaped room where do you start working out a carpet price?

In this case you can generally measure the room in sections, provided it is a large enough room and you are having the carpet professionally fitted as seamless joining will then be possible. But you must also take into account that the carpet pile needs to run in the same direction to get a proper color match if you are using more than one piece.

If you have a small awkwardly shaped room it is better to measure for a single piece of carpet as a lot of small pieces won’t look good. Remember whatever the shape of your room to include any alcoves and bay windows and extra areas like that when you take your room dimensions as they need to be included in the final measurements.

For stairs, you will find stair carpet that is around the right width so you will not get as much wastage as you might expect.

After you work out the price of the actual carpet you also need to take into consideration the price of installation (carpet fitting) and padding (underlay). Some companies offer free installation and padding if you pay above a certain price per square foot and that can skew your calculations still further. You have to add the cost of everything together before you see if one carpet is cheaper than another.

To get help with working out carpeting prices you will find online carpet price calculators quite handy as they are put together to work out this awkward task. Find one which works on the standard dimensions used in your area (feet and inches in the US and meters in Europe) and put in your room measurements and carpet costs to have the calculator work out an estimated price.

Carpets themselves of course vary a great deal in terms of price – Berber carpet prices are not the same as those for a frieze carpet or wall to wall shag pile so it is important to compare all kinds of carpets prices to weigh up what you can afford and what you really want. Also you will find different types and quality of carpet at different retailers. Some offer great saving, free shipping and discount prices which may mean that you can afford a better carpet than you otherwise could.