I am amazed when I see competitors that price their carpet in so many different ways and methods. I think it is a wise thing to do if you are a consumer is to look at the final and total price. Yesterday I heard on the radio in Cincinnati, Ohio……carpet installed for only $ 27.00. Another ad talked about their $ 97.00 whole house installation. I believe there are basically three ways for retail carpet dealers to price a carpet job.

1. Price each items that composes the job. Carpet, padding, installation, take up, haul off, move furniture and steps or additional custom work.

2. All inclusive price. This includes all of the above without a breakdown.

3. Then there are the dealers who sell you the carpet, pad and installation is $ 27, $ 97 or even FREE. Sounds to good to be true? Generally it is.

No carpet mechanic is going to come to your home with one room of carpet or a van full of your carpet and do all that work for $ 97.00. The store (usually box store, multi chain stores) use this method to capture the consumer. This is where you really need to know how much other stores are getting for pad and labor. Example…..two weeks ago I checked out a home center that was advertising the example #3. Their pad was .77 square foot. That comes out to $ 6.93 square yard. That same pad sells for $.33 to $ .44 cents per square yard and an average cost of $.39 sf that pad is $ 3.51 sq.yd. That’s $ 3.42 sq yd less than the home center on the square yard. If you have 75 sq. yds. that’s a $ 256 SAVINGS. Now that is just the beginning. The $ 97 install is a basic install price. No extras included.The old carpet take up at the same store was $.40 sf. Independents will usually charge $.11 to $.15 sf for the same service. That comes out to a $ 1.17 sq yd saving or $ 87.00 on 75 square yards. Steps at the home center were $ 7.00 per steps ( regular box steps). Wrap steps were $ 15 each and pie shaped steps were $22 each. Usually an independent dealer will charge around $ 8 – $ 10 for those type of steps. Transitions metals, seam tape and tack strip were all extra. Moving furniture was charged by the square foot. Haul off was extra.

Are you starting to get the point. That $ 97 is nothing compared to all the extras that you are being charged. As a matter of fact the $ 97 is like icing on the cake. Then I asked the clerk how I went about getting my job measured. They handed me a 11 page outline of the installation and wanted $ 45 to measure. If I decided to have them perform the job then I have to pay them up front in full for the complete job. And that’s before the carpet is ordered and any installer comes to my home.

I left the store and sat in my car and began looking at the 11 page installation guidelines. I got through 5 pages and drove off. The next time I see my nephew (attorney), I am going to let him look at the agreement. They even charge to go up an elevator. Over the basic mileage to your home there is an extra charge.

I hope I didn’t confuse you. Go with example # 1 or # 2. If you are shopping an independent dealer you will most likely find that they price their jobs using one of these examples and honest dealers generally will come out about the same total. Look for a dealer that has installers that have been with them for over 4 years or their own hourly installers. Another great piece of advice is to go to http://www.wfca.org/. Look for the store locator icon and type in your zip code. These dealers abide by a set of principles in selling floor covering.

Trust you got something out of this article. Here is some really great advice. Go to http://www.complaints.com and enter the name of a large box store that runs these kind of promotions. After you enter the name just hit enter. You will get a list of complaints about the name you entered. Do you have a question? Email me at ….cincinnatifloorings@gmail.com