Carpet is the lowest per-square-foot floor on this site, and what moves its number is not what moves a hard floor's.
Room shape matters here in a way it does not elsewhere. Carpet comes off a roll in a fixed width, so a room wider than the roll needs a seam, and where that seam falls is a craft question with a cost attached.
| Room | Floor area | Seam likely? |
|---|---|---|
| 10 x 12 | 120 sq ft | No, if the roll runs the long way |
| 12 x 12 | 144 sq ft | No |
| 12 x 16 | 192 sq ft | No |
| 14 x 16 | 224 sq ft | Yes |
Multiply your floor area by a bid's installed price per square foot, and ask for stairs and closets as their own lines.
Two questions decide whether a carpet bid is comparable to the one beside it, and both usually go unasked.
Which pad, by density as well as thickness? A bid that says "8lb pad" is telling you something. One that says "pad included" is not. Check the carpet warranty's minimum before you take the cheaper number.
Will the carpet be power stretched? Power stretching braces a tool across the room to pull the carpet tight before it is hooked on the tack strip. The faster alternative is a knee kicker alone, which looks fine on day one and ripples within a year or two. Some warranties treat a poorly stretched floor as an installation fault rather than a product one, so ask for it in writing.
Then check for new tack strip rather than reused strip, seam placement, and removal and haul-away of the old carpet and pad, which is frequently a separate line rather than an inclusion.
Commonly excluded: moving furniture, subfloor squeak repair while the floor is open, and sealing a subfloor where pets have soiled the old carpet. Raise a pet accident before the quote. Odour lives in the subfloor, and new carpet over an untreated subfloor smells within weeks.
Carpet is the fastest floor here. Most rooms are done in a day, and often a whole floor of a house is too. Nothing cures, so furniture goes back the same afternoon.
The wait is upstream. Carpet is cut from a roll at a warehouse, so the schedule follows delivery rather than drying time, and color is matched by dye lot, which is why a room added late may not match the rooms ordered first. Plan to air the room out for a day or two afterwards, since new carpet and pad both have an initial smell. Our guide on preparing your home for flooring covers what installers expect to find.
Carpet has the lowest number per square foot on this site, and the comparison that matters is not the quote. It is how long the floor lasts before it is replaced rather than restored.
Carpet wears out as a unit. Traffic paths, stains and crushed pile are not repairable, so the eventual answer is a new floor and the cost repeats. A hard surface costs more up front and either lasts far longer or, in hardwood's case, can be sanded back and refinished. That trade turns on how long you plan to keep the house and how the rooms are used.
What a buyer thinks is the other half of the question. Our article on carpet vs. hardwood at resale takes that up, including where new carpet is still the sensible move before a sale.
Carpet earns its place in bedrooms, on stairs, in playrooms and in any room where noise carries. Nothing else here is as quiet, as warm underfoot, or as forgiving when someone falls over. On stairs it is also the safest surface in the house.
It is the wrong call in a kitchen, a bathroom, a laundry or an entryway, and on a below-grade slab where moisture can come up from underneath. It is a poor fit where someone has severe dust allergies, and over a subfloor that has already absorbed pet odour unless that subfloor is sealed first.
Carpet is really two purchases, and homeowners tend to over-specify the first and under-specify the second.
On the pad, thickness is comfort and density is life. Ask what the carpet's own warranty requires, and buy that.
Floor Coverings International brings its full sample selection to your home, so you can compare flooring and carpet against your own walls and lighting before deciding. Homeowners across the franchise consistently name their local design consultant and describe an honest process, including being pointed toward a smaller repair instead of a bigger job they did not need. Installers are described moving furniture before starting and putting it back after. Local owners personally reply to reviews by name. Because each location is independently owned, ask how long the installation warranty runs and what is covered if a floating floor like LVP or laminate ever shifts.
Refloor fits luxury vinyl plank and little else: a narrow specialism, stocked, with installs often landing the day after you choose. Reviewers across its Midwest, Southeast and Northeast branches consistently name their installers and describe real care for the rest of the house along the way: furniture moved and reset, old carpet hauled off, subfloors levelled and repaired before the new floor goes down, and the site cleaned up as the crew works. The sales consultation draws the same kind of specific praise: homeowners name their rep and describe a clear walk-through of product, cost and the installation process before anything is decided. Because Refloor installs its own product, its service covers floors it originally put in; if you are finishing or repairing an existing floor from another installer, ask up front whether that is in scope. Their guarantee has four parts and is worth reading closely: the gap-free promise excludes gaps caused by subfloor movement or moisture, which is how most plank gapping actually happens, and the whole guarantee depends on completing a walk-through on the final day of installation.
50Floor brings the flooring samples to your home, so you choose in your own light against your own furniture, and quotes the whole job in one visit. Homeowners describe a consultant who laid out a wide price range without pushing a decision (walking through materials and options rather than steering toward the most expensive one) and installers come up by name for clean, efficient work. Two programs are worth understanding properly before you sign. The Gold Star Warranty covers installation-related problems, and their own materials describe its term two different ways, so ask which one applies to your contract and get it in writing. The Lifetime Love Your Floors Guarantee is a credit worth half your original price toward a replacement floor from 50Floor: a credit rather than a refund, and it has to replace all the original areas.
Express Flooring covers Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas, and stocks its own flooring rather than special-ordering it: the reason installs can often start within days of the in-home visit rather than weeks. Reviewers across its markets consistently name their installers, and the recurring praise is for speed: a full house of vinyl plank finished in a day and a half, a room of carpet installed the same week it was chosen. On a larger job, expect the crew to move furniture from every room at once rather than staging room by room, so ask how that will work around your household before scheduling. Their published disclaimers are worth reading before you sign rather than after: the installation warranty is limited, does not transfer to a new owner, and after the first two years the labor cost on any claim falls to you. Carpet cover also depends on documented annual professional cleaning, so keep the receipts.
National Floors Direct moves fast: many homeowners get an installation date within a day or two of choosing their flooring, and reviewers across its Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, Florida and Texas markets consistently describe crews who move the furniture, work quickly, and clean up before they leave. The other strength reviewers name most is the shop-at-home consultation itself: a rep who brings samples to your house and lays out the options without much back-and-forth. Three things are worth locking down before you sign. Their price-match guarantee only holds if you bring a dated, written competing quote in on that first visit, not later. The standard right-to-cancel window is short and enforced strictly, so read that clause the day you sign. And if your subfloor needs extra prep once the old flooring comes up, that can add to the price, so ask how that is handled ahead of time.
Empire Today is built around convenience: a shop-at-home consultation with installation often available within a day or two, on exclusive lines like WhisperHOME® carpet and AquaDefense® waterproof LVP. The consultation is what reviewers praise most, and specifically: they name the consultant who came to the house, describe the visit as unhurried, and often mention that the price held up well against other quotes they had already collected. Installation crews draw the same kind of specific praise: arriving on time, walking the job before starting, and cleaning up before they leave. Because flooring performance can change over the life of a floor, ask now what the warranty covers if a plank ever lifts or separates down the road, not just what is covered on installation day, and get a direct service contact in writing at the time of sale.
