Smartstrand through Lowes or local dealer?

12 years ago

In our new build, our second floor is all carpet. It's about 1200 sq ft, so a big area. We have been working with a local flooring store for both carpet and hardwoods/tile.

Unfortunately, we looked at Lowes and really like their Mohawk Smartstrand product "Lucky star". Read on here it is the same as "Intelligent Style" So we got a quote for Intelligent Style from our local store - almost $3k more than what the Lowe's price would be.

Builder and the local flooring store say this would be a huge mistake, of course. The installers would screw it up and we will be unhappy. Builder is refusing to deal with them - he would credit us and we would have to supervise it ourselves.

I'm all for supporting local businesses and not hassling with subs myself, but it's $3k!

Comments (7)

Floortech
12 years ago
Well it's like this. Mohawk has really screwed over the retailers with the introduction of the smartstrand color wall to Lowes in mid last year. Lowes is selling the stuff for about the same cost as the retailer is paying. They worked some wild deal with Lowes and are now scrambling to get the retailers under control. With that said 3 grand on 140 yards or so is too much. They are paying for the carpet roughly what Lowes sells it for. so they are pegging it for about 3 grand profit. Quite a bit. Builder is flipping because he probably is getting a nice discount off the retail store. Tough situation. You could possibly buy cash and carry and have the builder's favorite installer put it in. It will still be a lot cheaper but that will eat into the 3 grand savings. If the installer makes 4 to 5 a yard for builder work....that will cost maybe 700 bucks minus the 99 dollar lowes install price. It sucks...I'd march into the retailer and ask what is the best you can do and show the Lowes quote. Maybe they'd do it for 1500 which would be half way there. then I'd do it because the builder will be pissed the whole time if not. I'd probably even pay the 3 grand because look at that vs the cost of the house and Lowes may use idiots...you never know..Sorry to ramble but i am giving you all sides of the coin. I no longer promote Smarstrand because of this issue. They are introducing some nicer smartstrand to dealers right now as we speak that Lowes will not ever get...but it's pricey...big time. Good Luck.
cottonpenny
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks, Floortech!

Very helpful to see the different sides of the issue. I don't think our builder would be so angry as to become a problem for us - we are getting everything else through his suppliers. He could finish the whole house and we could then just do the carpet last.

I know $3k isn't much compared to the price of the house, but I look at it as $3k I could spend on something else I want - nicer appliances, cabinets, etc.

I'm getting annoyed with the flooring store because they are avoiding telling me how much of that price is going towards installation. It seems sketchy.
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mboston_gw
12 years ago
i had the same problem when we did our tile and carpet three years ago. I thought it would be cheaper to have the same place do the tile and carpet and install. When I got the first quote, the guy would NOT give me a breakdown of cost for install vs. the cost of the carpet and tile. I knew what I was paying for the tile sq ft and carpet but he kept telling me he was giving me a better price than what was listed. I kept insisting on a breakdown and he refused so I went to a couple other places. One could not beat the price on the tile - wouldn't even try to get it for the price listed by the 1st place - carpet was about the same. I ended up getting a quote from the place where I had gotten my carpet 20 years ago. He was less than the first place and did give me breakdown but I ended up finding the tile cheaper elsewhere and found my own person to install it. Bought the carpet and had it installed at 3rd place. Ended up being about $3,000 less doing it that way.
cottonpenny
Original Author
12 years ago
The flooring store came down on their price by some, so the difference is now around $1600. May not be worth hasseling with Lowes over that much.
ken_harrisburgfloor
12 years ago
people forget to check on the quality of the cushion - your local store is most often giving you a better cushion.
When you purchase flooring at one place and have it installed by another - who gives you the warranty? and who is going to stand behind it? I have seen many problems where the store selling the product blames the installer and the installer blames the carpet. The person who loses is the homeowner.
dotbowels
12 years ago
I did the Lowes versus Local Dealers today. Factored in all tearout, installation with 8lb Petproof Pad.

Local Dealer 1 $3,800 Intelligent Style 50 oz
Local Dealer 2 $4,150 Organic Luxury 50 oz
Lowes 3 $3,249 Voyager 50 oz
Lowes 4 $3,629 Lucky Star 60 oz

I'd really rather give a local person the business, I will give him a chance to meet the price or possibly meet me halfway.

Tough tough when this happens.

P.S. Lowes was significantly lower on Levelor Blinds installed and everybody told me I'd regret it and I haven't

Thanks for pricing info posted previously hope my info helps.

Dorothy
dotbowels
12 years ago
Forgot to mention we are doing 95 yards 855 S/F