Have you checked out empiretoday.com? They have been advertising big deals. A friends son had them do his whole house, buy some get some free.

I'd like some guidance on how to judge quality (weight and maker) and what kind of fiber is best. I expect we'll be using this for at least ten years. (The old BR rug was cut from carpeting in our previous home -- must have been at least 20 years old.)

This was posted on another thread here on GW:

Posted by dougowen (My Page) on Sun, Feb 1, 09 at 12:36

Anso nylon is known for it's durability.
The Anso warranty is not prorated like most nylon warranties. Therefore you get 100% coverage for the life of the warranty.

A 3.5 wear rating for a frieze is not bad at all. Density has a lot to do with wear ratings, and since most frieze carpets are not very dense due to their construction, their respective wear ratings will rarely go higher than 4.

The truth in regards to wear though is that your carpet will never 'wear' out with regards to the warranty. If you read the actual wear warranty it will state that the carpet must lose 10% of the face weight of the yarn, meaning that every 10th yarn must be missing for it to fall under the wear warranty.

Carpets will generally 'ugly' out over a period of years. Meaning they will get stained, lose twist and mat down.

Therefore you should pay attention to 'Texture Retention' and 'Stain Resistance' warranties as much as 'Wear' warranties.

Another HUGE factor in regards to wear is the use of proper padding, and installation methods.

Be sure that your pad is no thicker than 7/16' thick, and a minimum of 6lb density. This is the minimum standard acceptible for warranty purposes. 8lb or 10lb density cushion will help your carpet retain it's appearance.

For the ultimate floor I would suggest using Shaw's Triple Touch carpet pad. By using their pad along with their carpet, you will double the warranty of your carpet.

Be sure the installer uses a 'Power Stretcher' in every room. This is NOT the hand held 'Kicker' which is used to position carpet in the room. A power stretcher will have several poles connected together reaching from one wall to the other. It will usually be in a large case, or cases looking somewaht like large suitcases.

I hope this information helps. Please feel free to email me with any further questions you may have.

Doug

Also something to consider...until the newest batch of carpeting I had put down about 8 years ago,it's a Shaw, BTW, I never had a problem of carpeting stretching after it had been down several years. The newer carpeting does not have a jute backing like the older ones. Rather, these seem to have some sort of nylon or poly mesh. Every room with the newer carpet has had to be re-stretched several times, at a fair cost to me. If you're having wall-to-wall installed, make sure that your warranty includes "lifetime" stretching, instead of just the yearlong one I had.

That's very good to know, Blubird. I haven't bought carpet in 20 years and need to replace a few rooms. Thanks.

My independent carpet cleaning man says to get nylon carpet for any area that will get good use because nylon cleans up so well.