Rolling out the (red) carpet

 

World of Style by Porter Davis

 

Catagory 2 Carpet

Early on we looked at getting our carpet through Porter Davis, we liked the look of the below Cat 2 carpets however they were very short piles and the colour was a little dark for my liking.

Catagory 1 Carpet.

We currently live in a rental, and it’s been fitted out with dark blue/grey Cat 1 carpet.

It is the worst carpet I have ever lived on. The colour is impossible to keep clean, it shows up every single bit of dirt – including a single eyelash, I’m not joking! 20min after vacuuming – you need to do it again.

Also, it has these little squares in it, and in each of the four corners, stuff gets stuck. That means you have to vacuum it in every single direction and then get down on your hands and knees with the vacuum nozzle and rub it into the corners to get the grit or dirt out.

Never Ever Ever buy this carpet!

 

Carpet Call

From WOS we went to Carpet Call, you can pretty much get the same carpet from any supplier, everyone seems to be selling the same brands.

We looked at the Solution Dyed Nylon’s (SDN)

The colour was more what I wanted, maybe a little more white then I would like but with a nice amount of variance.

But you know when something is just not right, it doesn’t click, it’s close but no cigar.

They offered Dunlop 10mm lux plus underlay free with the carpet. I’m sure you pay for it somewhere along the line.

 

 

We checked out the flooring megastores on Old Geelong Road in Hoppers Crossing. For those that don’t know, there must be at least a dozen different carpet and flooring shops along that road, 80% of them just sell the same stuff. So when I would walk into a shop, I would power over to the section I was interested in, and ask what they had that was different to all the others.

I didn’t bother asking shops for formal quotes if I knew I wasn’t going to go with them, why waste their time and mine.

While we were out one weekend, we came across a lady that had been to every shop on the strip and had a formal quote from them all. She was the epitome of a price shopper and just wanted the cheapest dollar value for what she could get. At one location we were talking to the sales guy about her and he said that it’s all very well doing this however under most quotes there is a caveat that says, when they get on site and measure, they will adjust the square meterage needed so that it is accurate. This will, in turn, affect the price, as the quotes are calculated on a per square meter price and not a completed job price. So, all a hungry salesman has to do is quote fewer meters then everyone else, look cheaper, get her deposit and then when they go onsite at fit-out time, tell her it’s X amount of square metres more. It’s too late to move companies then and they are stuck with someone that is not necessarily the cheapest.

 

As we tripped around, I always had a set of A2 plans with me. We had gotten these printed at Office works and laminated so they were easy to read, couldn’t be marked and always looked tidy. I would keep a couple of sets of the A3 plans handy in the car as well so different potential companies could mark them up and calculate our requirements.

I watched 3 different salesmen draw up and calculate how many square metres were needed for the carpet for my house.

Two out of the three asked me if I would prefer less joins and buy more square meterage of carpet or have more joins and buy less carpet overall. I said I wanted fewer joins but not to go overboard with it. Most rooms will have 2 joins but some have 3.

 

Carpet Court

Carpet Court have their own carpet range called Court Haven, we chose the 60oz carpet because it was so very soft and thick. This is manufactured by Godfrey Hirst and is exclusive to Carpet Court, this means that because they are the only supplier, they can decide the price point.

At the time we were looking at both an engineered timber and carpet from them.

I did a cardinal sin in Daves’ eyes, I told the Salesman my budget. However, this turned out to be a blessing in disguise as he couldn’t discount the timber floor but he could discount the carpet. We asked for two separate quotes as we needed to submit them to the bank to help with the valuation.

Because the carpet quote was meant to be taken in conjunction with timber it was super cheap, however as it was on a separate quote, we didn’t have to buy the timber to get the carpet.

A day or two later the sales guy rang me for what I assumed was the standard “Can I help you” follow up phone call. However this one came with a twist, apparently, the carpet was too cheap, the sales guy’s Manager had had kittens when he saw the price. I think a few words had been exchanged between the two. The outcoming being, that the price would only be honoured till Friday, this being Wednesday. Well, I have heard a lot of different sales ploys to get people to sign but a 2-day deadline is a little extreme, especially for a mainstream company like Carpet Court.

I didn’t believe the Sales guy, so what, the guy gave me a discount, big deal, I’ll just ask another Carpet Court sales guy from another store what their discount would be.

So we put this to the test, that afternoon we went to see Carpet Court Essendon and asked for a formal quote on the same carpet for the same square meterage.

And what do you know, it came in at $7,200, he said that was heavily discounted and he could not go any lower.

Well, that was proof enough for me – maybe $6,500 was a great price!

So off we went to put down the 10% deposit required to lock in the price.

Just in case they try to renege on the price when it comes time to install or tell me that it didn’t include labour/underlay/transport etc. I took a photo of their quotes system that had the full break down.

 

We paid a $50 bond and got to take the sample with us, I wanted to use it when selecting couches, curtains and the timber flooring (not yet decided on at that point.)

Our cat approves of the carpet, I always find her sitting on it when the sample is laying out.

The great thing is, you can’t see any cat hair or long blond Charlotte hair on it, it all blends in – Purrfect.