If you have that much hardwood left over, somebody did some bad measuring, LOL, but if you do have it left over then it's free. If you have to buy more hardwood $5.00 to $7.00 a s.f. plus install, to do the rooms then you would have to buy some really expensive carpet for hardwood to be cheaper. I wouldn't hesitate to put cheap $10.00 a s.y. carpet in the kids rooms. it would last 5 years, or until the do something bad to it.

Another vote for very inexpensive carpet in the kids' room/s. Do we know any boys who never took apart an inkpen to see how it works? Ink splotches are just as permanent on $50 sy as on $5 sy carpeting! I put a very el cheapo rug on DD's floor [but with a thick pad] and a) no one else ever noticed that it wasn't as luxurious; b) I didn't scream when she practiced drawing -with india ink- on the carpet; and c) I didn't feel bad about discarding it when she finally grew up and left home. Even el cheapo rugs will last over 10 years, just long enough to get the kids grown.

Meldy's advice about thick padding was correct. If you choose a good pad, the carpet will still feel great when you walk on it.

Barbara

Ask on the flooring forum what you should look for in inexpensive carpet. I know that some yarns are better than others, etc. You want inexpensive carpet, but you also want it to look good and last, and some of the experts on the flooring forum can help you with that. We went with fairly expensive carpet in our bedrooms and don't regret it at all. Ours looks like a plush with a pattern in it, but technically it is a berber. The new fibers are virtually bullet proof and don't stain, at least nothing has stained ours yet and it sure has been put to the test by my teenage boys! Good luck!

Better to put a high end pad under a lower grade carpet than to put a lesser grade pad under a higher grade carpet.

If you are going w/ a low end carpet in the kids room, as stated above, go for a higer end padding. It wont be all that much more than a builder grade padding.

Thanks everyone.

I am on my way out of town and will handle this latest issue when I come home. After talking to the flooring place it appears that my DDs room alone was almost 2000! LOL Like I said- I guess I have good taste. I should be able to pick something decent and still hit our carpet budget.

I will go for extra nice padding!

Hi PD, I started to reply yesterday and got sidetracked by a million other things! I did some reading and asked a lot of questions when carpet shopping, and there are a lot of different factors with carpet. How it is cut will determine if it will tend to "pill" and the faceweight per ounce will tell a great deal about carpet as well. I fell fast in love with a lush and beautiful thick 70 ounce, until I saw the price. I settled for a 56 ounce very durable carpet that will stand up to the umpteen million carpet cleanings it will have.

Here is some of the "language" you should know, and I am by no means an expert.

The cut is important, you "should" look for a name brand nylon continuous filament carpet. That will wear the best and stand up to cleanings the best as well.

Other cuts are cut pile, where the machine cuts the tops off of the loops of carpet during manufacture, and loop carpet which is more like a berber. There are combinations of both which give you your patterned carpets, called combination cut and loop.

If you want carpet with a very soft "hand" or feel to it, some of the namebrands are Anso Caresse, Stainmaster Tactesse, and Weardate Durasoft (I think).

Padding is as important as carpet. Get at least a good 8 pound waterproof pad. No exceptions.

I agree with not spending a fortune on kid room carpets to some extent. I put the same carpet in their rooms as in the rest of the house because it is a quality carpet, and cheap "builder grade" 24 ounce carpet will look bad within months. It won't wash well, either.

My 2 cents, worth about that!! Good luck

Amy

You invited us to talk to you about carpet. Well...I hate it! I don't care how you clean it, it isn't ever 'clean-clean', as you can see if you've ever removed any. Furthermore, carpet cleaning products leave residue that may irritate sinuses and lungs.

As for adding value to your home, few buyers prefer plywood and carpeting over hardwood flooring.

I'd vote to install hardwood flooring and use area rugs that can be sent out to be washed -- or replaced. You can have a piece of carpeting cut and bound to give you a wider choice of area rugs.

If you have small children and/or pets, skip the expensive padding. 'Liquids' soak not only carpet but padding.

Superchick,

I'm not going to croak- you just described the carpet I've been thinking about. May I ask what the name of it is? I am so tired of carpet that looks matted. I want the stuff that hotels have in them. Thanks!

This was Mohawk commercial carpet. The name of the "series" was something weird, like "MEDIA", I think. And if I remember correctly, the color was called "Satellite". It took me forever to find one that didn't look like a Dr's office. I'm very happy so far. My FIL has the same brand and he is brutal on it and you can't see one piece of dirt on it!

The only drawback is that I think you have to find someone who has installed this type of carpet before. It's not as pliable as residential carpets and takes someone good to lay it down, and they must be careful on transitions (like to tile or wood). Ask me, I know. The head carpet guy did a great job, but his little helpers screwed up a few places and now they have to come back and fix it!

If you need anymore info, just let me know. I'll try to see if I can find a good picture for you.

Prairiefox-I may have just lied to you! Maybe it is Shaw carpet. I'm looking for it online right now. I know that it is "color-strand" dyed. I think that's specific to the manufacturer, but maybe not. I'll keep looking for you.

Great info everyone...

I think I will have time tomorrow to pick out new carpet for the kids rooms.
Chisue- I agree with with you about hardwoods - we probably should have sucked it up and budgeted it for the whole house. We did do the math and it would blow my ( on target) budget right now. We are only doing carpet in 3 bedrooms- no where else in the house.

Amy- I will keep all

Great info everyone...

I think I will have time tomorrow to pick out new carpet for the kids rooms.
Chisue- I agree with with you about hardwoods - we probably should have sucked it up and budgeted it for the whole house. We did do the math and it would blow my ( on target) budget right now. We are only doing carpet in 3 bedrooms- no where else in the house.

Amy- I will keep all of this in mind. I picked some really nice patterns before and with the waste and the size of the rooms ( they are fairly large bedrooms) a pattern is going to blow the budget- so I will look for continous filament without a pattern.

Superchick.... I would have zero problem with industrial carpet!

PD

After much debate we decided to do wide pine floors throughout the entire house. Of course I now need to get area rugs. But that's a problem for another day.
Jenn

As a rule, commercial grade carpet is a glue down w/ no padding. On a recent project (office in a metal building), the owner put in commercial grade w/ padding. Feels good on the feet and should be bullet proof, and imo, looks great!

Superchick, we had some commercial carpet (can't remember manufacturer; we put it in about 18 years ago!) It's a solid color, on the back stairs, back upstairs hall, my office & my husband's office. The back stairs got pretty much ALL the house traffic and  it  looked  great! for all those years. We did put a good pad under it. Honestly, I can't imagine why we didn't do it in this new house. I guess none caught our eye. Boy, that stuff held up.

Happykate and sierraeast-I'm so glad to hear that! We also put padding down under ours. I'm expecting this carpet to get a workout. I wish I'd have opted for it in my old house, that carpet got trashed in no time, it seems. And I was diligent about removing spots, but it still looked terrible when we moved!

A good quality, high density pad 1/2".

Well we picked our new carpet last night. Bottom line- we are going over our budget for carpet. I think we underestimated. The only way to stay in our budget would have been to go with builder's grade in all 3 bedrooms. I was just not excited about that. I want this carpet to last until it's time to "update" from small child rooms to young adult rooms. We are now 0.5 % over budget on our build. LOL Our builder told us to expect 10% so we are doing well but I so wanted to come in on budget. I may just write a check for some of the carpet and be done with it.

PD

I vote for hardwood or laminate with area rugs that can be machine washed. It's much cleaner and children, especially, are prone to allergies. It's a healthier choice.

I just thought I'd mention what I think are the regional differences in attitudes towards carpet. Many people in cold climates (I live in Wisconsin) like carpet in bedrooms for warmth as well as sound proofing--I don't like to hear people walking around upstairs. If I did not have carpet in my bedrooms I would want an area rug that was almost as big as the bedroom to get the warmth and sound proofing qualities that I want. Small scatter rugs just don't do it for a lot of people, including me because I grew up in a house with small scatter rugs in the bedrooms and cold floors--I was thrilled the day that my parents finally put wall-to-wall carpeting in my bedroom. I think that people tend to treat big area rugs the same as carpet, except they get cleaned less often because you can't steam clean them in place if you have hardwood floors under them and they are a real pain to roll up and send out to get cleaned every year. I don't know anyone who has their 8' x 10' and larger area rugs cleaned every year--they are very heavy and hard to manage when rolled up. Area rugs need pads and I don't know anyone who buys a new pad for their large area rugs every year either. I think the problems of mold, mildew, etc. in carpet in a warm climate is much different than in a cold climate--my carpets never get moldy, musty, mildewed, etc. If I lived in a warm climate, I might think differently about carpet than I do living in Wisconsin. But IMO carpeting definitely has its place in a cold climate. I have 8' x 10' or larger area rugs over hardwood floors in three rooms in my house and I just don't understand how those area rugs could be healthier than the carpeting that I have in the bedrooms.

I think that, as carolyn53562 and brutuses demonstrate, flooring is a personal preference based upon your location and your philosophy. Maybe it is just what you are used to also. We live in a cold weather climate, and I've been having the hardest time choosing a carpet to put in my two little boys rooms. We've always had hardwood thorough out our house (except in bathrooms and our basement) and I don't even put throw rugs down. I remember that my mom was agast when we first had children and they would be crawling around on the hardwood floors. She thought they needed knee pads or something! LOL! But hey, they are tough!

The net net ponydoc, and you know I'm having carpet/hardwood schizophrenia right now, is to do what works for your family, makes you happy and fits in your budget. It sounds like 0.5% over budget isn't a whole lot. You might be able to balance it out somewhere else...

I live in a cold climate too - and I pretty much agree with what Carolyn says. Up until the last 10 years, upscale homes around here had tile/linoleum or hardwood in the kitchen, baths and laundry and the rest was wall to wall carpet. I think more and more people do hardwood now. I am certainly not against hardwood- I think our final tally is something like 1800 square feet of hardwood flooring in this house. The kitchen/family room, the living room, the dining room, the library the foyer the stair case and the upper stair hall are hardwood. The bathrooms, clutter room and mudroom are tile. That leaves the 3 bedrooms for carpet. We will have area rugs on the hardwood- mostly braided wool ( we are building a farmhouse type.) I am in that same category of really liking carpet in a bedroom. I do think it's a colder climate thing.

As far as kids and allergies- blessed so far in that dept. Of course if you saw where we live now....LOL. I have also given them that latest recommendation for avoiding developing allergies- multiple pets.

We picked one of those new funky shags for my DD's pink room. Of course it's pink with some green and burgundy fibers in it. We picked a nice textured slate blue for DS. Ours stayed the same - it's textured with low knap and "mink" colored.

I have been addicted to "A Pattern Language" as recommended here. It talks about going from harder flooring in the more public and most "out there" areas to soft flooring in the most private and intimate areas. Our house is fitting that to a "T".

I will never forget going to a college friend's home for a visit. Their family room had linoleum on the floor. It was shocking to me. On the other hand it helped explain the decor of her dorm room.....

Too funny ponydoc. I like that comment about "harder flooring in the more public and most "out there" areas to soft flooring in the most private and intimate areas". That really makes sense. I just reserved the book at our library. Thanks for the suggestion. Jaymie

I live in *mostly* sunny S. CA, but it still is chilly in the winter months. I can't imagine geting out of bed and my feet hitting a cold floor~guess it could wake a child up fairly quickly though. LOL I would have to have an area rug over the majority of the floor, and then make sure I have socks/slippers waiting for me at the edge of the rug so I can pad down the hall and downstairs. Personally, I would prfer carpeting on the bedroom floors, but do what you want in your MB.

Without some sort of fiber/fabric in a house, it can be very cold. Carpeting, rugs, and draperies are the beginning touches in making a home warm and cozy, in more ways than one. ;o)