We chose a frieze. I like the look of the weave and it is very easy to maintain.
It carpet we chose is made by Milliken and Co.

We used a berber in our basement rec room and then a plush with a pattern woven into it (all one color just a texture pattern--the carpet is technically a berber but looks more like a plush) in our bedrooms and upstairs hallway. Both carpet are made by Mohawk. The berber in our basement is made of smartstrand which is made from corn and supposed to be super stain/wear resistant. The other carpet is just regular nylon carpet (I think) with stainmaster or whatever to make it stain resistant. The berber in our basement is off white and my son spilled a huge glass of red kool-aid on it two weeks ago and it all came up, so the smart strand has lived up to its stain resistance hype. We also looked at frieze, but it reminded my DH too much of the shag carpeting that he grew up with. We had berber in our old house and liked it a lot, so got it. The berber in our old house was wool and if we had an unlimited budget I would have gotten wool berber instead of smartstrand--nothing beats a wool carpet IMO. We purchased ours from a carpet store. We got a builder's discount but I think that they were both still around $5/sf--the berber a little under $5 and the other a little over $5. If my DH hadn't vetoed the frieze, I would have gotten that for down the basement instead of berber.

My choice would be a tight and short berber due to allergies as the dirt and dust doesn't go into it as much as other carpets and it wears really well. I replaced the carpet in my first house with that and even with two medium to small sized dogs it looked brand new 5 years later and it was a off white with speckles.

If you get berber, be aware that the backing is important. The cheaper berbers use a cheaper backing (or maybe it is a weaving method) that does not stop runs--if you snag a yarn it can run the whole width of the carpet. With the more expensive backing, the yarn won't do that. We went with the more expensive backing/method and the first week we were in the house the dog's tags snagged the berber carpet in our basement and pulled out some of the yarn, but it did not run the whole way. Snags like that can be repaired, but it's easier to repair a small snag instead of a run that extends the whole length of the carpet.

lyfia - I have heard that berber was not good with pets because their claws can pull the fabric up. Based on your experience this is not true?

Thanks,
Cat

Beige/Taupe Berber in the Great Room and Office. Hoping this holds up better than my plush I had in the last house. A beige with a touch of gold in a pin dot cut pattern for the upstairs. Again, looking for good wear for 2 messy kids and a cat who like to cough up hairballs.

Purchased from a local flooring company.

We went with cheap, builder grade, california berber in the bedrooms. It looks as good as the expensive, for now. (hardwood everywhere else).

The reasons we with the cheap over expensive......

1. I didn't want to pay for expensive carpet for the next 30 years that won't even last that long.

2. The carpet is not in the main living areas.

3. I have 2 kids and a dog. No matter how expensive the carpet, it still is going to look like crap in 5 years and will need to be replaced.

We'll be doing a frieze in the bedrooms. I like how durable it is. With 2 little ones we need something that's going to hide stains easily & last awhile.

I chose carpet that I could live with that kept me "close enough" to my allowance. My reasons were quite similar to #1 and # 3 of charliedawg's. The carpet I wanted was a 70 ounce thing of beauty, of course. I settled for the 50 ounce because I don't want to pay for it for 20 or 30 years when my 4 kids and 2 future huge dogs will make short shrift of it.

In my research I was told that 80% of carpet is manufactured by Shaw or Mohawk, even if it is sold under a different name. Don't know how true that is, but I just wanted something that was better than builder grade (25 ounce) but nothing that would break the bank.

Good luck.

txcat - no I never had any problems with runs in my old house or the latest one. Maybe because we had the good backing that somebody described, but I don't know. I did keep the dogs nails trimmed, however I'm not sure a cat would fare well with it since I think they might like it as a scratching post.

We're still not sure. We have carpet spec'd for the upstairs, but we may change to hardwood. If we go with carpet, I'm leaning towards the Dupont Serona Smartstrand from Mohawk. carolyn above used this as well, and I'm glad to hear that she has been pleased with the stain resistance of it! If we use the carpet, then we'll probably go with a frieze (my favorite) or a plush (my husband's favorite). We will not use a berber. I don't like that style at all.

I agree with those who refuse to pour a ton of extra money into carpeting. We did, 14 years ago, and while I did get a LOT of compliments on the Sculpted Berber that we chose, it's a $%&$@ to vacuum because all the dog hair, lint, crumbs, etc., wants to 'hide' in the sculpt and I've wished for the last 10 years now that the carpet would just evaporate right off the floor and be gone. Heck no, this stuff is going to outlive US, I swear, as 14 years later, it still looks almost brand new even though it's a very light 'stone' color.

Luckily we're moving away from IT instead, building another home, and while I have nothing against Berber in general, we did opt for Frieze this time as a change of pace.

Actually, we're doing a combination of Porcelain tile in the Foyer, Kitchen & Baths, Laminate in the Dining Room, Office and Workout Room, and then Frieze in the remaining Bedrooms, Family Room and Living Room.

It's a heck of a lot softer than Berber, but I kinda/sorta agree with whoever it was that said that it reminded her hubby of the outdated Shag. I'm hoping that I'll like this!

lavenderblues - Your description of frieze carpet sounds just like my california berber. I think it looks like shag too. Reminds me of the house I grew up in. :)

Here is california berber. (mine was less than 2 bucks a sf installed w/ pad)

Here is Frieze ( I have no idea how much this costs)

I guess Berber is not just the flat loopy patterns anymore.