Smartstrand or Anso???

12 years ago

Hi - Recarpeting an entire upstairs with stairs, family room, living room, and den. Stains are less of my concern because we generally don't eat in these rooms as carpet durability is. Have 3 kids. Have been given quotes for a lower end Karastan Smartstrand (Artful Inspiration) for around $7000, a higher end Karastan Smartstrand (Rimini) for $9000, and an Anso Nylon (Caress) for $8000. This includes all padding, installation, carpet removal for around 2000-2500 sq. feet.

I like the softness of the Karastan, but given that some say it is a subclass of polyester, I wonder if anyone can give me insight into how durable it has been for them. I know it has only been out for 7 years or so. Anyone have good or bad experiences with Anso Nylon carpets as well?

A previous forum was commenting more on staining, but I am more interested in how these will withstand wear and tear.

Thanks!!!

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frankginakay

12 years ago

I am just about to purchase the Mohawk Lucky Star brand of carpet from Lowes.
I am having a hard time choosing just a nice beige without any undertones. I was wondering if any of you chose Paper Moon, Jute, or Atmosphere? Those board samples are so small! Any advice on color would be appreciated.

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Comments (8)

Floortech
12 years ago
Smartstrand is a good product as Anso is also. With the Smarstrand, Lowes will sell you either identical of very close to identical for a huge savings. My customers will buy smarstrand from Lowes continually and we can not touch them. Anso is the real deal..but for Smarstrand go to lowes and save big dollars guaranteed. The words karastan mean nothing .. they are all Mohawk produced...at one time Karastan was a seperate company but Mohawk bought the name and its all made the same now. They both will wear extremely well...but nylon has much more history...and caress is still extremely soft.
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MasonSc
12 years ago
I think Floortech is offering good guidance. Lowes has a crazy deal with Mohawk and it is almost impossible to beat them.

I went with Smartstrand from Lowes (their version of "Intelligent Style" renamed "Lucky Star") with the Smartcushion padding. After some heavy negotiation and price matching with a local store that had it on a crazy sale price of $2.39/ft (!!!!), I am having 720 ft installed for $2700, including a 13 step staircase. (fyi, I would have gone with the local store but they do not and would not install smartcushion, and would not promise power stretching).

I had heard horror stories about Lowes installers. But the Lowes installer here is actually a local flooring company that gets very good reviews, and when I mentioned power stretching they said "of course."

That is under $4/ft installed for carpet and padding with these specs:

FIBER:
Smartstrand Triexta BCF
WARRANTY:
Lifetime Stain, Lifetime Pet Urine, Lifetime Soil, 25 Year Abrasive Wear, 25 Year Texture Retention, Lifetime Anti-Static, 25 Year Fade-Resistance, 25 Year Manufacturing Defects
DENSITY:
2936
TWIST:
5.50 X 5.50
SPI OR RPI:
8.1
FACE WEIGHT O:
58.8
GA OR PITCH:
1/10
FINISH PILE HEIGHT:
20/32 (15.8mm)

My local Mohawk dealer said this was below his actual cost not counting the installation.
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Anso will be close in price. I would be asking about a Shaw ever-touch nylon. Anso does have some lighter weight stuff,but you will not like it after viewing 40 ounce and above products. Stay away from the polyesters as they just will not perform in the long run.Carpet has really gone up. Two major increases this year so far..February and April... It makes me sick but is fuel driven. Look at Evertouch Nylon. Good carpet..less money and its nylon!There will be some light weight smart strand out there, but you will not like it because it is soft but not thick at all.Good Luck.
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Shaw frieze's can be of different fibers other than Nylon. If you purchase a Shaw Frieze..I would recommend either an Anso Nylon or HGTV Brand from Shaw. The dealer may not have HGTV as it is wildly selective to who they allow and invite to sell it. HGTV by Shaw has some beautiful friezes available and Anso also has some gorgeous frieze's. The warranty will be better with Shaw Anso or HGTv than the Smartstrand. You can place triple touch cushion under the Anso product or HGTV and that doubles the warranty to 40 years. To confuse you more, Tuftex of California which is made by Shaw has Anso Friezes that are the latest in style and fashion. Again Tuftex is a discriminating product and not available to all dealers...but very nice. I really like Anso, they are soft, wear extremely well and have the best manufacturer warranties that are offered. Smartstrand and Shaw are both green products. Both very earth friendly. Shaw has a recycling program in place..Mohawk does not. Smarstrand performs well though. Anso will give you more style choice in a frieze. Especially the HGTV and the Tuftex. Anso will have some lower price options for you with the same warranty..but you'll need to find a Shaw aligned dealer more than likely. All of this can be viewed and found at Shaws website. I will link you to it. Good Luck and if you have other questions, please post. Tuftex has its own site..but is a Shaw Product..It is Shaws designer collection (Higher End) Here is a link that might be useful: Shaw floors
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I'm sorry if anyone thought my link was biased. I found that it gave a very upfront comparison of the 2 carpets' performance under various circumstances that may occur in any household. Additionally, Floortech gave multiple pros and cons for BOTH carpets--not just positives for 1 of them--and included warranty info. Bichonlover is correct in his statement on why Floortech had "changed his mind" on the Smartstrand based on postings here on GW. While I do not have both carpets in my home--just the Smartstrand--that's all I can comment on firsthand. Our carpet dealer did show us Shaw's competitive carpet to the Smartstrand and my preference was still for Smartstrand based on the softness factor as well as the stain properties being in the fiber vs. being applied like Shaw's. In the interest of fairness, I have linked a search of GW using key words 'Floortech Smartstrand Shaw' for anyone who is interested. Here is a link that might be useful: GW Search Results 'Floortech Smartstrand Shaw'
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MasonSc
12 years ago
I should also mention the lowes store manager knows me by name as I bought a boatload of stuff from them in the last six months, and they also muffed a major order in an unfixable way (resold several thousand $$ of something that I had paid for that could not be replaced). So I think he is much more likely to work with me than most customers. Also, I had a verified local competitor with an insanely low price.

Even their regular price of $2.88/ft is a great deal.
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gd2garden
12 years ago
We got the Smartstrand carpet from Lowes and we like the carpet itself. Granted, we've only had it for about a month. We had major problems with the installer Lowes contracted with and the carpet pad is having to be replaced due to bad quality. We purchased a 10lb pad made by Shaw that had a moisture barrier feature. All of the pad in our house was not made to spec. Some was too soft and some was too hard. Lowes and the distributor of this pad said they have never had this problem before. Just our luck, right! So now Lowes is replacing all of the carpet cushion with Mohawk's Smartcushion. What a pain to go through the exercise of having all our carpet pulled up and put back down again. Also, make sure they tape the carpet cushion joints to maintain the moisture barrier feature since our installers failed to do that too. Good luck!
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margar
12 years ago
Bumping this up to see if anyone has any additional responses to share as I am also thinking of purchasing smartstrand.
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newlywed2011
11 years ago
Bumping again. Interested to see how things are going with Smartstrand users...
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roberj01
8 years ago
Have been hearing horror stories about this stuff
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Smartstrand or Anso???

frankginakay

Comments (8)

Floortech

MasonSc

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