You know thst ”free” labor isn’t free, right? It just is a hidden cost. That you’re finding out about.

Perhaps the 12' is stock and the 15' special order; The cost difference comes down to whether you are OK with the seam or not.

The 12 foot carpet is obviously cheaper to manufacture and for the dealer on a per foot off the roll basis (not square footage).

The reason that the 12 foot carpet is cheaper for you is that they are not going to use 2 20 foot long sections of carpet. They are going to use 1 12x20 section of carpet and then along one wall, you are going to have a bunch of little carpet squares. If they do a good job, you might not know which wall they chose to do this.

Or you're going to have a 12x14.5 section of carpet with a 12x5.5 section next to it. One long seam across your room.

Thanks for the input. Maybe that's why they avoided answering my question about where the seams would be for the 12'. All they would say is I wouldn't notice it because their installers know what they are doing. However, my experience with carpet is that as it ages the seams do show. We're not planning to move anytime soon.

Two more questions:

1. For the 15' they said there would be 1 seam and that's in front of the sliding door - which doesn't make sense to me because it lines up with the walls on either side of it. What do you think?

2. Would you save a few hundred dollars and go with the likely pieced together 12' or would you go for the 15' ?

Opps .... 1 more question. if they use the 12' and piece together 2 pieces lengthwise wouldn't this be more yardage and thus more expensive than using the 15' width?

1. For the 15' they said there would be 1 seam and that's in front of the sliding door - which doesn't make sense to me because it lines up with the walls on either side of it. What do you think?

I would ask for an understanding of the seam in the 15'. Hopefully they will answer that question in a way that makes sense to you.

2. Would you save a few hundred dollars and go with the likely pieced together 12' or would you go for the 15'.

Since you are concerned about the seams showing as the carpet ages, it would seem (pardon the pun!) that you should go with the 15'.. Whether that is the best choice for someone else (later readers??) would depend on their concerns/budget.

I cannot think of why there would be a seam in the 15' so maybe ask and get an answer you can understand . I always prefer no seam if possible and I am sorry to say but I also prefer no carpet at all. Hvae you checked out other options for flooring ? I especailly do not like carpet in spaces that get lots of traffic food and furniture set up that can't be changed to keep the carpet from wearing in certain places.

Theoretically the 12' will be less yardage, but the pricing doesn't really make sense.

Carpet has to be laid end to end, or side to side. So if carpet is the constrained resource, they would need to lay the carpet across the room and get away with a 12' x 23.25' piece (see diagram below). So you are saving 2.3 square yards of carpet. However, it doesn't make a lot of sense unless the carpet is some really expense hand woven thing. That is a lot of extra labor for such little savings.

Diagram on left: 12' x 23.25' carpet. Diagram on right 14.5' x 20' room.

Go for the 15’ wide. We just did in a beautiful wool carpet and couldn’t be happier. Not cheap, but over time the seams tend to show.

Patricia,

I agree with you about not using carpet, but I haven't been able to find something that would work in this room. Here's my situation (lots more than you want to know LOL). My house is a 4-level side-by-side split and the family room is on the 2nd level (ground level). It's on a concrete slab and has the door to the garage, a sliding door to the backyard, and two sets of stairs. The stairs going down to the family room are red oak hardwood. The other set of stairs go to the basement. These are carpeted and need updating. I looked into engineered hardwood but was dissuaded from using it on the concrete due to moisture issues (even though manufacturers ok it for installing on slabs). I've looked into LVP and laminates but haven't been able to find ones that look good with the red oak. I finally selected an LVP that I could live with and talked to the manufacturer. However, they don't recommend using it on stairs because the attached pad has to be taken off (which is difficult) and it can be a slipping and fall hazard. Ugh... so I gave up looking at alternatives. As you can imagine the 20-year old carpet is simply gross and something needs to be done sooner rather than later. An added bonus with carpet is it's warmer in the winter. Any ideas?

I understand a layer of cork helps with moisture concerns for hardwood flooring. We were about to install engineered hardwood (with thick veneer for multiple sanding and refinishing options) on a concrete slab when my husband decided he preferred carpet for that space. I talked with two flooring contractors who said the concrete slab was not an issue for hardwood unless water was actually seeping into the room. Might depend on where you live. We’re in DC Metro.

I think the lvt would be a better choice for that room especially if there is access to the outdoors which = a dirty carpet. Get an easy to clean carpet installed on the stairs. The bonus is that the lvt will probably last forever and the carpet on the stairs is better for safely reasons (slipping). You could also add area carpets for color or design and they are easy to replace when they are worn, dirty or you're just sick of them. Thats my contribution. Good luck.

Gluedown engineered wood is used everywhere past the Mason Dixon and has been for almost 50 years. More than 70% of the country in area has slab foundation builds. You're cutting your nose off to spite your face here to be wasting money on carpet.

You need to seek another carpet store. This makes no sense. I smell funny business. You can put engineered hardwood on slab. Almost every house in east coast of Texas is on slabs and engineered flooring is everywhere or LVP. I have had real hardwood, engineered wood and LVP. Loved our real hardwood, engineered next best and LVP Least. Carpet for bedroom ok but most aren’t doing carpet today. Shop around. Look for local family owned shop. They tend to have great installers. Avoid big box sources. Keep looking. A nice rug on engineered flooring is very warm and comfortable.

Kitandkaboodle, I replaced the carpet in my lower level family room in my quad-level almost 3 years ago with SuperCore SPC. My lower level is also on a slab, has the family room, a bedroom, powder room, laundry, door to the backyard, and stairs to the upstairs and basement. Like yours, it’s a high traffic area. I absolutely love the SPC product. I used to spend so much time cleaning up spills and dog accidents on that carpet and am so glad we did not repeat that mistake. I have a 100 lb lab and this floor holds up to his mess and nails better than my hard wood! At the time, it would have been easier to just replace the carpet as it took time to research all the products and get samples, and I also had the dilemma like yours in wanting it to not look disjointed with flooring upstairs. You really should look into this thread https://www.houzz.com/discussions/4249579/adura-max-vs-coretec. It has more than five years of discussion on this product and others along with many houzers’ experiences with it. Here is a pic my SuperCore Gunstock.

The OP mentioned that the 12' width and the 15' width are the same price per yard. I don't quite understand why the difference is several hundred dollars, as you are probably only talking three or four square yards difference, but I do understand that 12' is less carpet and therefore cheaper. So if your carpet is running near $100 per yard, then that could easily get to a $400 difference and while that is high, it is not unheard of.

I also suspect that the installers are independent contractors who get paid by the square yard of carpet, so the carpet seller doesn't care how much more labor is involved in an install because they have to pay the installer the same amount regardless of whether or not it is an easy install.

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As for the other options. There are several options other than carpet for a basement floor. I personally don't like engineered flooring over concrete, it is too hard to be comfortable to walk on in my opinion. If the ceiling is tall and the space is not finished currently, I would install sleepers, which raise the floor 2" but give it some bounce. There are some good LVP products that are easier to care for than carpet and have a decent feel when walking on them. I have Flooret installed over concrete and it is comfortable to walk on.