£975 for carpeting one room

[Capels]

I went into a family run carpet shop today to ask for a quote. It's just the one room, an averagely sized living room in a flat. Nothing grand

The size of the room is 15ft x 11ft

For carpet, underlay and fitting they want £975

I didn't even choose any particular carpet, he simply translated the measurements into square foot and said that's how much it'll be.

AIBU to think that's ridiculous?

The price might be good, it might be bad.

But they can’t quote without knowing which carpet it is based on as prices vary wildly depending on what it’s made from.

That's what I thought and was expecting.

I didn't hang around after he gave me the £975 figure.

I'm baffled.

That’s very expensive. I put a decent, better than mid range in a room a bit bigger than that and it was around £400. That was 5 years ago but I’d be surprised if carpet has gone up by that much!

Did you go to somewhere like Tapi or was it an independent shop?

Did they fit it for you too?

15.3 square metres.

Say it's £100 for fitting.

That's £58 a square metre.

Underlay could be £5-8.

So, £50 a sq metre for carpet. Not cheap, but within normal prices.

It was £175 for fitting

Sounds about right unfortunately- I priced up a cheap carpet at £22m2 the other day for my smallest bedroom and it and it was over £500 - Tapi isn't that cheap - no cheaper than John Lewis

We recently had a 12’ x 10’ room carpeted. It was £700 for midrange wool poly mix carpet, underlay, door bar and fitting.

Seems a lot. We had 2 bedrooms done by carpet right £800 and it was wool

For my son's bedroom in December it was over £500 for a 10ft by 10ft room. That was the cheapest carpet in the range and underlay. Then extra money to pay the fitter.

Bollocks!!!
FFS I'd expect to pay less than half the price unless it's pure cashmere or some other wankery......

Carpet is really expensive is all I can say!

I had four bedrooms and two staircases plus landing done in 2021 and it was eye watering

It's been about five years since we last had a carpet laid, and I honestly can't remember how much it cost (certainly not as much as £975, although it was a smaller room than yours).

But it seems weird that he quoted you a price without even asking what type of carpet you were looking for. Different carpets vary massively in price, so I can't see how the complete price for the carpet, underlay and fitting could be the same regardless of the actual carpet.

Definitely go to a couple of other places and get more quotes, anyway.

Very similar size and price 2 years ago - not even particularly good carpet. Needed to be as close a match as possible to rest of downstairs and shopping around was going to be tricky. A very recent whole house flooring experience was shockingly expensive.

I just got three bedrooms, my upstairs hall and stairs done about three months ago and it cost around £1300. That was including underlay and fitting. Carpet itself is a mid range quality saxony and was 16.99 per sq m. So yes, I'd say 975 is expensive, unless it's a pure wool carpet they've quoted you on.

We had a similar size room done for £575 in January. That was for a decent carpet, no means the cheapest they had, underlay and fitting. That was a local independent type place. I think yours sounds very expensive.

5 years ago is a long time in todays high inflation environment.

The reason they probably didn't need to factor the carpet price per square foot is that the dominant contribution comes from the labour so they just factor in an average cost for standard stuff.

Both materials and labour have shot up in price in the last 5 years.

Take the quote to their direct competitors and see what they can do.

Just carpeted our bedroom. 4.5m x 4.5m. A good thick carpet, underlay, door bar, fitting. £220. And I thought that was £20 too much but hey, whatever. You must be getting gold thread through yours.

No, that's a rip off. I've just had a similar sized room (a little bit bigger), with thick, good quality underlay and a really decent carpet for £650. Had the rest of upstairs (2 other bedrooms, hallway and stairs) done for £900, all fitting and whatnot included. They're having you on with that price.

I think 2 years ago I had a 16x16ft room done with fitted wool carpet plus underlay and Labour etc was £700.

That's ridiculous 😯 my living room is 16.5 ft by 12ft and I paid for carpet, underlay and fitting £450. A grand is extortionate. Find another shop

I've had a bedroom carpeted today for £270. The room is about 4m X 2.5m. We went for quite cheap carpet and shopped around. That includes fitting, gripper rods, door bar and underlay. We're in the NW.

buy carpet from onlinecarpets.co.uk

underlay from www.carpet-underlay-shop.co.uk/ or onlinecarpets.co.uk depending on quality/quantity

fitting cost was £100 for just under 4.6x4m room (think 10% extra for error) - carpet cost £257

And £70 for 3.1x 5m carpet (room smaller a lot of waste on that order). carpet cost £216

Underlay 6quid/m for v good quality (carpet £13.99/m)

within last 2months... I'd guess around 500 is reasonable for yours with decent quality stuff

When we last bought carpet there seemed to be

Real cheap (don't touch)
Roll ends (best value if lucky to find what you want)
Good quality but in stock on a roll (beat option if you liked their colours)
Good quality but only to order (much more expensive for the same thing except you could pick from a trillion colours and thread lengths)
Really expensive (we couldn't afford these)

Do you know if it was to be ordered? You may be able to get cheaper if you find a place with stocks (like Trago here in Cornwall).

Last time we had a fitter it was £40!!! Underlay already down, but still.