Can someone tell me about carpets?

[Yesso]

Moved into a new build 4 years ago, we paid £1500 (4bed over 3 floors) for them to carpet the entire house and they are absolutely horrible. In high traffic areas e.g stairs they are so worn already. At the time we had no money left so had no option but to go for these carpets.
We have some money saved and really want to replace the carpets but we have absolutely no idea about carpets and when we went into a carpet store we found the sales person extremely pushy on a certain type and were still non the wiser on what we should get.

Can anyone recommend a carpet ? I want one that is soft under foot and will last longer than 4 years, more like 10+ . I’m expecting to pay a lot more than £1,500 but not sure where to start.

No carpet will last 10+ years in a high traffic area. A hardwearing flat weave may stay looking better for longer. Go for hardflooring with a hard wearing runner for stairs.

I would just have a stair runner if you've got wooden floors, you need hard-wearing, washable carpet for the hall and lounge, 80.20 for the bedrooms, good underlay, berger is nice. Where abouts are you, we might have personal recommendations. If you look up carpet barn website you can see what's good for different rooms.you can also buy offcuts if you don't need the same in each room,

I disagree, from experience.

If you go somewhere like Carpetright thr carpets will have labels on them to explain which areas they are suitable for (stairs/bedroom/hall etc) and how long they'd be expected to last.

£1,500 is ridiculously cheap for a 4 bed house, including underlay and fitting (or even without). It's no wonder they haven't lasted.

We have always used independent carpet shops, rather than the big warehouse style sellers.
In our last family house, the 80/20 wool hall and stair carpet lasted 25+ years. It was still good when we moved.
In our new house we’ve put the same wool mix on the hall and stairs. Good quality underlay is important to the wear. The independent carpet shop was the same price as the large store, but the independent had a bigger choice, all the fittings were included and the took the doors off to fit under them.

How long something with last is not the same as how long they will look nice in a high traffic area. No stair carpet will ‘look nice’ into a second decade.

Try Cormar carpets, if you order samples online they will advise on local installers. The Oaklands is a particularly good carpet that wears well IMO.. Good luck.!

I also disagree that a quality carpet won’t last. We bought our house 24 years ago and the beautiful carpet we inherited from the previous owner is still going strong, despite children, teens and a boxer dog living there across the years.

We've had our hallway/stairs carpet since 1996 and it's still as good today as it was back then. There's been no obvious wear, surprisingly.

We had carpets put in our new build 10 years ago when we bought it .. they are still absolutely fine .. there is no reason why they would be warm out .

Ours were £3500 then though for a big 4 bed so I guess we're fairly decent . I recall choosing middle of the road carpets so not the best by far

Not sure what people do to destroy flooring tbh

Wool and good undelay all the way. Plastic, synththetic, acrylic, bleachable soft feel carpets will flatten, fade and look awful, as you have found.

All the gunk it has probably managed to absorb over the years has probably made it more wear resistant.

I used to live in a rented place where the red carpet seemed to absorb any stain that fell on it. Half bottles of red wine were absorbed no issues and no change in colour. It was like a black (red) hole.

I hate carpets with a passion (much prefer wooden/hard flooring) but had to compromise with DH when we bought our new build 4 bed 8 years ago. The house builder threw in carpets for 'free' as an incentive and we went for middle of the road on stairs and upstairs. I get them professionally cleaned once a year and they always come up as new. I have a strict 'no shoes' policy up stairs though. To be honest I would never carpet anywhere downstairs.

Gunk? You many not clean your floors…I most certainly do…

Be careful of wool carpets and carpet beetles. I had to replace all mine with man made fibre as they were literally getting eaten (I do live in an old house though)

I have wood and laminate in high traffic areas. The medium traffic areas are carpeted and these were put in in 2015. Mid range from Carpet right

Another vote for Cormar along with good underlay.

£1500 for a whole house carpeted is nothing, no wonder they look crap after 4 years (sorry). I'd invest in decent quality carpets for high traffic areas (lounge/stairs) and a lower cost carpet for bedrooms.

Good underlay,something like cloud 9.

Measure all the rooms, look at the carpet shops in your area and ask for end of rolls- if your rooms are not too big you can kit them much cheaper this way.

Rubbish, if you spend money on a decent wool/ axminster it will look as good as new for 20yrs plus. It is about quality though.

OP, i have always had Brintons carpets, which are fabulous and last for years. Nonsense about good carpets not looking good in high traffic areas is just people not knowing about what to use.

Carpet beetles or clothes moths?

If you look it up, everywhere suggests a carpet’s lifespan is between 5-15 years. If you have a fabulous looking carpet at 20yrs +, it’s either not in a high traffic area or your ‘high traffic’ is not actually high – or your standards aren’t high.

Haha, Yes, if you google it,then it must be right 🙄

However, if you actually have lots of experience of living with it, you would know otherwise.

It will but it needs to be 100% wool and a VERY tight pile, the likes of which will probably cost upwards of £70m2!

@WowIlikereallyhateyou i absolutely agree with you, having experienced this with the carpets in my parents’ house. They had 2 hall/living room carpets in the 60 years they had the house and they were far from threadbare when the house eventually sold

Absolutely, but well worth it.