Carpets in a new build

[PrincessWatermelon]

We are in the process of buying a new build. Carpets weren't included in the price, but the developer offered to carpet the rooms for £4500 from a choice of one set of samples.

The samples aren't fab. Such a limited choice and really expensive for the quality.

We've asked to use a local company to do the carpets (way more choice an better quality for the money). We've been told this is only possible after completion. Which is obviously the day we move as we're selling our house to fund it. So we move with all our boxes and furniture and then have to carpet.

Is this normal? I'd hoped to have them down between exchange and completion. After all - worst case it's our money that's lost!

Same as us,we moved in right before Christmas so felt we had no option but to let the developers fit the carpet and flooring.
Cost us twice what a local company quoted.
Regret it to this day,waste of money.

Quite normal for the developer NOT to allow any work to be done before completion, totally understandable.

We had almost all our flooring done by the developer when we moved earlier this year, they had a huge range of carpets & coverings to choose from and while the price was almost certainly more than we could have got it done for, it was the convenience of it being done before we moved in. Very happy with the quality.

Don't forget that if you have the carpets fitted yourselves the doors may need trimming.

We had a legal undertaking agreed with a national house builder to have our own flooring fitted. The fitters were given access two days before completion. All sorted through the lawyers. We had this as part of the exchange agreement.

Carpets were included in our property. It was the thing they scrimped on. White goods, kitchen, bathrooms were all good quality, but the carpets aren’t. We’ve replaced some of them eight years on and the hard flooring is Amtico, so that’s OK.

It’ll be inconvenient, but I’d have the local firm and out up with it for a while, rather than have poor quality carpet you aren’t happy with. A neighbour of ours wanted hard flooring throughout, but they insisted she had to have the carpet fitted and change it after completion. Madness!

From what I’ve seen, they choose a big flooring company, so they’re talking large quantities of carpet that they get much more cheaply, thus making a profit on it. Ours is (was) fitted quite badly and has stretched. It’s only two spare bedrooms now, so not the end of the world.

We had our carpet fitter waiting to fit them the day we moved in. Housebuilder was same as you and no way was i paying double for cheaper carpets.

In the end we had ALL tiling done upstairs (En Suite plus bathroom) by them as we felt if there was a leak we didnt want them to use anything as an excuse to avoid repair. Everything else we sorted ourselves.

All 4 bedrooms were carpeted first. We arranged things so we could bring each bedroom furniture in as he was finishing. Basically we managed to get a 3 bedroom house worth of gear into a 4 bedroom house which was double the size without having to walk all over our new carpet as we went. It took some doing but we managed it

We will be doing our own, want to check the builders work before flirting goes down

Flooring

We were quoted by the builder....yes double what a supplier would. The laugh is we went into the store and ordered etc and then when gave address, we got a few awkward coughs and discussion as apparently they were the builders carpet supplier so we're not supposed to supply us!! They did as we had no idea and all was ok

The builders were complete dicks though. Refused to leave skirtings off for us to have laminate fitted. Of course having them supply it, was fine. Also in moving in, the concrete floors were such a disgrace the company couldn't fit the carpets. The floors had cracked as concrete had dried too quickly and was very dusty. Had to pay for a days Labour for them to sort the floor and then fit

Unfortunately new build houses are generally such poor quality. Our local trades are making a fortune putting right the builders crap jobs especially with paving and patios which all sink etc

Is it too late to negotiate the flooring? I have relatives who are (very amateurish) property investors and they’ve never paid for carpets. No way I’d spend £££ on a house only for it to be uninhabitable on move in day.

Hi OP, ask your Removal company to store your boxes for two nights , you stay with relatives/in an Airbnb. You can get carpets booked to be done on the first day you have keys but aren’t yet in the house. it will cost you but probably still cheaper than paying top dollar for crap carpets.

Thank you everyone for your comments.

I'm glad I'm not being ridiculous, but can see it isn't necessarily standard for the developer to allow the carpets to be fitted early.

It's too late for any negotiations, sadly.

They're providing Amtico flooring for much of the spaces - but yes, the carpet in bedrooms and living room seems to be a greatly inflated price.

Checking things over before it's fitted is probably a good idea. If we can store things for a day and stay with family, that's not a bad idea.

The rest of the place seems to be being done to a high spec and the builders have a very good reputation - it's a decent build, by all accounts. So don't want to let it down with cheap carpets.