Buying carpet online.

[Thingsthatgo]

Does it work out much cheaper to buy carpet online and find someone to fit it? I've got a lot of areas to do, and I've never bought new carpet before. Online places offer samples.

I'd never buy it online - you need to see it/feel it before you make your choice. It's an expensive purchase and one you will be living with for a number of years, so don't be tempted by (cheap) online offers.

(Oh, and make sure you buy the best quality underlay you can afford)

They send out free samples, would that not be enough?

I've done it before when I've just had a small bedroom to do and I was able to get an offcut online and a local guy to fit - that worked well. However, good carpet is insanely heavy - enormous and needs to be stored carefully even for short periods - wrinkles and rucks become a problem. If you are buying a large quantity online, think about where will you put it when it arrives and how will you store it - and for how long before you can get the fitter in?

You also need to consider underlay, gripper rods, thresholds etc - you need to make sure you and the fitter are on the same page on what you provide and what he provides.

I wouldn't be put off, as a sample can be enough to give you an idea of the quality, and online prices are often much cheaper. I had samples from Online Carpets and Designer Carpets and was especially impressed with the latter.

In the end I had a rug made from a remnant, rather than carpet, so I didn't have to get a fitter. You may want to do some research on local fitters and get some recommendations and quotes before ordering samples.

It’s definitely worth looking online! We bought our carpets from Flooring Megastore, I’d seen the carpet I wanted in carpet right but it was too expensive for our budget and they sell carpet right surplus stock. It would have cost us £2.5k to order through carpet right and we paid just over £1k.

It’s exactly the same carpet (carpet right even delivered it) and we love it! They don’t advertise samples but if you email they will send them to you.

Thanks you all for your thoughts. Interesting point about storing it - I wonder if that would cause issues. We have plenty of space, but I wouldn't want it to get spoiled.

We’ve always bought online
including underlay, grippers etc

Never a hassle , although make sure you are in for delivery.
Cheaper imo
but then I lay my own carpets too so it’s an obvious solution

It depends on what you are doing. If you have tricky areas or are using the same carpet in more than one room or doing stairs, a shop will send an estimator who will measure, plan & advise as the cutting plan for the carpet is important.

We bought online and fitted ourself which was much cheaper.

If you have simple rectangle rooms its pretty easy, for our living room (with all its alcoves and doorways and fireplace etc...) we probably should have got a fitter though.

We got the free samples, its not just buying blind.

@housethatbuiltme where did you order from? We got some samples from https://carpets-online.co.uk and flooringsuperstore but interested to explore more options.

I’ve just bought a room sized remnant from Designer Carpets, 80% wool twist and it’s fantastic quality. I used them based on a recommendation on another thread - excellent quality for a fraction of the cost.

I’ve used both of those suppliers a lot and they are very good with their deliveries.
Just make sure you are in and have someone to help you get the carpets inside the house. Not all drivers do that.

We had an estimator for our stairs in our first house and the price ended up extremely inflated . When I calculated how much carpet we actually needed myself I saved a lot of money.