The fitting was great, but the carpet looked like it had loads of different shaded puddles on it. This kind of affect is known as pile reversal or shading.  It happens when the pile of the carpet goes in different directions and reflects light in different ways.  Carpet manufacturers do not really know why this happens and have done lots of research to try to resolve the problem.  The manufacturers say this is not a manufacturing fault so in general they will not pay for a replacement carpet.  This makes life very difficult for the good carpet retailer as no customer wants a new carpet that doesn’t look like new.

So what should a good carpet retailer do:

• Stop selling any products that they have had shading problems with in the past.
• Advise customers if the carpet they have chosen is prone to shading or pile reversal.  It is much more noticeable on very plain carpets, particularly velours.
• Give a refund to the customer where, as in this case where shading occurs in a matter of days as in this case and try to get some recompense from the manufacturer.

1. Choose the right quality laminate or wood product

There is a wide range of laminates and engineered wood products to choose from, so how do you know which to choose.  Here are a few recommendations:

• Choose a product with a click system that does not need glueing.  Glueing  will require more time and more equipment.
• Choose a product with a base layer of MDF or plywood.  The cheaper products have a base layer of chipboard.  Chipboard is the least stable of all the base layers and will result in your flooring expanding and contracting more.  It is also more likely that the top layer will chip.
• If you are in the store, inspect the laminate packs for damage.  Do not choose the product if you can see chips in the top layer of laminate in the unopened packs.

2. Measuring

Measure in metres (all products are sold in metres, measuring in feet and inches and then converting is the route to big mistakes) the length and width of your room and multiply these two measurements together, then add 10%.  This allows for wastage, which occurs because after the cuts you always get planks that are too small to use.

3. Test for Damp

Even the very smallest amount or water or dampness will cause long term problems to a laminate or engineered wood floor.  So before you fit you laminate flooring make sure there are no leaks from radiators or pipes.  If the flooring is going in a new house or extension make sure the floor is dry enough.  As a rough guide for every 3cm of concrete allow a months drying time.  A good flooring contractor will have a damp meter to check the floor, but a simple test you can do at home is as follows.  Get a piece of plastic about 30cm (12 inches) square, lay it on the floor and tape all round it with masking tape.  Leave it for at least 12 hours, if there is any moisture on the plastic then you subfloor is not dry enough to fit laminate or wood flooring.

3. Allow an Expansion Gap

All wood floors more, laminate and engineered wood systems are fitted on a floating floor system and an expansion gap must be left around the perimeter of the room of 15 mm (half inche).  This gap can be covered by skirting boards or if you do not want to remove the skirting boards with matching quadrant or scotia.

4. Laminate floor fitting is not a quick fix

Fitting laminate is much slower than fitting carpets or sheet vinyl.  When we price for a laminate or wood job we expect our experienced fitters to be able to lay between 10 and 15 square metres of flooring a day.  It varies according to the layout of the rooms.  Hallways tend to take the most time because of the numbers of doorways and the fact that hallways are often not square.

However most people want a rough idea whether they can afford a new carpet or flooring so I have put my thinking cap on and I have come up with the following table, which shows a rough estimate of the starting price for a carpet supplied and fitted various rooms, in various qualities of carpet, with and without underlay.

We always recommend using underlay in rooms or areas that get loads of wear, like lounges, halls, stairs and landings. This is because underlay prolongs the life of your carpets and makes them look good for longer. If you already have underlay this can be used provided it is not worn out. Don’t fit your new carpet on old underlay as it will make it wear out quicker!

This is just a rough guide. To get an accurate price get a local company to come round to measure up and give you a quote. Most companies including us (we supply and fit carepts in Leicester, Northampton, Rugby and surrounding areas) will do this for free with no obligation.

One of their representatives will come out and assess the damage and provide you an estimate, which will be the amount you can spend on replacing your damaged furniture or floor coverings. Independent Inspectors also have a network of Authorised Retailers who you can contact directly to spend your insurance mandate, which is great if you don’t have a preferred supplier.

At the moment there are lots of allegations in the carpet and flooring trade press that Independent Inspectors’ Representatives are insisting that insurance claimants go to Carpetright or Victoria carpets, or if the customer insists on going elsewhere offering a reduced payment amount.  If these claims in the Carpet and Flooring Journal are true, then the representatives of Independent Inspectors are not truly independent and worse their actions are illegal.

So what actions can you take if you think you are being forced to use a retailer to replace items as part of an insurance claim.

What can I do if I think the amount offered by my insurance company is too low?

You will need to provide evidence that the amount offered is too low.  If you have got the original invoice for the carpets, flooring, furniture (or other items) you could show them this.  Items like floor coverings and furniture, unlike electrical goods have increased over time.  If you haven’t got this evidence then get two quotes, from local “independent” retailers or a respected national retailer, for example John Lewis.  Assuming these justify your claim that the offer they made is too low, then present these to your insurance company as evidence.

What do I do if I want to use my own carpet fitter or furniture store, for work that is subject to an insurance claim?

If you would prefer to use your own carpet fitter or furniture retailer this is not a problem. Neither your insurance company or Independent Inspectors can insist that you use their recommended suppliers.

Can the insurance company offer me a lower payout if I do not use their recommended retailer?

Again no, it is also illegal to  offer you a lower insurance pay out if you go with your own preferred supplier.

What should I do if Independent Inspectors or my Insurance company insist I must use their recommended retailer?

If your insurance company or their representatives (for example Independent Inspectors) force you to use their recommended retailer or give you a lower pay out because you use someone else, they are acting illegally and in the first instance you should complain to your insurance company. If this doesn’t work then you should complain to the Finance Ombudsman.

What has the Finance Ombudsman got to do with Home Insurance?

All insurance companies in the UK are regulated by the FSA, therefore if your insurance company does not deal with your claims correctly then you can contact the FSA.  The financial ombudsman ruled in October 2001, that it is illegal for insurance companies to force you to buy goods or services as part of an insurance claim from a specific supplier and they also said that insurance companies cannot offer you a lower amount if you don’t use their recommended supplier.  More details of the Ombudsmans ruling on this matter can be found on their website at Ombudsman News October 2001 – Read the article “Repair/Replace or Cash”

Making an insurance claim is always very stressful because it means that something awful has happened in your home.  On face value the service offered to customers by Independent Inspectors seems great as it saves you the hassle of finding a retailer.  However if the allegations in the press are true then Independent Inspectors are taking advantage of insurance claimants at a very vunerable time in their lives.

Wool carpets and rugs are one of the key areas where we see wool in our everyday lives, and there are lots of benefits to wool carpets compared to their synthetic rivals.

Wool carpets look better & last longer

Wool is a natural springy product this means it can bounce back, so it means that carpets with a large wool content is are more likely to bounce back from squashing by furniture or foot traffic.  This means it wears very well and looks good for longer.

Wool Carpets have natural safety features

Wool is naturally fire inherent and complies with contract fire rating naturally. Wool is alsonon-static – perfect for a room with lots of electrical and computing equipment in it and what home is not stuff full of electrical gadgets nowadays.   This means carpets with high wool content meet the Building regulation codes for commercial installation.

Wool Carpets are Stylish

There are almost an unlimited amoount of wool carpets in a wide range of colours, textures and patterns.  There is something out their to suit everybodies home or office.  Popular companies that make wool carpets include, Adams Carpets, Brintons, Georgian Carpets, Tomkinson Carpets, Alternative Flooring and Ryalux, plus many more.

Wool Carpets offer Great Value for Money

Although in general wool carpets cost a little more than their synthetic rivals they last longer and look good for longer, so over the lifetime of your carpet they will work out less.  It is also possible to get the same colour of carpet in different qualities.  Carpet manufacturers have realised that you don’t want or need the same quality of carpet in your bedroom compared to your hall, stairs and landing, so there are many wool carpet ranges that come in different different weights.  The weight of a carpet tells you how the weight of yarn used per square metre of carpet.  For a heavy wear area you would want a minimum of 40oz but 60oz would be better.  For a seldom used guest room a 30oz carpet is perfectly adequate.

Does this mean that these people are looking for the very cheapest carpet or flooring even if it is not right from a visual or practical view point or is it just that customers want to make sure the get the best possible deal on the new carpets and flooring in their home.

I am assuming that customers don’t want the very cheapest of carpets but do want the best possible flooring for their budget.  So how can they be sure of getting that.  There are three key points to consider:

• Selecting the right quality of carpet for the amount of wear and tear and your lifestyle is very important, especially if you want your new carpet to last.  A bedroom quality carpet will be cheaper than heavy domestic carpet, but it will soon wear out if it is fitted on stairs.
• Don’t forget to include the cost of any accessories & fitting in the total costs.  Many companies give headline low prices on the carpet only to charge ridiculously high prices for the underlay, doorbars and other accessories.  When I key cheap carpets into Google the first company that comes up is Carpetright and they sell their carpets at low prices but their accessories at high prices!  The remaining companies just sell you the products via the internet, so you will need to find a local fitter to lay your carpet.
• Finally if you want your new carpet to look good from day one and wear well you need to get it fitted properly.    Choosing the right carpet is only half of the decision.   A badly fitted carpet will always look like a cheap carpet irrespective of how much you pay.

In conclusion, if you are looking for new carpets or flooring decide if you are looking for a cheap carpet or a good value for money carpet.  If it is the later then contact a local independant retailer to price for the new carpets and compare it with a big company like Carpetright or buying online and I think you will be surprised how competative it is.  What’s more with the local company you will have a person who will take responsibility for the whole job from planning, fitting and after sales care.

In this case the owner should have got the company fitting this carpet back within weeks, (if not days) to come back and stretch the carpets, in my opinion the carpets were never stretched tight enough in the first places.  A carpet is meant to be stretched tight. Very tight! Once a loose carpet begins to form a ripple it needs a carpet stretching. As you walk on a carpet ripple it moves up and down far more than it should. As the loose carpet moves up and down it loosens up even more.  Soon the waves and ripples are so big, you need to get your surf board out just to cross the room.

So how can you prevent carpet stretching and when should you get a carpet fitter in to stretch your carpet.  What you need to know is why carpets stretch and what if anything you can do to prevent this.

There are 5 reasons why carpets stretch of which 3 are completely preventable and one which neither you or your fitter can do anything about.

The two reasons where you can do nothing to prevent your carpet stretching are:

• Carpet construction – some products due to their construction will stretch after they are installed, typically these are the better quality woven products like Aximinsters and Wiltons.   All you need to do, is the minute you notice any minor ripples or wrinkles is to call the person who sold you your carpet and get them to come and stretch it.   All reputable companies will come and do this for no charge.  Typcially this stretching will happen in the first few months after the carpet is installed.
• Carpet Cleaning – some carpets stretch (or even worse shrink) after carpet cleaning.  The products I notice stretching the most after cleaning are typically Belgian Wiltons.  Use a reputable carpet cleaner and get him to advise on whether this is likely to happen before you decide to get it cleaned.

The three reasons that carpets stretch that are completely preventable are:

1. Bad carpet fitting – the reason the carpets in the flat I visited were so bad is that they were never stretched properly when they carpets were initially installed.  On the day your carpet is fitted, it should be tight, there should be no ripples, wrinkles or bagging.  If it is not then get your carpet fitters to stretch it again.  Do not let them kid you that the wrinkles or bagging will disappear after a few days.  The only way to get rid of a ripple in a carpet is stretching!
2. Dragging furniture across a carpet – if you drag a heavy piece of furniture across a room it will pull on the carpet and stretch it.  So if you need to move your furniture get someone to help so you can lift it.  Even the regular movement of fairly light weight furniture can cause these problems.  One of the common problems I see is in rooms with wheely office chairs.  These are not heavy pieces of furniture but the regular moving backwards and forwards will stretch and damage your flooring.  This problem can be avoided in rooms with office chairs or regular use by wheel chair users by installing the carpets on a double stick system which prevents all movement of the product.
3. Bottoms of doors dragging on the carpet – if your door does not clear the carpet it will cause constant dragging on the carpet.  When your carpet retailer comes to quote for new flooring, make sure you ask him if he will ease the doors if the new carpet is thicker than your current flooring.  We do trim most types of doors for our customers for a small charge.  There are a few doors that you will need to get a specialist carpenter to trim.  Whatever you do, do not put a door back on until it does clear the carpet as this is a very quick way to ruin your lovely new flooring.   The worst case I saw was a company that took the front door off to fit the new hallway carpet, once they had finished, put the door back on and shut it with brute force.  When the customer came back they couldn’t get the front door open because of the new flooring.  They kept trying to get in and eventually the carpet rucked up and they just couldn’t get the door open.  They rang the company and they said that door trimming was not in the price.  They had to get a carpenter to take the door off from the outside and fold the carpet back until the door could be trimmed.

So my advice is if you see any slight wrinkles or creases in your carpets, get a local carpet fitter to come and stretch your carpets before it becomes a permanent problem.   If it is a relatively new carpet (less than 6 months) then get the company who sold you the carpet to come and do this.

1. You will need to estimate how much flooring you need, again these sites give you guidence. However if you get it wrong, it is at your cost. If you don’t order enough, it may delay the work and you will have to pay a second delivery charge. If you order too much you can send it back, but you usually have to pay the return delivery and there is often a restocking charge of up to 30% of the price. When you buy Karndean or any flooring product from a local flooring specialist they will do all the estimating and it is their responsibility to get it right.
2. Price -quite often these websites quote prices exclusive of VAT, this means they look 20% cheaper than they actually are.  Also make sure you know how much delivery will cost as Karndean is a heavy product.
3. The cheap Karndean flooring websites generally do not send out Samples.  Instead they recommend requesting them from the  Karndean official website. Karndean offer a very prompt service, however generally these samples are very small and there is a limit on the number you cans send for.   Your local Karndean specialist will bring all the samples even those you discount based on the picture of the website.
4. Fitting – Karndean is not recommended as a DIY product.  It must be fitted on a dry, smooth subfloor using the correct adhesive.  So you will need to find a Karndean fitter.  A good Karndean floor fitter will charge between, £140 and £200 per day and  fit between 10 and 15 square metres depending on how complicated your design is.

Karndean is a lovely product, we have been supplying and installing it for over 10 years, but it does not matter how much or how little you pay for it, if it is badly fitted it will look terrible.

Before buying this product on the internet, why not get your local retailer to give you an estimate, (they usually do this for free).  I think you will be surprised that a complete job will provide good value for money and a lot less hassle than buying cheap Karndean flooring on the internet.

Tesco are now selling carpets direct to their customers via a website, but does it make sense to buy carpets from any online retailer.  There are 4 key things to look at:

• Carpet & flooring ranges available
• Carpet Samples
• Measuring your rooms
• Carpet Fitting

Carpet & flooring ranges available

At the moment Tesco only have quite a limited range of carpets available and they have no vinyls, laminates or engineered wood.  Other stores like Next and Carpetright have much wider selection of flooring products and ranges available.  So if you are looking for looking for a one stop shop for a house full of flooring these may be better.

Free Carpet Sample Service

You can’t choose a new carpet from a picture on the internet.  You need to get some carpet samples to see if they are right colour, quality and feel for your home.  All of the sites offer a free carpet sample service, however there are a limit on the number of flooring samples you can get for free (3 for Next and Tesco, 4 for Carpetright) and the other problem is that the standard size of these samples is tiny (5cm x 9cm).  Tesco do offer larger samples for £2.50 each.   When buying carpets or other new flooring from a local flooring retailer who offers a “shop at home service” there is no limit on the number of carpet samples you can see for free and generally these carpet samples are at least 30cm (12 inches) square.

Measuring your rooms for new flooring

Most of these sites give guidelines on how to measure your flooring.  Tesco also recommends that you get an NICF (National Institute of Carpet and Floorlayers) to do your measure for you.  This is good advice because when you buy carpet on these sites it is cut to the size you request and therefore counts as a personalised item which means you cannot return it if you got the measurements wrong!!  Like other carpet retailers we (Stewart Groom Flooring) take responsibility for doing the measuring right and if for any reason we get it wrong we get another piece of carpet at no extra cost to you.  So if you are buying carpets online, measure, measure and measure again before you order.

Carpet Fitting

Getting a great looking floor is not just about buying carpets, it has to work in partnership with great carpet fitting.  Both Tesco and Next have a partnership with the NICF to provide local carpet and floorlayers and this is excellent.  As an NICF Masterfitter of carpets I think this is great because it recognises the importance of getting your carpet fitted properly.  However why not go direct to your local NICF fitter and get them to do a complete job.  Most NICF accredited fitters will supply carpets and all the flooring accessories.  If they are supplying and installing all the flooring, you will probably pay less because there is no charge for samples, no charge for measuring and no delivery charges.  (Tesco are currently charging £40, Carpetright, carpets £29 and Next say it depends on size and weight!).

So my opinion, about buying carpets or any other flooring product online hasn’t changed by Tesco entering the market.  My top tips for buying carpets and getting a great looking floor everytime are:

• See a wide range of decent sized samples at home
• Get the flooring retailer to do the measuring (they take the responsibility for getting it right)
• Use the same company you buy carpet, because occasionally there are manufacting problems with carpets and often when you have a different retailer to fitter the retailer will try to blame it on fitting first!