The Myth of Free Carpet Installation

There’s nothing free in this world. Yet, when we hear something as good as “Free Entire House Carpet Installation”, how can we not jump on board the savings train? But buyers beware: you may end up pulling the train when your invoice is totaled. You can in good conscience pay nothing as much as you want for your quality carpet installation; but in reality, the installers are getting paid a fair wage and you’re still paying it. Let’s break it down. A Free installation gets your carpet installed over your existing tack strip. What it doesn’t cover is: • Any furniture moving. • The price for removing the old carpet and padding. • Fees to haul away and any recycling charges. • Any disposal fees for your existing flooring. • Step, stairway, landing installation. • Anything other than expensive pad required by the store • Anything other than the expensive styles pre-selected by the store. • Anything lower than the minimum quantity of flooring. • Carrying the carpet to any floors above ground level. • Carrying a carpet through an inconvenient entry into a house. • Any extra tack stripping. • All transition strips between different flooring and other carpets. • Carpet seaming wider than 12ft or odd shaped rooms. • Initial measuring your job. • Delivery charges. • Extra for just about everything unforeseen. • If it’s a full moon on a Tuesday?…Maybe... Proper carpet and floor estimates are based on a site review of the estimator and should include the needs of your individual project where all costs are factored. Furthermore, a quoted ‘install’ price should include all the required services (e.g. furniture moving, standard seeming, padding, etc.) already built into the sales price or broken out for your review. In this way, flooring buyers can better review their job costs without fear of any bait and switch tactics or other sales gimmicks. Just professional installation services, period. What separates an honest flooring operation from the shady carpet and floor company isn’t rocket science. It’s the integrity, honesty, craftsmanship and customer service that we wake up with every morning and projects we stand behind when we go to sleep every night. Trust your project to a professional that has your interests as a priority. By hiding a project the real-world charges behind a Free Install’ asterisk*, you don’t feel the pain until you’ve swallowed the bait and have the hook firmly in your mouth…and your wallet.