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Buying Carpet for Less
New Carpeting I'm in need of carpeting and would like to know if any of your readers have suggestions for getting it directly from the mills and saving money. How do you go about it? And can you really do it? We need about 63 sq. yards of carpet and want something multi-colored. Start at the Chamber To get deals on carpet, call the Dalton, Georgia Chamber of Commerce and request a list of the "outlets" owned by the carpet mills. Contact the outlets and save 40 to 60 percent. Success with S & S We have had excellent success with S & S Mills in Georgia. They will send the samples to your home and give you a list of prices and certified installers in your area. Then they call you back with prices before delivery for conformation. The trucking company that they use is Roadway. They will call with the delivery time. They will not pull the roll off the truck, but since we knew the delivery time, my husband and friend could pull the roll off the truck. The installer said that this was the best carpet he had seen and even inquired where we had purchased it. I did this for all three of my homes. Do Your Research I just bought carpet from Georgia and had a good experience. You can do an Internet search on discount carpet, but you need to be careful to get a reputable company. I used Blue Circle Carpetown at 800-622-7561. You can shop for carpet in your town and then call businesses in GA and give them the information on the carpet that you like. They will give you their price or they can send you samples from which to choose. An informative website about carpet, pad, installation, etc. is carpet-discounts.com/buycarpeti.html. Take your time and do your research. Learn all you can about carpet to be sure you are getting what you want. Head to Home Improvement Store First Head out to the home improvement stores first. They sell remnants (leftovers) of larger pieces of carpet for cheap. My husband installed our carpeting. If you're handy, you can save money by installing it yourself. Check Out Commercial Carpet Market Instead of going straight to the mills, check out the commercial carpet markets. A friend of the family has a commercial carpet shop and we will be getting new carpet from him soon. We checked around and found that we can get top-quality carpet with the top-quality pad with the stain-seal lining for our whole house through him for less than what we could get average carpet with standard padding for one room elsewhere. It is just as easy as buying through a home improvement store, but costs much less. Order Directly from the Mill Here is a list of phone numbers and web addresses for many of the mills. My husband is a carpet installer and we get calls all the time from people who have ordered their carpet from the mill. Consumers can order directly and the mill will arrange shipping for you. You will need a place to which the carpeting can be delivered. We have seen where consumers have rented a storage unit just for this purpose. It is a bit inconvenient, but if it is your only alternative, it's a start. Some shipping companies won't deliver to residential areas. Another option would be to ask your installer if he has a warehouses or relations with his contracted stores where he can receive the delivery. Mill 800 Numbers Astro Carpet Mills, (800) 542-4189, astrocarpetmills.com Seek Out Remnants I don't know how to go about contacting manufacturers directly to purchase carpet, but I found out that our local carpet store keeps incomplete orders and "remnants" from carpeting or other flooring jobs in their basement and it can be purchased for less than regular price. I re-carpeted two bedrooms and a hall for a fraction of the regular price by purchasing carpet that had been ordered by someone else who, for one reason or another, decided not to buy it. It is much higher quality than I could have afforded otherwise. So ask your local carpet stores if they have any remnant or mistake carpeting in stock in a size that would accommodate your room dimensions, or if they will call you when they have something. Talk to the Installers Carlene might look at other ways than direct from the Mill. I own several rental houses, and I am always looking for inexpensive carpet. Many of the discount carpet places contract out their installation. If you talk to some of these installers, they often have a source of quality used carpet that you can get a bargain prices! I recently had 80 yards of carpet installed in one of my houses for $325. I did not see the carpet until they were finished installing it and I paid them. When I saw how nice it was, I said that I wished I had it installed in my house. They said it was approximately $45-a-yard carpet, less than six months old, and came out of a $400,000 house. Do you have a time or money saving idea that wasn't included in this article? Please send it to tips @stretcher.com. We get the best ideas from our readers! Other Articles to Stretch Your Day and Your Dollar Heat and Electricity 101 Tool Story Convenient Floor Cleaners Romantic Bedroom
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