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RicodJour

wrote:

Had some carpet installed today, including 3 bedrooms, a hallway, and a
set of stairs.

Should I have seams on my stairs and in my rooms?

The three rooms were all done with the same carpet. None of the rooms
exceed 12' width, with lengths of 16', 13', and 10'. The 16' turned
out well, but I quickly discovered that the other two (smaller) rooms
were laid using 'strips' of carpet. To me, this seems like a no-no in
the carpet world unless you've got a room that is too big. Am I
mistaken? I was under the impression that the rooms would be done with
'full' sheets of carpet. Not only that, but it looks like someone
mowed my carpet.

If you mean that it looks like the grain of the carpet runs in a
different direction, well, that's a big problem. Carpet has a grain
and any adjoining pieces must have the grain running in the same
direction. It'd be a totally newbie mistake for a carpet installer to
make, and it seems kind of unlikely. Don't accept the installation, if
that's actually what you have.

Seaming carpet in the middle of a room is much less of a problem than
seaming on a stair tread, but I'd still prefer not to see any seams if
it wasn't a necessity. Since your rooms are all easily done without
seams, the only thing that would cause someone to go to the extra
effort would be to save on carpet. Then the question becomes, was the
installer trying to save you money on the carpet cost, or make himself
more money?

On the stairs, there are a couple of spots where the carpet is loose.
There is also one tread with a visible seam on it. This seems totally
wrong to me...it's in the middle of the tread! Why not cut the carpet
and place the seam where the riser/tread meet, or even below the
bullnosing?

Nothing should be loose. The carpet will never be tighter than the day
it's put down.

There should never be seams on a tread for a new installation. It will
obviously take a lot more traffic and the odds of the seam showing up
over time is much higher. Again, check the grain direction on the
adjoining pieces.

Finally, these guys didn't put down any cardboard, sheets, etc. to
protect my existing floors (it was a wet day outside, and they were
tracking it in). They didn't bother to clean up loose fibers after the
fact.

Some people will put down drop cloths for a carpet installation, but
not too many. If it's a wet day, I put out some additional throw rugs
at the door and a runner if necessary. Most installers I've had
contact with make a quick clean up - it's usually a fairly neat
procedure. If there's a fair mess and there's no indication that
they'll be picking up after themselves, I mention it.

Were these guys bad installers or is this par for the course?

It's a big course. There's no reason to settle for shoddy work if that
is what it is. Where did you find the installer? What do other people
say about their work?

R