About a year ago, I had new carpet installed in my house, and I'm already
having a problem with premature wear. I bought this medium-high quality
major brand carpet through Home Depot, and after less than a year of use,
there are distinct wear patterns along high traffic paths. With only three
people in the home, the carpet is not being subjected to an unusual amount
of traffic.

After discussion with the store, HD arranged for the manufacturer to arrange
for a local third party carpet inspector to come to our home and look at the
carpet. Today, I got a call from Home Depot (and a faxed copy of the
inspector's report). The report, a combination of the original inspection
plus the manufacturer's response, indicated that there was, indeed, the
appearance of wear patterns in high traffic areas as a result of "pile
compression", which the manufacturer claims is not covered in the warranty.
However, the inspection report goes on to discuss another problem called
"pooling" or "watermarking" that is taking place elsewhere in non-traffic
areas (something we had not even recognized as a problem). This is
described in the report as a condition where the pile surface runs in a
different direction from the surrounding area giving the carpet a different
appearance. Based on this problem (not the footpath wear), the manufacturer
has offered to replace the carpet at their cost (including labor) with the
same carpet, or allow an upgrade at our cost. This is a one-time only
offer.

Sounds like a pretty reasonable response, right? Well, only to a certain
extent. The report suggests that the replacement may do the same thing,
which would leave us in the same boat in another year or so. I must say
that the wear patterns are unacceptable at this point already, and I hate to
think what it will look like in another year or two. Besides, I'm a little
bothered that the manufacturer is not offering to replace the carpet because
it is wearing prematurely. If it were not for this other problem, they
would essentially be saying 'tough luck' about the excessive wear in a
one-year old carpet.

The carpet in question is marked as "100% Solutia Wear Dated II with R2X
Nylon". It has a face weight of 50.7 oz and a PAR, or performance
appearance rating (wear) rating of 3.5 out of 5. The density is 3725 and a
4.8 twist. Oh, yeah, and on the label, it promises a "100 percent
satisfaction guarantee". According to my pre-purchase research, this is an
above average carpet, not the best by any means, but not junk, either. I'm
operating on the assumption that after only a year of light-to-average use,
I should not be able to see clear wear patterns in all the higher traffic
areas. It's apparent immediately after vacuuming, and after, say, a couple
of days, it's really obvious.

So, despite the seemingly reasonable offer by the manufacturer (Shaw), I'm
still going to come out on the short end of this. The person at Home Depot
confirmed that in the only other case like this in which she was involved,
the replacement carpet had exactly the same problems again.

If I upgrade, then I lose the color we chose (the wife's really not going to
like that, I mean reeeeaaaalllly not going to like that) and there's no
guarantee that even an upgraded carpet by this manufacturer will fare any
better.

I'm not asking for solutions here as much as trying to find out if this is a
common problem and what others have done to remedy it. I realize that
replacing and upgrading is probably the best choice, but I'd like some more
information before going forward with that action. Any thoughts and
experiences would be most welcome. I'm posting this to misc.consumers.house
group as well, but would appreciate any comments made to this group.

- Magnusfarce