What are my options for inexpensive carpeting?

January 16, 2006 1:21 PM

Poor homeowner: What are my options for inexpensive carpeting?

I need to carpet a room in my basement, approx. 15 X 15. I want to use some nice soft carpet (not berber) but I am on an extremely limited budget.
At this point I am looking for remnants, but the prices aren't really that great and it's hard to find them that large. I have also thought about using carpet tiles but I don't know how to obtain them...
Can anyone in the industry offer me any helpful information?

posted by bradn to Home & Garden (8 answers total)

CB2 makes very interesting and cool carpet tiles that you might want to check out. If you could give more information about your budget, that would help.
posted by jeanmari at 1:29 PM on January 16, 2006

Response by poster: If I could carpet the whole room for <$100, that would be cool.
posted by bradn at 1:32 PM on January 16, 2006

you could buy and install the tiles as you can afford them instead of shelling out everything at once....
posted by TheLibrarian at 1:36 PM on January 16, 2006

I really love Flor carpet tiles.
posted by padraigin at 1:50 PM on January 16, 2006

Weird option -- why carpet? What's down there now? Wood? Concrete? Both can be refinished for a funky look -- even concrete (with an epoxy sealant).
posted by frogan at 2:05 PM on January 16, 2006

Response by poster: Gotta be carpet. It's concrete and we're building a rec room/office. I'm doing a vapor barrier, a thick pad and carpet for now, and maybe someday put in a pergo floor or something.
posted by bradn at 2:08 PM on January 16, 2006

If one is near you, try a Habitat for Humanity store. They have tons of used construction salvage stuff, and the prices are reasonable. The profits go into HfH projects, and the stuff they sell avoids an untimely trip to the landfill.
posted by gwenzel at 2:10 PM on January 16, 2006

I'm not sure how common this is, but I'd check to see if any commercial floorcovering places nearby keep remnants for resale. I don't mean the carpet outlet-type of stores, but companies that contract out to corporations to do large jobs. They'd be much more likely to have remnants large enough for the job, although you're going to end up using two pieces (and matching seams, possibly) since you're not going to find a 15ft wide roll.

Carpet tile is another great idea.
posted by mikeh at 2:48 PM on January 16, 2006