Everything You Wanted to Know About Our Lifeproof Carpet
8:19 PMLast year, I'd mentioned replacing our carpet and received lots of local suggestions. TBH I wanted something quick, convenient, and relatively budget-friendly. Shopping around all over town for several weekends (because hi, it's me. I'm picky) wasn't in the cards for us so other than one local flooring place, we hit up Lowe's and Home Depot. I don't know much about wall to wall carpet but I knew what I wanted: variation and/or a subtle pattern and what I didn't want: shag. I love clean lines and transitional design and box stores rarely have a lot of options in that category so we quickly narrowed it down to the Lifeproof collection, dovetail style, in the color notch from Home Depot. Helpful Hint: order samples! Once you've narrowed it down, carry your sample around from room to room to see how it works in your space.
I admit that we did this a bit backwards- we should have known the total square footage going into the shopping process and selected carpet that fit the budget rather than choosing something that 'seemed affordable.' But in this case it worked out in our favor- you'll see why in a bit.
Since we were planning to replace flooring in many rooms- the playroom, stairs, upstairs hallway, family room/loft, primary bedroom, and all three kids' rooms- we didn't want to measure ourselves and risk being inaccurate. Each sample has a handy QR code on that back that makes it easy to schedule a $30 measurement service. From there, they sent the total square footage and quote. And boy was it a quote. It was over $11000 which we were not prepared to pay. We sat on it for a couple of days before concluding that we needed to stick to our, admittedly loose, original budget of $6000-7000. So how were we going to bring this price down? We'd been considering replacing the carpet in our room with LVP or wood for years, so I suggested we take that very large room out of the quote. Initially the woman who measured told us (inaccurately) that taking off our primary bedroom wouldn't make much of a difference but that didn't seem right considering how large the room was. Luckily that was fake news. We eliminated that room and the playroom which brought the total down to $7400 after a promotional discount, for 1,164 square feet of installed carpet! That, we could live with. In the end I'm glad we didn't limit ourselves to a lower priced carpet because we wouldn't have ordered this one - that we LOVE- nor would we have tackled another goal in the process- putting wood down in our room. To be fair, we haven't tackled it just yet but now we know it will happen! Helpful Hint- when you receive the quote, don't schedule right away. When the salesperson called a 2nd or 3rd time, Home Depot offered a 10% discount which helped! The price above reflects that discount.
Installation
When you schedule an installation, they share a video that details how to prep. One of the biggest questions I got was who was responsible for moving everything. We were instructed to move all loose items, small furniture, and remove drawers from dressers. We could also disassemble the beds to avoid a fee charged by the installers. The day of, we were to put the mattresses against a wall. This was definitely the least fun part and if you watched in stories you know, I had NO IDEA how much stuff had accumulated in the kids' rooms. Our room was filled to the brim with all the kids' stuff. We used their baskets and hampers and then I had Joe grab 5 or 6 laundry baskets as well. If this is the part that intimidates you, don't let it stop you! Honestly it was a compelling excuse to get rid of A LOT of stuff- 5-6 bags and boxes to be exact- and in the end, removing everything, prep, and install was a week of our lives. Definitely worth it! Helpful Hint buy laundry baskets to help with corralling loose items.
The day of install went so quickly other than a little rain delay. The more you prep, the quicker installation goes. The installers used the driveway to measure and cut and Joe grabbed footage without looking like a creepy weirdo 😂 (IYKYK). One of you shared your experience that because of the grid pattern, inconsistencies were really obvious on stairs - we alerted them to this and are happy to report that the stairs look great. The only thing I didn't love is that they don't put closet hardware back on and if you've ever installed or fixed closet tracks, you know it's a bit of a pain. But they were fast, professional, and did a wonderful job. I assume Home Depot subs out their services so I was nervous about what crew would show up but we had a very good experience!
I shared on Instagram that in our prior home we made changes that would have increased our quality of life just to list the house. I hated that feeling! We don't think this is our forever home and we knew we'd have to replace the carpet anyway, so why not do it now?! Assuming we care for this carpet properly, I assume it'll look great for years to come and we get to enjoy it now! If you have any questions I can answer, drop them below!
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