How to Determine a Budget for Carpet: The first step in establishing a budget is to diagram the area to be carpeted and perform an informal lay-out to determine the amount of carpet needed. This layout is to be used for your own rough estimation purposes! Before purchasing carpet, always insist that the retailer come to your home, make a visual site inspection, and create his or her own carpet installation diagram. This diagram does not have to be elaborate, but principal traffic patterns, closets, natural lighting sources (such as windows), and doorways should be noted. Keep in mind that carpet is manufactured in a linear fashion and the direction of manufacture must be consistent throughout the carpet installation to maintain texture, pattern, and even color consistency. Carpet is manufactured in variety of widths, (12 ft, 136, and 15 ft) but most carpet is manufactured in 12-foot widths only. Simply measuring the dimensions of a room may not provide an accurate carpet measurement of the amount required. For example, a 10-ft by 10-ft room provides an area of 100 square feet. Since carpet is manufactured in 12-foot widths, 100 square feet equals 12 ft (width) by 8 4; (length) of carpet. Purchasing only 100 square ft of carpet would require seaming the 2 foot waste on from the 12 foot width as six 2 ft by 1 8 seams across the length of the carpet to fit the 10 ft by 10 ft room. In this instance, 120 square feet of carpet would be required to properly install a 100 square foot room. The layout of carpet is much the same as laying out a puzzle, except rather than having a predetermined place where the pieces go, the primary rule is that all carpet must be laid in the same manufactured direction. After establishing the estimated linear footage (12 x 44), this number must be converted to square yards or square feet in some areas. To obtain square feet needed, simply multiply the length (44 feet) by the width (12 feet) to obtain 528 square feet. If the carpet is sold by the square yard divide this number by 9 (528 divided by 9 = 58.66 square yards). This allows you to establish a unit price for your budget. Assuming you have established a $1500 budget for carpet only, the budgeted amount divided by the square feet of carpet needed (528 ft2) would provide the cost per square foot for carpet only ($2.84 per ft2 or $25.57 per yd2). Carpet installation and carpet cushion (carpet padding) prices should be added to this amount, but in most cases $1 per square foot should more than cover the cost of these goods and services.
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 12:04:43 +0000
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