Expectations for carpet shops

What should a consumer be looking for in a carpet shop? Well, the obvious answer is carpeting, but of course there is much, much more than carpet that should be available at any carpet shop that has value to its clients and potential clients. Here are some items that a good and useful carpet shop should have available in its inventory. This is not an all-inclusive list, but simply some basic items that come to mind when considering what is available at a typical carpet store.

Various Floor Coverings

Most carpet shops sell other floor covering besides carpet. You’ll usually walk in and see racks of carpet samples to review prior to making a purchase. Rugs of various shapes and sizes and welcome mats are also usually a regular offering.  Other floor covering products that one may encounter are non-carpeting options such as vinyl and ceramic tile, sheet vinyl flooring, floating floor products and even wood flooring.

Related Supplies

The related supplies needed for laying carpet or other flooring are also usually available at your typical carpet shop. Mastic, or the glue solution used to chemically hold down your flooring product would be there. Mastic is used in glue-down applications for carpet, various types of tile and for some types of floating floor products.

Other items that would be needed for a successful carpet installation that should be available at a carpet shop would be carpet edge trim, for termination spots, baseboard material, carpet tape, and nail-down strips.

Tools

Tools that should be available at a carpet store would be trowels, both notched and straight, for applying and spreading mastic. Carpet staplers, knee kickers, and heat bonding tools. All of these aforementioned tools are fairly specialized and would not be typically available at an outlet that does not sell carpeting as a primary product. The exception to that would be a big box home improvement store. Places like that normally sell all that is needed to successfully install a carpet, whether it is a contractor or an ambitious home owner who is behind the project.

Advise and Experience

The most important commodity at a carpet shop, however is the advice and experience that a good and well trained staff would provide. It’s really hard to quantify that with a dollar amount, but if one did, it would be significant. Help from people who both know the product and how to apply or install it can help a project go a lot better than it would without their advice.