CARPET WARRANTIES

The Truth about Carpet Warranties, from a dealer and retired inspector...

IF IT SOUNDS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE...

Carpet manufacturers boast carpet warranties of 10 year, 20 year, 30 year and even Lifetime Warranty... It sounds great right? The problem is in the fine print. Most carpet warranties are known as a wear warranty. Wear warranties state that if the carpet looses x% of it's fiber within x number of years "UNDER NORMAL USE" then the warranty kicks in. However, based on my experience, it is nearly impossible for those conditions to occur.

My experience is that they are very profitable for the carpet mills and traditional dealers but largely useless to the consumer with one exception...

Certain Manufactures defects :

* Most carpet defects are not structural or even noticeable and thus are of no consequence to the purchaser. The most common carpet defect relate to the color not matching the carpet sample. No problem unless you matched your pillow to that exact color, otherwise the carpet might be purchased at a discount. These are know as "A" grade Seconds.

Correctable defects. It's not uncommon for a carpet to be manufactured with a line going down the length of the roll. These are "B" grade seconds. If the line is near the edge of the roll, it simply gets cut off during installation. If the line is more towards the middle of the roll then the procedure to remove the line is to have the installer simply cut the carpet on each side of the line and remove the line and re-seam the two pieces back together. Problem solved.

Two of the more serious problems with manufacturers defects are delamination and shading or otherwise known as "C" grade seconds and can be purchased at great discount.

Delamination is when the backing delaminates from the carpet. Not good, however, this can also be corrected during installation by the installer by applying latex to the backing with a paint roller and letting it dry over night. Then proceed with normal installation.

Shading is when the color is not consistent throughout the roll of carpet. This cannot be corrected but this carpet still can be used in areas where the property owner is not concerned with the color but can save money.

If the carpet warranty sounds too good to be true then it probably is. Warranties are useless to the consumer if the manufacturer is out of business.

The next step is to learn about how to choose Carpet Padding. If you are ready, and you live in the Los Angeles area or San Fernando Valley, you may go straight from the page on carpet warranties to the page on where to find a great discount carpet. Or you may want to back to the Home Page.