Carpet Installation Cost, Fees & Extra Charges
©2011
Alan
J. Fletcher - Flooring Expert and Consumer Advocate
Return to "Carpet Installation
Prices" - Installation
Cost
Removing the old carpet and padding.
Tear out of the old carpet and padding can be anywhere
from fifty cents per yard to $3.00 per yard. They may also try to add on a
dump fee of $10 to $50 depending on how much old carpet and pad you have. A
good carpet team of three can remove 100 yards of carpet and pad in less
than an hour. I think $2.00 per yard is more than enough to remove the old
carpet and padding and haul it away.
Most carpet retailers have a dumpster
available onsite for their installers to use. I don’t think a dump fee of
more than $10 is a fair charge unless they don’t have a dumpster and they
have to take the old carpet to the landfill or recycling center.
Installing new tackless strips.
New construction will require that new tack strips must be
installed. It is easier to install on wood than on concrete. The fee for
wood might be an additional 25 or 50 cents per yard. The fee for installing
tack strips over concrete might be an additional $1 per yard. In existing
homes with damages tack strips that need to be replaced, it should be about
$2.00 per each four foot section.
Some installers charge by the hour to do any work that is
preliminary to the installation. In this case, It’s usually about $50 per
hour (per person). This includes moving furniture, sealing floors and doing
any floor repairs.
Transitions
The carpet will meet other flooring types and must have a
transition of some type installed. Examples are: Carpet to vinyl, carpet to hardwoods,
carpet to vinyl tiles, and carpet to ceramic tiles are some of the
possibilities.
Transitions can be made of wood, metal, rubber or plastic.
Each transition is available in different quality levels and depending on
the application, the correct transition must be used to ensure a long life
without failing. The cost of transitions vary widely and should be discussed
with your carpet estimator/retailer before the bid final is drawn up. The
cheapest gold or silver colored transitions are generally priced at $1-$2
per foot. A rubber transition in a utilitarian application should cost about
$3-$5 per foot. A transition of pre-finished hardwood can easily cost $5 to
$20 per foot. Brass of other specialized transitions can be quite costly.
Thresholds are another story. If your front of back door
is in need of a new threshold, plan on spending at least $50 for a new one.
Usually these are made of aluminum and have to be cut to fit. If you want a
snazzy threshold made of a pre-finished hardwood, expect to pay much more.
Installing a new threshold is not always a quick and easy job and may
require expert finish-contractor abilities.
Trimming the bottom of doors
If your new carpet is thicker than the last carpet
installed in your home, your doors may need to be trimmed at the bottom. If
your installer is qualified and well equipped to do this, then the charge
can be anywhere from $10 per door to $50 per door depending on what your
doors are made of. Trimming the bottom of doors is not a job for the
inexperienced. It is not easy to do correctly and it is easy to ruin a door
if it is not done properly.
You can’t just run a skill saw or jigsaw along the
bottom of a door and expect it to look nice when you are done. Some woods
like pine or mahogany will easily splinter and fray on the backside and end
up looking horrible unless you take steps to keep this from happening.
Again, depending on what your doors are made of will determine how to trim
your doors without damaging them. If in doubt, call in a professional
carpenter.
How much does new carpet cost? Carpet
Cost
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