I have bought carpet twice in the last couple of years for rental homes. Both times I bought the in-stock Stainmaster frieze carpet from Lowe's because I had it in another rental and it holds up really well. The medium beige color works well because it has a multitude of colors in the individual stands (giving it an overall uniform color)which help hide typical carpet stains. Also, it also cleans up really well with my at home carpet cleaner. Every year that I clean the carpet, I am always amazed at all the stains that come out.

One carpet I keep wanting to try is the Mohawk SmartStand - I don't have any personal experience with it but I would strongly consider it for my personal home. From what I have read about SmartStand, it seems to be positive. I always end up ruling it out from a pure cost perspective when it comes time to replace rental carpets though.

Mydreamhome-----do you happen to know how much your carpet was a square foot from Lowe's? Thanks

Thanks for the suggestions! I will check out the offerings at Lowe's. I think Costco might sell Stainmaster too. Smartstrands sounds really ideal and looks like they have a gazillion choices. How much more expensive is it? I actually don't know how much to budget for carpet, but have heard it is sold by square yard?

Carpet is quoted/sold by the square yard most often. Some shops will have some carpets quoted by sq. yd., others by sq ft and all in the same showroom! Anything to make it more difficult to decipher I sometimes think.

If I remember correctly, Smartstrand comes in a standard 12' width. How much you need vs how much waste there will be will be determined by which direction the carpet is put down and whether or not your carpet guy finds places to use what would otherwise be "waste". This can figure into the price greatly as some dealers will figure the amount of carpet needed without any regard to efficient use of the material. (i.e. for easy use of round numbers, lets say the carpet is $5 sqft & you have 2 closets that are 5'x7' that need carpeting--he can price you out 7' of 12' wide carpet that he will split between the 2 closets and have 2'x7' of waste for the most efficient use of the material @ cost of $420, or he could decide to quote you 7' of 12' wide carpet for each closet for the most inefficient use of carpet, but most efficient twisting of sales numbers @ cost of $840).

We had ~1000 square feet of carpet and a local dealer that gave us contractor pricing and was really into using the material in the most efficient manner possible--what would have been waste from the bedrooms was used in the closets. It ran us right around $3500 including pad, installation and taxes. So that's right at $3.50 sqft.

As far as Stainmaster goes, we had it in our last house. In most areas it was not a problem, however, we had 1 spot in DS1's room where the dog had an accident and in DS2's room where he threw his bottle out of the crib and formula leaked onto the carpet. In both rooms, the stains would appear to be gone after a pretreat and steam cleaning, but then a few days later they would reappear--never could get rid of them. Not saying SS wouldn't do the same, but that was my experience with SM. Also, here's an excerpt from an earlier post of mine on our carpet choice of SS vs other similar competitor carpets w/ SM-- "When we were looking, no other carpet compared--even the Shaw carpet that is supposed to be the direct competition for the Smartstrand. Nothing was as soft. I remembered what it was like as a kid playing on the stiff scratchy carpet and decided that since it was available, I wanted a soft carpet for my kids to play on and for my feet to walk on at the end of a long day in the hated high heels. Even DH was surprised by how soft it was--he thought carpet was carpet was carpet & as he said those exact words, he ran his hand across the Smartstrand sample and then said, "Ooooooh!?!". Then he understood. I still close my eyes in pure pleasure when I step into my bedroom and onto the carpet at the end of a long day."

I've posted a link below to a thread off the Flooring forum on price comparisons. Check out the 1st response by Floortech...

Hope this helps!

Here is a link that might be useful: Smartstrand Pricing @ Lowe's

mydreamhome, thanks so much for the detailed and comprehensive info! I will also check out the flooring forum too.

Don't know about differences in the brands, but always get the thickest, nicest carpet pad you can. Makes every carpet feel better and last longer.

We had bound area rugs made out of Karastan wool Berber for our previous house. They wore like iron and survived many puppy accidents and various spills. We're using two of them in our new house and they look like new after nearly 20 years. If we would have put carpet in the new house, it would have been Karastan wool.

jolsongoude, thanks for the suggestion! When you mention that you had bound area rugs, does that mean the karastan is removeable, like a regular rug and not installed into the floor? I definitely would like to check out karastan too. thanks!

I'm not familiar with smartstrand.

In our bedroom and in our study, we chose olefin in a commercial grade level loop in a tweed. Olefin is essentially made from recycled milk bottles and is color fast and stain free. It does crush though which is why we went with the level loop. It can be cleaned with mineral spirits or dilute bleach. The only way DH has found to destroy it is by melting it...it has a low melt point....when he put a drop light on the carpet.

We like carpet in the bedrooms as it's so soft under foot and we walk barefoot a lot, esp at night.