Flooring: Upstairs

I like hard flooring more than carpet because it's easier to keep clean, it doesn't hold as many allergens, and doesn't show wear patterns as easily. That said, I think I'm leaning towards using more carpet in the future. If you invest in a good vacuum and get a low pile, you can keep it cleaner and still reduce allergens. Lower pile is more reluctant to show wear patterns and you don't have to worry about your furniture damaging it. Even better, carpet install it pretty cheap and is done in a couple hours.

We were going to do a laminate upstairs, but decided for time, money, and sanity we should do carpet instead. It was a brilliant solution. We removed and hauled away the carpet ourselves, which saved some money. The carpet we found was on clearance at Home Depot. They had to order pieces from other stores in the area, so it took a little longer to get here but was only $0.45/sqft. With the padding, the total price was still under a dollar per square foot. The install was a flat rate, so all in all it was only $600 for the upstairs.We had a lot of unexpected expenses arise, both with big things like new sinks and little things like plumbing parts and tools.Choosing clearance carpet allowed us to even out the budget.

We painted while the flooring was up so that we didn't have to worry about drop cloths. They said that the carpet install could scratch the walls, but I didn't notice anything major. The guys showed up around 9 and were done around 11, and it looks wonderful.

There are a few more seams than I would like, but I think I'm the only one who notices.