Getting new carpet - what should I get?

[New_Natural_Mom]

We flooded 2 months ago and get to re-floor 2 rooms.  One was a pergo-type floor we are replacing with bamboo, the other is carpet.  I don't even know where to start looking with the carpet....what is "green" carpet?  What kids of things should I look out for?  I am so overwhelmed trying to figure out which paint to use, etc, that the flooring question is very daunting.

[newbymom05]

I have just completed an exhaustive hard surface flooring search and everything I"ve read says bamboo scratches easily and isn't the best thing for kids/pets. Just something to think about. Sorry if that throws a monkey wrench---flooring choices are daunting!!!

[New_Natural_Mom]

We have bamboo in what was intended as a nursery (though never used) and like it.  It isn't a high traffic area, but I don't have complaints.  I just have no idea where to start with carpet.

[laohaire]

Does it HAVE to be carpet?

If you can afford it, bamboo everywhere could be gorgeous. Just add throw rugs. That would reduce a lot of carpet problems.

[New_Natural_Mom]

Yeah, I want carpet.  I like to lay on the floor sometimes and crawl around with my son and I just like that squishy carpet feeling.  :)

[redvlagrl]

Get wool with a twist pile (straight pile shows footprints!). You can get eco friendly ones with low VOC glues. Most use a lot of toxic glue and off gas, I think. CHeck the rating of the carpet and try and choose one designed for high traffic areas or commercial applications - they will last better.

[MsFortune]

I looked into "green" carpet options. Wool is your best choice but it is SO expensive. Really, really expensive.

Synthetic carpets are, well, synthetic, but I can accept that. What is problematic to me is the stain resistant coatings and the flame retardants. Then kids crawl around on the floors, breathing the fumes, or getting the fibers in their mouth and ends up with bad chemicals in their stomach.

After we looked into wool carpets and freaked out at the cost, we decided to stain and finish our concrete floor and put down big wool throw rugs.

[weliveintheforest]

How big is the room?  We got an area rug for my kid's room in our last place that covered almost the entire floor. It was just cotton from Ikea but it was unexpensive and easy to get clean.  If it's a bigger room and that is not an option I'm not sure what I'd get, new carpet is pretty fume-y and I don't think we'd choose it.

[earthymama2be]

We just got a quote for wool carpet for 1 bedroom and a staircase, total of about 300 square feet. The cheapest at our local carpet store was 3.99/square foot, so about 1200 uninstalled...eek! 2400 Inc installation. I do think it is worth it, we may just wait a few months to save up, or maybe find a less expensive installer.

The brand we looked at was Stanton, natural bridges. They claim it is biodegradable renewable, air purifying, stain resistant, Non-allergenic, etc

Let us know what you choose!

[BCFD]

We had wool carpet in our very tiny living room in our last house and paid a lot....I mean a LOT of money for it, but we loved it.  It was a very short (sorry I don't know all the carpet terms) loop type and it was incredibly beautiful.  I want to say we paid something insane like $25/sq. ft.  However, we only covered a 12x15, so we splurged.  We bought ours from Carpet One.

Eta: Dw thinks we paid $46/yd. Is that even possible? She said it was Karastan.
Edited by BCFD - 4/22/11 at 6:16pm