Don’t let flooring fitters’ bodged jobs trip you up – The Crusader | The Crusader | Finance

Josie’s purchase was for her new home of four rooms and a staircase. “I’m a first-time buyer, money’s tight but I needed flooring throughout,” she explained. “There were a lot of delays over the fitting. Then a couple of months later carpets began fraying, gripper rods were coming through and the vinyl was lifting up everywhere.”

Crusader’s pressure got the fitters back, but problems keep surfacing and, as Josie hasn’t heard since, she’s given up the fight. 

Had she known about trade body The Carpet Foundation things might have turned out very differently.

This independent organisation offers brilliant advice, has a Trading Standards’ approved members’ code of practice that protects consumers and is the source for finding carpet experts locally. 

Among its top tips for those wanting to step up their home improvements this spring, it advises: there’s no such thing as a free fitting – it’s a skill a price will be paid somewhere.

Only pay a deposit on a credit card, never cash or the full amount upfront. Remember cheap carpet turns ugly – get on top of prices before buying. 

Lifestyle really matters, for example a carpet in a room facing the sun will lose colour and animals’ claws can undo the weave of loop pile carpets (ones replicating coir for example). 

Long pile carpets however luscious do flatten and always check how footprints may affect a carpet.