Carpet in Terrell, TX

Pull a corner and look at the board thickness first. Solid boards from the 1880s to 1920s usually have plenty of material left and refinish beautifully. Replacement only makes sense if the boards are cupped past sanding, water-damaged near the exterior walls, or if too many are missing from old plumbing runs. We'll tell you honestly which you're looking at before you spend anything.

To a point, and we're straight about the limit. On a pier-and-beam house we can shim and sister joists, re-deck bad sections and bring the surface flat enough for plank or tile to sit right. What we can't do is correct a foundation that is still moving, that's a foundation contractor's job, and doing the floor first just means doing it twice.

Once the slab is dry enough to test clean, which we check rather than guess at. New Terrell slabs can still be giving off moisture months after pour, and that's what ruins a glue-down. Floating LVP is more forgiving and can often go in sooner. Estimates are free, we bring samples out, and we can usually start within about two days of you deciding.

Density, together with the twist of the yarn. Face weight only counts the ounces of fiber in a square yard, and a mill can hit a high number with loosely twisted yarn that mats down quickly. Bend a sample backward: if the backing shows easily through the pile, it is not dense. Tightly twisted tips that hold their shape are the best predictor of a carpet that still looks right in year five.

A solution-dyed fiber over a moisture-barrier pad, in a low, dense cut pile. Solution-dyed means the color runs through the fiber, so an accident can be cleaned aggressively without bleaching a pale spot into the floor. The barrier pad stops liquid reaching the slab, which is what causes odor that never quite leaves. Avoid loops if you have cats, since a claw catches a loop and pulls a run across the room.

We advise against it, and most manufacturers will not warranty it. Old pad has already been compressed in exactly the pathways you walk and has absorbed whatever was spilled over the years, and new carpet laid on a pad that has lost its density starts wearing from underneath immediately. New pad goes down with new carpet as a matter of course.