Progress photos - carpet installation

The carpet is in, and it looks great!  Initially when we had selected carpet with our designer, she suggested Tuftex by Shaw.  Since our carpet guy had a tough time getting the Tuftex carpet, we began looking at other options.  Enter the Lexmark Residential Collection.  I had never heard of Lexmark Carpet, but after doing some research, it turns out that they just entered the residential market, with a long history of providing carpet in "hospitality" environments (ie: Marriott).  

I spoke with the local vendor and he said after a long career in the carpet industry, he does feel as though Lexmark is making a good residential product.  Of course he's biased, as he currently works for Lexmark, but push came to shove and we needed to make a decision.  I ended up selecting the Lexmark Sterling carpet in 329 Antique Beige.  Here are the things that I liked about this particular carpet:

• You can't feel the backing through the nap.
• Some of the loops are looped and others are not.  That means that if our carpet ever gets snagged, all I have to do is take a pair of small scissors and trim it out.  This particular product seemed to be the best of both plush and berber carpets.
• It feels good when you stand on it.
• Comes in a wide variety of colors.

Lexmark Sterling Carpet

Lexmark Sterling Carpet color samples

Lexmark Carpet 329 Antique Beige

 When the delivery guys showed up, they had a van packed full of carpet.  I'm still not even sure how they drove their van to our house, but whatever...

One of the best tips that I can give you is to check the dye lot of your carpet.  Since your carpet guys will inevitably have to place seams, it's really important that all of the rolls coordinate with one another.  The last thing you want is to have your carpet installed and realize that there's a slight difference in each roll.

Roll of Lexmark Sterling Carpet

Carpet pad

Stainmaster carpet pad

 First they laid out the carpet pads, and then installed the tack strips.  Glad I was wearing running shoes and that my tetanus shot is up to date.

Carpet padding and tack strip

Nailing the pad down to the subfloor

Trimming the carpet to fit

The transition between the carpet and master bath - if you look closely, you can see the rain showerhead

Beautifully installed Lexmark Sterling carpet

Carpet going down the stairs into the basement

Now that the carpet is in, I can honestly say that I'm glad we went with Lexmark.  It feels good to walk on, has a nice variation of texture and as the carpet guy who installed it (with 31 years under his belt) said: "This is good carpet!"