Carpets and flooring are a big deal - and a big investment. Even buying a small area rug is a big deal for us; we just want things to last and to not get sick of something too quickly.
We've seen Home Carpet One pop up in several comment threads on AT, and finally decided to check it out. Its central Lakeview location means we'd been by the giant 10,000 square foot showroom dozens of times. The biggest surprise for us: It's not all about carpets.
The store stocks a number of hardwoods, natural stone, laminate, linoleum, and mosaic tiles (for floors, backsplash and countertops). Like many, we have looked into bamboo and cork floorings as renewable possibilities. The closer we get to some new kitchen flooring, the more exciting these ideas become.
Home Carpet One also carries the "largest selection of carpet in Chicago, including several wools, berbers, solid loops, tactesse nylons, friezes, plushes, and commercial carpets." Price points for carpet start at $1.99 sq. ft. (installed), and $3.99 sq. ft. (installation not included) for hardwood.
We were also pleased to discover the store's involvement in community donations:
July 2005 – Lincoln Park Zoo
We recently donated used wall-to-wall carpeting tubes to the Lincoln Park Zoo. The tubes are used for helping the animals hunt for food. Since being in captivity the animals have no natural ways of hunting, so by providing them with such activities this can keep their skills sharp and less domesticated.
Bi-Annual Breast Cancer Awareness Mats Sale
Home Carpet One sells specially designed (pink ribbon) doormats with a percentage of the profits donated to Breast Cancer Foundation. Mats are available year round, with new designs available each spring and fall.
Make a Difference Day
Home Carpet One has also donated wall-to-wall carpeting to schools and churches in the surrounding community. Just last spring, Home Carpet One participated in “Make a Difference Day” by carpeting the Louis Mary Alcott School’s auditorium for absolutely not charge. Carpet One received a National Award for its efforts on “Make a Difference Day”.
St. Suzanne’s Woman’s Shelter
Home Carpet One donated carpet and installation to a needy woman’s shelter in Harvey, Illinois.
We're impressed. Anyone have firsthand experience with Home Carpet One??
| Location: |
3071 N. Lincoln Ave.
Chicago,
IL
60657
|
|---|---|
| Phone: |
773.935.9314
|
| Website: | www.homecarpet1.com |
| Categories: | rugs & carpets, hard flooring, tile & stone |
|---|
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I live down the street from Home Carpet One, so they were the natural choice when I wanted to replace the carpet in my upstairs bedroom before I moved in. I stopped in the other one on Lincoln (the name escapes me right now) and they were so rude to me -- I would never go back or recommend them.
Dave at HC1 was very helpful and explained a lot about carpet to me. He managed to coordinate the installation prior to the movers showing up with my furniture, which was enormously helpful.
I would definitely recommend them.
YES! The Lincoln Location is very rude. I went in there with a budget the other day and maybe I was too poor for them, but they could hardly take the time to help me. I walked out of there immediately. Not impressed. There were a lot of styles tho and really amazing and beautiful things, but the prices were out of reach for me and the staff hardly inspired me to spend my money there.
Actually, my positive comments were about the Lincoln Ave. store.
My bad experience was with Tufkenian or whatever the really expensive place is called that is in the middle of the block between Barry and Wellington.
If you go to HC1, try to talk to Dave, with the beard. He's great.
I bought hard flooring through Home Carpet One last summer and had them install it. It was a very good experience.
The selection is great - we ended up using a "commercial" product that is not marketed for residential applications, but is carried at Home Carpet One.
My condo association also used them for the carpeting in our common areas and that job was done well and on time, too.
Thumbs up from me.
We have had some negative experiences with Home Carpet 1 and after three transactions with them are looking for alternatives.
Our first purchase was bathroom tile that our contractor was going to install. We were new to this and really wanted to limit the decisions we needed to make so they were efficient at filling a tile order; we did not shop for price.
The second project included having them install tile in our kitchen. The design process was frustrating, they seem to have a lot of staff turn-over there, and we switched designers in the middle of our planning. The installation was a mess, their staff rushed the work, left a mess and made some bad installation decisions. That being said, HC1 did make good on their mistakes and we were happy with the final product. We felt we overpaid for this project.
For our most recent project we were looking for just tile, no install, to do a another bathroom. None of the designers we worked with in the past were with HC1 so we started fresh with a new person. She provided useful assistance but on receiving a quote and reviewing it with our contractor, we decided to see if we were getting a good price. This is where the wheels fell off. Initially a competitor gave us an estimate that was more than 35% lower than HC1, then they said they were being pressured by HC1 not to fill our order, then they gave us a new order which matched HC1's almost to the dollar. It turns out our efforts to make sure we were getting a good deal resulted in a flurry of phone calls to tile distributors, potentially some threats and name calling and has left us back at the beginning.
Needless to say the more we work with HC1 the less comfortable we are with them. I would suggest that if you want good quality tile with sub-par service, and price is no object, Home Carpet 1 is the store for you. But if you want to develop a relationship with a vendor you can trust to give you reasonable prices with consistent service then you had better keep looking.
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For those looking for another local Chicago flooring dealer in the area, check out Romar Carpet and Flooring in Franklin Park (http://www.romarflooring.com). You can shop at home, and they purchase their materials mill-direct, so their pricing is pretty fair.
view sceneit4's profile