VILLAGE DECORATIVE

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Update, 11/19: Today I received an extraordinarily nice letter from Village's owner along with an unexpected, and unrequested, refund check.

Village defended the quality of the carpet, stating it was 58 oz grade. But in reality is was much thinner and lighter than a good 55-oz carpet I had in a previous home. So I honestly suspect a lighter grade of carpet was mistakenly installed. Village's padding was a very good one, by the way.

Village also regrets that I did not contact them directly with my opinion of the installation. A fair point, and one I'd have made in their place. My feelings when I wrote the review is that our differences were about standards, and that a dispute would not be productive. I'm impressed by Village's good faith and regret that I misjudged them in that respect. I am adjusting their ratings to reflect their good faith.

Now that said, I've posted some pictures of the issues with the carpet and installation. When the carpet was removed for replacement a few days ago much about the actual quality of the installation was revealed. I've adjusted my 'quality' rating to reflect the serious flaws that were revealed. The reader is invited to draw his or her own conclusions about quality and craftsmanship.

-- Pete





Fair.

Village's staff was friendly and helpful. They procured our carpet quickly and installer was here on time.

Installation has some shortcomings. Room has built-in cabinets that protrude over their bases several inches. Original carpet had tack strips under cabinets' overhang, up against their bases. Villages' installer placed new tack strips inboard of cabinets, leaving outer several inches of new carpet just lying there. He also did not place pad under these overhanging edges, so carpet droops slightly but visibly at its edges. Carpet's edges at cabinet bases were not "tucked," it was just a loose raw edge lying there.

Carpet itself is disappointing. Yes, I chose it, but based on Village saying it was their best grade and imputation that it was very good carpet. In reality it is not very soft to walk on, it feels stiff and wiry and is downright unpleasant to walk on without shoes. Feels like walking on steel wool. Carpet is showing pronounced permanent flat areas after only three months of light traffic. These can be fluffed somewhat with a vacuum, but go flat again within a few hours.

Join of carpet to adjoining hardwood floor is hall is already unraveling a bit.

We had Jabara's do the second room we were recarpeting. The difference in carpet quality is very pronounced. Even the 15-year-old carpet remaining in our living room is nicer to talk on than Village's. We will probably have the first room done over by Jabara's.


Followup 11/1: We've contracted with another provider to redo that room in question with high-quality carpet. When their installer examined the room he commented (without knowing who provided it or how old it was) on the poor quality of the present installation. The cost of a very high quality 75-oz Mohawk carpet and new, better pads installed correctly is only about $200 more than Village charged for their cheap-motel-room grade job.

Installation continues to deteriorate rapidly. After four months carpet and installation both look pretty sad. The lady of the house feels that the installed carpet is lighter and has shorter, stiffer nap than the sample we chose and thinks there might have been a mistake made in which carpet was actually installed. We no longer have the samples so I can't be sure, myself.

If this was just an installation issue alone I'd just invite the folks at Village to improve it. But since Village held this out as their best grade of carpet and it's really pretty sorry, I don't see how they could provide a solution satisfactory to me. So we're just biting the bullet and having it done over by someone else. There's just no point in starting a dispute with someone who probably did their best; I feel this is really an issue about standards rather than a specific flawed job. We want it right more than we want anything in particular from Village.

unknown

They were fantastic. The workers were very professional and the craftsmanship was incredible. There were no complaints at all. They were very helpful with the designs and Angela assisted me with deciding on the products and design we wanted installed. Each day, the workers did not leave until everything was cleaned up. Anything that needed to be hauled off was taken by them. I was going to get estimates, but I liked them so much that I did not even to interview anyone else.