How to Choose Carpet: A Melbourne Guide

By Tony Chalhoub, founder of CarpetAce

Short answer: Choose the fibre for how each room is used, the pile style for the look and how well it hides marks, and a dense carpet over a good 10mm underlay so it keeps its looks. For most Melbourne homes that means solution-dyed nylon or wool in a twist or tight loop for living areas, hallways and stairs, and a softer cut pile in the bedrooms. At CarpetAce, carpet starts from $20.50/m², mid-range solution-dyed nylon is $43.50/m² and mid-range wool is $68.30/m², supply only, including GST.

I’ve been installing carpet for more than 20 years, and most carpet that disappoints early is a good product in the wrong room. This guide follows the order I’d make the decisions in, with links to our detailed guides on each topic.

Choose the fibre

The fibre decides how a carpet copes with spills, sun and traffic, and it sets most of the price. These are the five you’ll meet most often:

Fibre	Strengths	Watch for	Best suited to	Supply per m² (inc GST)
Wool	Natural; soft, warm and rich in colour; springs back well	Blot spills quickly; avoid bleach; sheds at first; dyed wool can fade in strong sun	Bedrooms, formal lounges	$68.30 mid-range; about $110 premium; about $123 designer Axminster
Solution-dyed nylon	Colour runs right through the fibre, so it holds up to sun and many stains; the most resilient synthetic	Stain resistant, not stain proof	Family rooms, hallways, stairs, kids, pets, rentals	$43.50 mid-range; $68.30 high-end
Triexta	Polyester family, with more spring; very soft; built-in stain resistance	Not as tough as nylon on stairs; blot oily spills quickly	Bedrooms, family rooms	About $68.30
Polyester	Soft; good with water-based spills	Less springy than nylon; choose a dense one for busy rooms	Bedrooms, studies	Varies by range
Polypropylene	Very stain resistant; colour won’t bleach out	Crushes in traffic; attracts oily soil; can scuff	Rentals, rumpus rooms, spare rooms	From $20.50, where most polypropylene sits

Wool and solution-dyed nylon are the two most popular choices, and our wool vs nylon guide compares them side by side. For the softer synthetics, see solution-dyed nylon vs triexta. For rentals and lighter-traffic rooms, see solution-dyed polypropylene vs nylon. And if you’re looking at polyester, our guide to polyester carpet shedding explains what’s normal.

Solution-dyed means the colour goes in before the fibre is formed, so it runs right through each strand instead of sitting on the surface. We supply ranges from makers including Supertuft, Chaparral, EC Carpets, Victoria Carpets and Quest, and we can source almost any carpet range available in Australia.

Choose the pile style

Every carpet is cut pile, loop pile or a mix of the two. The style decides the look, the feel and how well the carpet hides footprints. Our guide to the three main carpet types covers them in depth.

Plush (velour): a cut pile sheared to a smooth, velvety surface. The softest and most formal, but it shows footprints, vacuum lines and shading. Best in bedrooms and formal lounges.
Twist: a cut pile with tightly twisted, heat-set yarn, so each tuft points a slightly different way and hides marks. The all-rounder for living areas, hallways and stairs. See what is twist pile carpet.
Loop pile: the loops are left whole, in level, textured or multilevel forms. Firm, hard-wearing and free of footprints, but loops can snag. See what is loop pile carpet.
Berber: a chunky loop, often flecked, that hides dirt well. Large loops and pets with claws don’t mix. See berber carpet prices, pros and cons.
Cut-and-loop: cut tufts and loops in one surface, so a pattern shows even in a single colour. It hides soiling well, but the pattern has to be matched at every join, which can take extra carpet.

The style doesn’t set the price; the fibre and weight do. A twist and a loop in the same fibre and weight cost much the same.

Weight and density

Carpet weight is usually quoted in ounces (oz): the weight of pile yarn in each square yard. More yarn generally means a fuller feel and longer wear, but a tall, loose pile can weigh the same as a short, dense one and wear out far sooner, because its tufts have room to fall over. That’s why I check density first. As a rough guide:

Around 30–40 oz: bedrooms, studies and guest rooms with light traffic.
Around 40–60 oz, in a dense construction: living areas, family rooms and hallways.
Stairs: a dense carpet the maker rates for stairs, whatever its weight. Every footstep lands on the nosing, and a loose pile opens up there and shows the backing, which installers call grinning.

Then check the maker’s wear rating, often labelled light, medium, heavy or extra heavy duty residential, and make sure it covers the rooms you’re carpeting. Installation is priced by weight, too: $11/m² for carpet of 40 oz or less, $12.30/m² over 40 oz and $13.60/m² over 65 oz, because heavier carpet is harder work to stretch, cut and join.

Choosing carpet room by room

Start with the room, not the sample board. This is what I’d usually suggest:

Room	Fibre	Style	What matters most
Bedrooms	Wool, solution-dyed nylon, triexta or polyester	Plush or a soft twist	Comfort; light traffic lets you choose for feel
Living and family rooms	Solution-dyed nylon or wool	Twist; a tight loop if there are no pets	Resilience and hiding everyday marks
Hallways	Solution-dyed nylon or wool	Dense twist or tight loop in a mid-tone or fleck	Density, and where the joins fall
Stairs	Solution-dyed nylon or wool	Dense twist or tight level loop	A stairs rating and a dense pile over the nosing
Kids’ rooms	Solution-dyed nylon	Twist, flecked or heathered	Spills, play and easy care
Homes with pets	Solution-dyed nylon	Cut pile twist; avoid large loops	No loops for claws to catch; easy stain removal
Rentals	Solution-dyed nylon or polypropylene	Tight loop or twist in a mid-tone	Colourfast, stain resistant and hard-wearing

Bedrooms are where carpet has the easiest life, so they’re the place to choose for softness. Our guide to the best flooring or carpet for bedrooms compares carpet with timber, hybrid and laminate, including kids’ rooms and upstairs bedrooms.

Stairs take more wear than anywhere else in the house. At the measure we bend samples over a stair edge so you can see how each one sits, and stairs are quoted on site because every staircase is different.

One carpet or several? One carpet through the bedrooms, hallway and stairs gives a continuous look, and we can cut robes and small rooms from offcuts of the same carpet where they fit. Mixing fibres works too; just avoid two almost-matching colours meeting at a doorway.

Underlay

Underlay is the part nobody sees and everybody feels. A good 10mm underlay makes carpet softer and quieter, helps the pile recover from furniture and takes some of the wear out of every step, especially over a concrete slab.

We use 10mm underlay from Airstep, Underlay King and Airlay, at $6–$10/m².
Replace the underlay with the carpet. Old underlay that has flattened or started to crumble shortens the life of the new carpet on top.
On stairs, a firm, dense underlay helps the carpet wrap cleanly over each nosing.
If your slab has in-slab heating, tell us at the measure. Carpet and underlay both slow the heat coming through, so the choice matters.

Colour basics

Carpet is the biggest area of colour in most rooms, so a few rules go a long way:

Match the undertone. Warm carpets (beige, greige, warm grey) suit creams, timber and browns; cool greys suit crisp white, navy and black.
Mid-tones hide the most. Household dust is mostly light grey to beige, so mid-tone and flecked carpets hide it best. Very pale carpet shows dirt; very dark carpet shows lint and pet hair.
Keep the contrast low to make a room feel bigger. A light to mid-tone carpet close in tone to the walls lets the eye run to the edges of the room.
Judge it in your own light. North-facing rooms are bright and warm; in south-facing rooms, cool greys can look bluer.

Our colour guides go further: how to choose carpet colours for your home, what colour carpet makes a room look larger, the best colours to use with grey carpet and dark grey carpet colour combinations.

Roll width and joins

Most carpet comes off a roll 3.66 m wide. Some ranges come 4 m wide, at a much higher price per m², so a wider roll isn’t a way to save on carpet. A room wider than the roll needs a join and a fill piece, cut from another length with the pile running the same way.

That’s why the carpet you pay for is often more than the floor area. A 4 × 4 m room in 3.66 m carpet needs a 0.34 m fill, and because the fill comes from a second length, the room takes about 30 m² of carpet (two 4.1 m lengths, allowing for trimming) for 16 m² of floor. In a whole-house job, fills, robes and small rooms can often come from other rooms’ offcuts, so we work out the quantity room by room at the measure.

Pile direction matters at a join: a piece turned the other way catches the light differently and looks like another shade. Patterned carpet is matched at every join. We do our best to keep joins out of high-traffic areas. For what happens on the day, see our flooring installation and care guide.

What carpet costs

Our prices, including GST. Supply is charged on the carpet you need off the roll; installation, underlay and extras are charged on the measured floor area.

Item	Price (inc GST)
Carpet, entry level (supply)	From $20.50/m²
Solution-dyed nylon, mid-range	$43.50/m²
Solution-dyed nylon, high-end	$68.30/m²
Triexta, mid to high	About $68.30/m²
Wool and wool-blend, mid-range	$68.30/m²
Premium wool	About $110/m²
Designer wool (Axminster, patterned)	About $123/m²
Installation: 40 oz or less / over 40 oz / over 65 oz	$11 / $12.30 / $13.60 per m²
10mm underlay (Airstep, Underlay King, Airlay)	$6–$10/m²
Take up and dispose of old carpet	About $8/m²
Furniture moving	$8/m²
Stairs; designer or patterned carpet installation	Quoted at the measure
Small-job charge (installed jobs under 20 m²)	$450
Apartment or body corporate building	Plus 10% of the quote

Doing a few rooms together usually avoids the small-job charge. See the full breakdown on our carpet prices in Melbourne page.

Checking a sample at home

A sample under showroom lights tells you little about how a carpet will look in your lounge on a July afternoon. Our mobile showroom brings samples to your home, and our Huntingdale showroom is open by private appointment. With each sample:

Put it on the floor, not against the wall, and look from standing height. A colour usually looks lighter across a whole room than on a small sample.
Look morning and night, in daylight and under your own lights.
Stand on it barefoot. Softness is personal.
Fold it over your finger. If a lot of backing shows between the tufts, it isn’t dense enough for a hallway or stairs.
Try to hook a loop. If a fingernail lifts one easily, a claw will too.
Brush the pile both ways. A big change in shade means footprints and shading.
Hold it against what’s staying: timber, tiles, paint, curtains and the sofa.
Read the label: fibre, weight, wear rating (including stairs), roll width and care requirements.

Step-by-step checklist

List the rooms and how each is used: traffic, kids, pets, sun.
Pick a fibre for each room, starting with the busiest.
Choose a pile style for the look and the marks it needs to hide.
Check density and the wear rating, including stairs.
Work out a price range from the table above, allowing for underlay and installation.
Choose the colour in your own light, against what’s staying.
Decide on one carpet throughout or one per area.
Book a free measure. We measure every room, check the floors and doors, and talk you through the layout.
Mention stairs, furniture moving and old carpet removal so they’re in your quote.
Get your written quote, emailed within 24 hours of the measure.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best carpet for a family home?

For most families, a solution-dyed nylon twist. It’s resilient in traffic, resists many stains, holds its colour in sunny rooms and has no loops for claws to catch. A wool twist suits families who want a natural fibre and are happy to blot spills quickly.

What weight of carpet should I buy?

Choose density before weight. As a rough guide, around 30–40 oz suits bedrooms and a dense 40–60 oz suits living areas and hallways. For stairs, choose a dense carpet the maker rates for stairs.

Do I need new underlay with new carpet?

We recommend it. Old underlay that has flattened or broken down shortens the life of the new carpet. Our 10mm underlay is $6–$10/m², from Airstep, Underlay King and Airlay.

How much does new carpet cost in Melbourne?

At CarpetAce, supply starts from $20.50/m², with mid-range solution-dyed nylon at $43.50/m² and mid-range wool at $68.30/m², including GST. Installation adds $11–$13.60/m² and underlay $6–$10/m², charged on the floor area.

Book a free measure and quote

We’ll bring samples to your home, measure every room and email a written quote within 24 hours of the measure. Book your free measure and quote or call 0425 552 816.

How to Choose Carpet: A Melbourne Installer’s Guide