Do You Tip Carpet Installers?

When moving into a new apartment or when remodeling your interior space, you will most likely have to carry out carpet installation.

While it is possible to install carpets by yourself, it is sometimes advisable to employ the service of professional installers.

You may have the knowledge but not the physical strength to carry out the installation.

Carpets can cost a lot of money, depending on the type and size of carpet.

Installation can also be expensive if you are not installing yourself.

With all these implications in play, it will may be quite hard to tip your carpet installer, particularly if you are on a budget.

This begs the question – do you have to tips carpet installers?

In this article, we try to answer this question.

Professional carpet installers

Carpet installation involves measuring, cutting, and fixing carpets in both interior and exterior space for personal, social, or commercial use. In some cases, carpet installation may involve additional task like moving furniture around.

The highlight is that whenever you want to install new carpets, there are professionals who can get it done for you.

Usually, there is no need for academic qualifications; the skills needed are taught and learnt on the job.

However, experience matters a lot and often, it is what separates one carpet installer form another.

In countries like the USA, the UK, Australia, and most European countries, carpet installers are not so hard to hard to find.

Through recommendations from neighbors, friends, or family, you can get a good professional installer around you.

Also, you can search online for carpet installers, nonetheless, it is better to get installers people can vouch for.

One of the advantages of hiring professional carpet installers is that they can give you valuable information concerning the type of carpet you should buy and where you can get the best quality.

At time professional carpet installers have carpet stores and they offer discounts if you are buying from them and hiring them for installation.

Typically, installation costs between $1.9/sq ft. – $2.8/sq. ft. excluding the cost of the carpet.

When you have a large space to cover, these costs will add up into a huge sum eventually. Yet, you have to wonder about tipping the workers.

Should you tip carpet installers?

A lot of people are of the opinion that once you hire professional carpet installers, you enter into a contract with them and you should only pay the amount agreed to.

This school of thought is not wrong, nonetheless, if you are impressed with what your carpet installers have done, you can give them a tip to show you appreciation of a job well done.

Tipping carpet installers is also a good idea when they carry out additional job for you.

Although it is not ideal, there are special cases where the installers will have to carry out additional tasks like moving furniture so that they can get their job done.

If the cost of those activities are not covered in the original agreement, then it is only ideal that you tip them.

If you cannot afford to tip, you don’t have to think too much about it.

You can come clean to your carpet installers about the good job they have done and how you would love to tip them but you don’t have the financial ability to do so.

You may come across carpet installers that feel entitled and believe you must tip them.

You are already paying them for their services; all additional costs should have been covered in the bill, and you are only liable to pay the amount agreed to.

If you ever decide to tip your carpet installers, try to keep it reasonable; not too much and not too small.

Carpet installers and other remodelers do not typically expect tips.

An Angie’s list survey reveals that only 6 % of remodelers expect a tip and that only 18 % of remodelers get tips.

All in all, it is not compulsory to tip carpet installers, however, there is no rule against doing such if you are impressed by the work they have done and if they have done additional work not covered in the bill during the carpet installation.

Questions you should ask a carpet installer before hiring

Hiring a carpet installer can be quite risky, more so if you are not able to get recommendation from past customers.

There are some question you can ask to help you get an idea if or not a carpet installer will do a good job.

• Years of experience

It is always better to go for experienced installers. A carpet installer with sufficient experience should be able to give you references who can vouch for him or her. The more difficult the job is, the more experience that will be required.

• Are you licensed or insured?

It is always a good idea to hire a professional that is licensed and insured. Even if anything goes wrong during installation, you can rest assured that the insurance will take care of everything. If not the installer is not licensed, at least make sure he or she is insured.

• Do you give warranties?

The services of good installers may be a bit expensive, so you should always ask for warranties. Commonly, a lot of installers give one year warranty after installation and if you notice any defect within that period, you can always give the installer a call.

• What equipment do you use?

If you ever notice a carpet installer kicking carpets with legs, never hire such an installer. At the very least, a good installer should have a power stretcher for proper carpet installation. Any installer that doesn’t have equipment should not be hired.

Conclusion

Tipping carpet installers is not a compulsory thing to do.

It depends on you and how your relationship with the installers goes.

Also, if you ever decide to tip carpet installers, keep the tip reasonable- not too small and not too much.

Carpet installation is something you can do yourself if you are handy, nonetheless, if you cannot install your carpets yourself, some questions that can help you pick a good installer have also been discussed above.