Home Carpet One

Considering the overall good Unilocal score, and friendly, family-​owned and operated vibe on the website, I thought I had found a good place. I was especially happy to see some consideration for landlords with regards to their particular needs in the carpet department.
Since the website has a «free estimate» form, I filled it out to get a jump on the process. That was over 3 weeks ago, and I still haven’t received a response. But hey, internet stuff happens, so I wasn’t too put off by that. I still decided to check out the store.
I arrived at the store relatively early, maybe ½ hour after opening, so I could hopefully beat any rush. The arrangement inside was… unique. All the salespeople (I assume they were salespeople) were set behind sort of imposing counters, arranged in a way that customers have to run a bit of a gauntlet. Anyway, I strolled through, and looked at every person on my way back to the carpet area. Not one looked up at me. Well, no problem. There was a guy in carpeting behind a regular desk, and I wrongly assumed he’d at least glance up. I browsed through the samples rather aimlessly, not sure where to begin, and a little shy to interrupt the friendly (?) insult-​laden back-​and-​forth the carpet guy and his closest buddy were engaged in (that’s welcoming /​s). Again, I strolled around the store, getting a vibe (not the best one) from a bunch of folks. Although I was somewhat amused by the varying ways the employees avoided contact (deeply involved in whatever was on the computer screen, urgent texting, witty banter with other employee, one woman with her face buried in her hands — she looked so distraught I wanted to console her), ultimately I was disappointed at the lack of interaction.
I figured that commissioned folks would show some interest, but… not so much. At that point, I had to challenge myself to just hang around to see how long it would take before I got some help; at this point it’s about the principle. That turned out to be 25 minutes, since I walked in the door. Actually, 25 minutes was how long it took me to decide to go elsewhere. I slowly made my way back through the gauntlet without so much as a glance. Eh, que sera sera.
I guess there should be some value to the one star rating though. The bonus is that I ended up finding a carpeting store closer to home, that not only spent a fair amount of time working to understand my situation and earn my business, but willingly negotiated pricing far below the prices I saw at Home Carpet One.

Recently purchased natural stone plus ceramic tile at HCO for our bathroom remodel and enjoyed the experience. Great selection and knowledgeable sales associates. Julia D P was very helpful, showing us numerous product options and offering good suggestions based on her experience. Follow-​up communication after the sale was good and products were delivered on time. Cost of materials can quickly add up, so it pays to become an informed shopper. It helped that we purchased materials when a sale was going on. Would rate 5 stars were it not for the high cost of grout and grout boost at this store. Our contractor sent us to another place to buy a product he likes better and it cost 36% of what grout/​grout boost would have cost at HCO. Thanks again for your assistance Julia!

We could not be happier with the carpet service we received here, both in the store with Mark and Rosie (to say they know their carpet is an understatement), and in our home with their incredible installation team. We’ll never go anywhere else for carpet or flooring; these guys really made the process seamless from start to finish.

Home Carpet 1 and Bruce Knee have been my go-​to carpeter people for years. As a real estate professional, I get the opportunity to recommend them often and my client’s responses are always glowing. Price, variety, delivery, and installation are all superb.

Great service, price, and installation. I never even went into the studio. I talked to George, told him what I was looking for. He sent some samples along with the man who measured, sent me some quotes and we were done. I loved one of the samples and ordered it. They called for installation a week later. The gentlemen that showed up to install the carpeting were very professional and did an incredible job. It looks great!

The guy who explained us about floor. He is gig!!! Good to know details. Alot of stuff to create new idea of my place and my retails space

Recently my sales rep, Ed Gadomski, moved from a different vendor to Home Carpet One. After many years of working with Ed, my business will be moving with him. You won’t find a better rep to help with all of your flooring needs. He always tries to get you the best price, makes you aware of all costs involved to get the product to your client, and does it in a timely fashion. Once you send him a request for a quote or an order, you can cross it off your To Do list because Ed gets it taken care of. Besides all these wonderful qualities in a sales rep, he is a wonderful person to boot! You can’t do better than Ed Gadomski in my book.

Great value, great selections and most of all, great expertise. If you are considering any floor covering — carpet to tile– visit this place and talk to Ed Gadomski. He knows his stuff and will help you through the daunting selection process. Trustworthy and smart.

I’ve worked with Ed for many years.
Ed has always been a great help.
Ed is very knowledgable.
And Ed has a memory like no one else.
And most importantly, his prices are unbeatable.

From the moment I entered the Home Carpet One Showroom, Julia Della Pietra was my guiding light. She listened to what I what I wanted, and brought out more samples than she probably showed to her previous five customers! I selected the perfect carpeting for my Den and Bedroom, and feel I got great value for my money. I asked her to send the best installers, as I am very exacting. She did that also. Tune and Michael did a fabulous job, in a careful and neat manner, then put my furniture back in place. I enthusiastically recommend HCO, Julia and Tune, Michael, and give them gold stars and I am a hard marker! Thank you one and all.

My favorite flooring and tile salesman recently moved to Home Carpet One.
Ed Gadomski has always strived to give me competetive pricing and timely delivery.
Home Carpet One will now be getting all my orders.
If you need someone to handle your needs, Ed is the person for the job.
Frank

We just installed new carpet in our new home and it LOOKS great! The installation was seamless and done fairly quickly (we had a lot of space to cover). George was our point person and he was WONDERFUL to work with. I would highly recommend Home Carpet One and call George.

Shelly is who is helping us most recently. We have used Home carpet One several time in the past and this experience has been just as good as the rest. We are redoing our mens and womens rest rooms and we are choosing and getting all of our tile through them.

I walked in the store shortly after 11am on Sunday ⁵⁄₂₄. We talked with George, the sales rep. We told him we were looking for carpet for two bedrooms and he took the lead from there. He asked the right questions, listened to my feedback, and showed us some great options. We found a great product and a really helpful sales person to guide us to the best choice. Thank you so much George!

Home Carpet One was recommended to us by a friend in Lincoln Park. We first visited Home Carpet One in January for two hallways runners. We weren’t sure where to start — dimensions, style, serging, colors, fabric. We worked with Julia as our design consultant. Julia was so professional, thoughtful, helpful and consultative throughout the selection process. She was patient with us and offered up suggestions and insights to help us in the decision. Home Carpet One has such a vast selection of rug options so it is incredibly helpful to work with a design consultant. Julia went above and beyond to ensure that we liked the appearance of our runners, so much so that she emailed us before the serging process was complete to ask if we liked the serging color that we originally selected. The color that my wife and I had selected was a darker shade than what Julia had suggested. Julia was so gracious to email us to see our first choice before the serging process was complete. Ultimately, we went with the color that Julia had originally picked for us. Lesson learned — we should listen to the design consultant!
We again used Home Carpet One on some larger area rugs two months later. Julia sent us home with samples and color options. She was so helpful in selecting the serging colors. The area rugs look incredible — perfect fit, beautiful colors, high quality. We have to laud the delivery and rollout teams as well. The area rugs required relocating our furniture and heavy lifting to lay the protective pad and the area rug. The delivery and rollout teams have always been friendly and accomodating.

My husband and I remodeled our bathroom this fall and needed all new floor and shower tile. I had researched a DalTile I liked and found it was sold locally at Home Carpet One.
We went into the shop and met George, one of the amazing sales associates there. He showed us to the DalTile in question and helped us tour the store to look for shower tile. Ultimately we ended up finding a different floor tile we liked even better and the dream shower tile.
George placed our order for our floor and shower tiles and had everything all packed up and ready to put in our car a few weeks later.
A few weeks into the project and our contractors failed to install the tile correctly. We had to replace all the tile because the contractors had done such a terrible job. George was our only source of calm in the sea of insanity in our home. He was so kind and so patient and so helpful. He even went out of his way to help us get an extra box of shower tile.
If you want high quality customer service, ask for George. Thank you, George!!!

I stand corrected. Recently I reflected on my experience with home carpet one from several years ago and what popped in my head was a lien that was put on my project
and that was all I reflected on and didn’t remember why. After giving a one star rating Joel from Home Carpet One researched the issue and called me immediately to address it and there was a understandable reason to do so from a email that was sent. .
Apologies to Bruce the sales person who was great and work was amazing

**Updated: I appreciate the note and comment from the owner. While it was resolved in an hour on his side, it was 4 hours of my time during work hours due to all of the confusion. I’m sure his team learned from this, but that does not help me recover my lost time and costs. **
To sum it up they are all sales and no service.
My advice is to use these guys as a very nice showroom and then price it out at tile outlet on Fullerton or go to Home Depot or Lowe’s.
Let’s talk about what went well:
The sales lady was very interested and took time to understand what we were looking for. They had to select the right carpet and the right tile without pushing the margins of product. They were even able to find the right tile which is a description and give us a sample to go home and verify. When I did the pick up at the warehouse the warehouse folks are very organized and friendly and help me load it into my car. At the end when I had a problem with my product the owner of the store give me a refund.
Let’s talk about what went wrong:
First pricing —
the prices here are what you’d expect from a specialty store markup. For brand-​name or standard product like natural stone you can find better pricing outlet stores or Home Depot. We purchased from them because they were having a one-​day sale in their sales price was comparable to the outlet stores.
Second the sale —
The sales lady well asking really good questions about our purpose did not ask you questions about the product. In the end we ended up getting the wrong size carpet. It was 56 ft.² however the wrong dimensions because they only selling 12 foot rolls which is standard for carpet. We were specific that we were building a 7×8 room so we should have bought 96 sq ft. She did not mention that to us and so the product we picked up was incorrect.
Third pick up —
The sales person gave me the wrong delivery information. As a result I went to Lakeview to get part of my order only to be told that I had to go to the South Loop. Unfortunately, I live closer to the south loop so I spend 2 hours driving around to get my product.
Forth issue resolution /​return:
Third the return process — I will admit that they do outline their return policy on the invoice. My contract noticed it was the wrong dimension without even unrolling it. I called immediately. And this is where it got messy –
(a) I was told they cut it so I bought it. They would give store credit, but that’s it.
(b) After I complained they offered 50% refund or store credit.
© In the conversation, the sales there were lots of excuses all of which were customer-​driven miscommunications… «maybe she thought you were doing an area rug».
(d) There was no focus on resolving my issue… just what they couldn’t do for me.
(e) Finally, my wife called the owner and he agreed to give us a full refund.
All in all, you go to a specialty store for expertise and service. I will maintain for the mark up asked for, they should take charge for making sure they get the right information and not blame the customer. (How am I supposed to know?). And I should not have to go to the owner to get resolution.
Like I said, nice showroom. Buy somewhere else.

The installation team was amazingl and went out of their way to be sure that everything was detailed, the carpet install is flawless, the vent cuts, etc… AND they made sure that everything was put back and plugged back in the way that it was before. I did not expect that they would do so much to put my personal things in place. And they were friendly and careful and just a pleasure to have in our home. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
Marc Gustin always helps us pick the best textiles for our home.
We are loving the variety of Tigressa brand carpet, from the «Softly You’ll Remember Twist» in Cornflake color and the various berber styles in other parts of the house. They also made sure to use the right pad for the right room — anti-​mildew and mold for the lower lever, plush for the upstairs, etc…

Review is only for rugs, not carpet:
They have a really large showroom for carpets and different types of flooring, so I’d definitely begin your search here. They kind of leave you to browse — which can be good or bad depending on your style.
I was here only for an area rug and they had just a few options available. They seemed to offer customized option more than catalog option. I think it could be because carpets is what they do well and cutting an area rug from a carpet may be easier for them.