Our house was built in 1997, and that means that some of the "contractor special" building materials that builders select because they can buy them cheaply and in bulk, are starting to fall apart. The latest on that list is our carpets.

A couple years ago, we replaced our first floor carpets with hard wood, and using that very successful selection, shopping and pricing exercise, we felt we were prepared to do the drill with carpets.

Unfortunately, there's a conspiracy going on with carpets that make it very difficult to do some product/price comparisons and buy based on safety, quality, comfort and price. (For example, if you go to ifloor.com, you can find lots of common product names/brands if you look for hardwood, but good luck with their carpet selection...)

First of all, the carpet companies and retailers don't want you to make apples-to-apples comparisons. This means that if you go to Costco Home, Lowes, Home Depot, J&B Carpets, or Empire, you won't see a single product that has the same name or same brand-- this despite the fact that the bulk of the carpet market is dominated by a handful of companies like Shaw, Mohawk, and Beaulieu. So good luck in determining whether or not the product you're buying is a good deal or a ripoff.

Secondly, if you're a consumer that cares about air quality (with a child on the way, we certainly are) you can do some research and you'll find a website published by the Carpet Research Institute which details their "green label program". This program certifies carpet products based on their VOCs (or volatile organic compounds)-- those meeting the highest standards are marked as "Green Label Plus", and those passing the basic standards are labeled "Green Label".

When we went to Lowes and asked specifically about air quality, we were shown products that were not even labeled in this way. In fact, the only products with Green Labels were commercial carpet tile. Every other store we visited had some kind of labeling of their products, but despite the fact that Lowes more than likely sells carpets with these labels, they weren't present at the point of sale.

Companies can make synthetic carpets with low VOCs (Nylon, Polyester, Olefin), but since you can't find the Green Label stickers at the bigger companies, and because each store has their own private label from the big manufacturers, you can't google or compare against the Carpet Research Institute's published information. So you might find yourself looking instead at Wool, which, so long as it's not a blend with the synthetic acrylic, is most likely less air-polluting as other carpets.

With wool, however, the prices are generally higher, often by a factor of 200-400%, particularly the 100% wool products. Lowes sells just two styles. Empire didn't even bring such samples to the sales call (even though we specifically requested it). J&B Carpets had a few samples, but their pricing was so high, the only competitive way to go was to select a carpet they had in stock, which means limited selection of style and color.

Finally, without exception, the sales people are very poorly informed. None of them seem to know anything about the CRI or its green label program. A few of them point you to StainMaster treated carpets, even though these are treated with PFCs (Perflourocarbons), a nasty greenhouse gas, not to mention a compound that has potential health effects.

The bottom line is poking yourself in the eye with a rusty nail is more enjoyable than the runaround and ignorance exhibited by the carpet sales industry.