To have new carpet or not?

I blogged about carpeting before, but right now, I’m in a bind. The nearby home improvement chain store’s offering $199 carpet installation. Sounds like a good deal, right?

But when I asked about the carpets they offer, they’re synthetic. They’re not made of recycled materials. I was even told that after installation, there might be a funky smell afterwards – I suspect VOCs?

Living in a condo with carpeting makes me wary about removing them and replacing them with hardwood flooring. For starters, I’ve been told that we won’t raise the market value of our place by having hardwood flooring. Not when our neighbors have carpet flooring. In fact, it might be an expense we won’t recoup. Whether that’s true or not, I don’t know.

I’m all for having hardwood flooring, what with my indoor allergies, but hardwood flooring costs an arm and a leg. A friend told me that we should try out bamboo flooring, but honestly, where can we buy that? Do they sell bamboo flooring at reasonable prices to those with limited budget?

It brings me back to carpeting. Should we simply go for it because installation’s so cheap? I’m not inclined to do so, but our floors need help. I’m frustrated for wanting to be green but not having enough green. Any ideas?

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