I haven't bought carpet in quite awhile and don't know the answer to your question, but I wanted to comment on the star rating of the different carpets. First, it's not a universal rating, so the lesser brands tend to over rate their carpets, while the bigger names like Shaw have a more universal rating system. The other thing that a friend who sells flooring told me is that a 3 star carpet is the exact same carpet as the 4 and 5 star carpet, they just extend the warrantee longer for each additional star rating for the additional cost of the carpet.
As a contractor, I remove carpet all the time. I have never found a floor under the carpet that was clean. In ever case, there is a layer of dust, sand and dirt under the carpet. It is impossible to vacuum up what gets down through the carpet, and even through the pad. And then there is what pets that pee in the house do to the pad of a carpet. Lets just say it's nasty, and impossible to clean up. Usually they keep going back to that same spot and it's a never ending battle to minimize how nasty it gets.
I like carpet in the bedroom. We have 4 Akita's in our house. All the carpet is being torn out and replaced with tile. Tile is cold, it's hard, and it's easy to clean. The cleaning part is our priority and we're learning to live with area rugs. We're even going to remove the floating engineered hardwood flooring and replace it with tile. Everything is going to be tile!!!
