It is amazing to me how many people complain about costs associated with schools. Have you ever looked into the costs of prisons and some of the luxuries they have? What a backwards society we have when our prisons look nicer than our schools!

nicksmom- also another good point - algeries and the vomit I think would be a good one as well!!
Not not exactly that. Hey how about CEMENT! put a nice stain and seal it on it and all set!

frogger - Terrazzo is what you are talking about. I agree, it is beautiful and will last a long time but I think the cost would be prohibitive today.

Outrageous! Just from a health perspective I would think this wouldn't be appropriate. Thinking back I believe the school libraries were the only carpeted areas when I was in school.

Old Marshall(jpac_ still has original floors and they are fine. NO CARPET!

prevailing wage......yet another government action that cripples a free market society.

Harrison was fully carpeted (except hallways). I attended in the 80's. It was an awesome shade of puke green and brown speckles. I know we used to sit on the floor a lot.

@billnewbie, ever hear of prevailing wage laws? check it out. that shall answer your questions

I had never been in Marshall untill my son started attending 3 years ago. I was shocked I'd say 90 % of the school including cafeteria is CARPET!! And I can't tell you how many times in the last 3 years I have almost fallen from tripping over the carpet its pulled up so bad. I was thinking whos bright idea was it to spend money on carpeting in a school...carpeting needs to be replace etc...was its easier to vacum than mop...but after speaking with janitor he explained it gets cleaned every night...they have special machine. But yes this needs to be replaced but how bout tiles??

You didn't note anything about a preference for union labor by the school board Mr. Peck, so I wonder, does the school board insist that it use only unionized carpet installers just as the city insists that it use only unionized sidewalk installers? Could that be why the cost seems so much higher than it should be?

If you've seen the carpet they put in schools you'll see that it is very thin and a very tight weave put over a concrete floor. It's meant to stand up to a lot of traffic, much more than the softer more luxorious pile than you'd put in your house. It takes a beating though with hundreds and thousands of steps on it every day. And if it isn't cleaned regularly, the abrasive dirt gets ground in and shortens the life of the carpet further.

NO, NO and NO

Carpet is stupid. See all the fancy carpet up front in Craig. Extra maintenece as well. That is how you get up to 70 million for 2 high schools. I recall carpets in Library only and seems the way back classrooms down a hall were for some reason.
dtb- exactly- carpet is cheap and do it again before a decent industrial floor BUT I doubt they bought cheap carpet becasue then you replacement is sooner.

When I attended Edison -- in the NINETEEN SEVENTIES -- the instructional pods were carpeted, but most of the hallways were tile. I'm really not getting the outrage here -- this is a big building, 170000 sq. ft., and I imagine at least 50,000 sq. ft. of instructional space would be carpeted. Given a range of install costs of $4-8 per square foot (not counting moving furniture, removing old, cleaning up surfaces, etc.), you're looking at anything from $200K to $400K, so this is right in the normal range of cost for this item.
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As a landlord I can tell you that carpeting is infinitely quieter, and though some type of floor tile may cost less to install, it is not maintenance free. Ripping up and repairing an area of floor tile is an order of magnitude more work than replacing a worn section of carpeting.
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I feel like filing this under "people got no idea what some things just cost" (right next to the bit about the bus facility).

When building a school, carpeting is cheaper than tile floors, especially the thin cheap stuff they install that has little or no pad underneath it. It wears out sooner than tile and costs more to maintain. But in the short run it's much cheaper which is why you see it in so many schools.

I can maybe see some carpeting in offices and the library but $300,000!?!?!?! Just how many square feet of coverage is this supposed to be? Is there anything on record stating the cost of material separated from labor charges? I bet there would be quite a bit of competition from carpet installers and vendors quoting much lower price.

Carpet is much harder to keep clean and really soaks up the vomit when kids get sick.

Once again common sense does not prevail.

I didn't graduate that long ago, and carpet was rare. I recall a teacher saying once that the tiles in the classroom were asbestos, but I'm not sure if that was true. Still it seems like carpeting is a bad idea because of wear and tear issues (that they're obviously experiencing). I wonder what the other options are and what the costs to those options are. It seems that carpeting has already proven not to be the best solution.