Cavalier Flooring: Pros, Cons, and Buying Guide

Walk into a small-town carpet showroom in the Southeast and you will often see a familiar logo near the back wall. Cavalier flooring is one of the quieter success stories in the American floor covering industry, built on a reputation for mid-priced residential carpet and a growing line of hard surface products. This guide breaks down what Cavalier actually makes, how the pricing compares to Shaw and Mohawk, and whether the warranty is worth the paperwork.

Who Makes the Cavalier Product Line

Cavalier Carpets has roots in Dalton, Georgia, the so-called Carpet Capital of the World. The company tufts both polyester and nylon carpet at two regional mills and has expanded into laminate and luxury vinyl through private-label partnerships with Asian manufacturers. Distribution is largely through independent retailers rather than the big-box chains.

That regional focus keeps overhead low, which is why you often find Cavalier priced 10 to 20 percent below comparable Shaw or Mohawk lines. The trade-off is a narrower collection and fewer in-stock color runs at any given dealer.

Carpet Collections and Fiber Options

The core carpet lineup covers three fiber tiers. Entry-level polyester runs $1.50 to $2.50 per square foot installed, with stain resistance that handles juice spills and pet accidents reasonably well. Triexta blends, similar in chemistry to Mohawk SmartStrand, land at $3 to $4 per square foot.

Nylon is the top tier, priced $4 to $6 installed. Nylon carpets bounce back under heavy furniture better than any other fiber, which matters in living rooms and master bedrooms where traffic patterns can flatten lesser materials in three to five years.

Hard Surface Offerings Worth Knowing

Cavalier laminate is an 8 mm AC3-rated product with antibacterial coating, usually between $1.80 and $2.70 per square foot. It is not the most premium laminate available, but it installs with basic click-lock and handles moderate pet traffic without swelling at the edges.

The luxury vinyl plank collection includes SPC rigid core options in 12 mil and 20 mil wear layers. Expect $2.40 to $4.20 per square foot for material only. Pad-attached underlayment is included on most SKUs, which saves roughly $0.30 per square foot on accessories.

Pros of Choosing This Brand

• Price advantage of 10 to 20 percent against bigger national brands
• Residential lifetime stain warranty on most nylon and triexta carpet
• American-made carpet with domestic yarn sourcing
• Small dealer network provides personalized service and fewer order mix-ups
• Solid mid-tier laminate and LVP options for rental properties and starter homes

Cons and Honest Drawbacks

The biggest limitation is availability. If you live outside the Carolinas, Georgia, Tennessee, or Florida, finding a stocking dealer can require a 45-minute drive. Online purchase is possible but cuts you off from the hands-on sample experience that carpet really demands.

Design variety is also narrower than what you get at Floor and Decor or a Mohawk gallery. Expect maybe 30 to 40 carpet styles per fiber tier rather than the 200-plus options at national competitors.

Warranty Fine Print to Read Twice

Cavalier carpet warranties cover stain resistance, abrasive wear, and texture retention. The stain warranty is the most practical, guaranteeing removal of common household spills for 10 to 25 years depending on collection. Abrasive wear covers more than 10 percent fiber loss, which in practice almost never happens before the carpet is replaced for aesthetic reasons.

Registration is required within 30 days of installation in most cases. Keep the sales receipt and installation invoice together. Without both documents, claim approval drops dramatically.

Installation Costs and Timing

A 1,200 square foot carpet job typically runs 6 to 10 hours for a two-person installation crew. Material plus labor on mid-tier nylon usually totals $4.50 to $6.00 per square foot, with padding adding another $0.50 to $0.75. The eight-pound rebond pad is standard, but stepping up to a six-pound memory foam pad costs an extra $0.40 per square foot and noticeably improves underfoot comfort.

Laminate and LVP install faster, often 350 to 500 square feet per day per crew. Budget $1.50 to $3.00 per square foot for labor alone on floating click-lock products.

How Cavalier Compares to Shaw and Mohawk

On pure specs, a $4 Cavalier nylon often matches a $4.75 Shaw Anso or a $4.90 Mohawk SmartStrand for twist count and face weight. Where the nationals pull ahead is color depth, specialty patterns, and builder-grade volume pricing. If you are outfitting a single home and your dealer stocks the colors you want, Cavalier often wins on value.

For multi-unit investors and builders, the bigger brands still have the edge because of regional quick-ship programs and contractor rebates.

Dealer Experience and Ordering

Expect a four to six week lead time on non-stocked colors. That timeline frustrates homeowners accustomed to Home Depot in-stock availability, but it matches how smaller mills operate. Plan your project accordingly. If you are closing on a house and need carpet in 10 days, this brand may not be the right fit.

Sample programs are generally generous, with most dealers providing three to five take-home swatches at no charge. Larger 12 by 12 inch samples sometimes carry a $5 to $15 refundable fee, which is worth paying because small swatches poorly represent how a carpet will look across a full room.

Who Should Buy This Brand

Consider Cavalier if you are a Southeastern homeowner working with an independent dealer, a landlord outfitting rental properties on a tight budget, or a shopper who wants solid mid-tier performance without paying for a national advertising campaign. Skip it if you need a specific designer color line or plan to install in a region with sparse dealer coverage. Always request at least three take-home samples and view them in both daylight and evening lamps before final selection.