Somerset is a small incorporated town of about 1,200 people with four distinct build eras behind its front doors, from 1890s frame Victorians to post war infill on the lower streets. Potomac Carpets runs out of Potomac, MD.
1893 Victorians to post war builds
All single family inside the limits
Interior work needs no permit
Request a Somerset Quote
Tell us the street, the rooms, and which part of town you are in.
Prefer to call? +1 240 751 5542
What We Check in Somerset
Four build eras, one small town
Large frame Victorians from 1893 to 1904, bungalows and Craftsman to 1915, brick and frame Colonial Revival to 1940, then modern and neo Colonial. The subfloor under each one is a different animal.
Single family throughout
The town voted in 1988 to de-annex its apartment and condo parcel, so inside the limits it is effectively all houses. No loading dock bookings, no elevator pads, no building work hour windows.
Historic district, exterior only
The 1990 district covers 54 homes on parts of Warwick, Surrey, Dorset, Cumberland and Essex. It reviews exterior change. A floor inside the house is not part of that.
Somerset subfloors
The Age of the House Decides the Preparation
Somerset packs more than a century of construction into a quarter of a square mile, and what sits under your finished floor changes with it. An 1890s frame house is likely to have plank subflooring with gaps that telegraph straight through a thin vinyl. A 1920s bungalow may have narrow strip oak worth refinishing rather than covering. A post war house on the lower streets usually has plywood that takes anything you want to put on it. So the first thing we do is lift a corner and look. That five minute check decides whether you need an underlayment, a levelling compound, a moisture barrier, or nothing at all, and it is the difference between a floor that lasts and one that telegraphs every board underneath it.
The shaded area is Somerset as OpenStreetMap draws it. We work across it and well past the edges, but a boundary on a map is not a promise about your driveway. Access, parking, elevator rules and the size of the job all count. Send us the address with the rooms you want looked at and we will tell you straight away whether we can get there and when. Map data (c) OpenStreetMap contributors.
Stair runner installation in Potomac, MD leaves your wood showing on both sides. We measure every tread, center the runner on the stair, and fit it waterfall or cap-and-band by hand.
More than a century of building in a quarter square mile
Somerset was founded in 1890 by five Department of Agriculture scientists and the first house went up in 1893. The town describes its own housing in four phases, and they are genuinely useful if you are about to buy a floor. Large frame Victorians and Queen Annes from 1893 to about 1904. Bungalows and Craftsman houses from roughly 1900 to 1915. Brick and frame Colonial Revival from about 1915 to 1940. Then modern and neo Colonial from 1940 on, including the post war infill on the lower streets built out after the Bergdoll tract was auctioned.
Four eras means four different things under the carpet. We do not guess which one you have from the outside of the house. We lift a corner in the quietest place we can find and look, then tell you what the floor above it can and cannot be.
A town with no highway running through it
Two practical facts make Somerset easier to work in than its neighbours. No state highway enters the town, and Little Falls Parkway carries the internal traffic, so the streets are calm enough to unload on without fighting a commuter route. And after the 1988 vote to de-annex the Somerset House parcel, the town inside its limits is essentially all single family houses.
That second one removes a whole category of delay. There is no dock to book, no elevator to pad, no building management approving work hours, and no adhesive restriction handed down by a condo board. We arrive, we carry in through your own front door, and the schedule is yours rather than a building's. Residential carpet installation covers fibre, pile and cushion choices room by room, and the cost calculator will get you a planning number tonight.
Somerset Flooring Questions
My house is in the historic district. Does that cover new floors?
No. Montgomery County's historic area work permit applies to exterior alterations and the setting around the building. Interior work is the first item on the county's list of what does not need the preservation commission.
There is old strip oak under my carpet. Cover it or refinish it?
Look first. If the boards are sound and thick enough to sand, refinishing usually costs less than a new floor and is hard to beat in a house of this age. We will tell you honestly which way your boards go.
Do you serve every Somerset address?
Send us the address and we will confirm it rather than promising the whole town. It is a short conversation and you get a straight answer.
Book a Somerset Measure
We lift a corner, check what is underneath, and price the job in writing. The visit is free.
