As summer winds down and the school year begins, we find our home projects shifting from outdoor to indoor improvements. If your flooring is feeling a bit less than cozy and not quite ready for fall, now is a great time to replace it. It can be daunting deciding on the best types of carpet for your space with so many options available so that’s why we’ve made the carpet selection process simple. Your answers to the following five questions will help you to choose the best type of carpet for your home.
Where Will the Carpet Go?
The first question you need to address is where the carpet will be installed. This question alone will influence your answers to the next four questions. A high-traffic area will require a different type of carpet than a low-traffic area in terms of color, construction, style, and cost. Is the carpet in a family room? A hallway near an exterior door? A formal living room that is seldom walked through? Take a moment to write down each room that needs new carpet and whether the room receives high or low traffic. For example, look at the following list:
- Living room – low
- Family room – high
- Upstairs hallway – high
Who Will Be Using the Carpet the Most?
Once you have your room list, you are ready to address the function of each room and who primarily uses it. Are Fido and Fluffy using the room as their lounge headquarters? Do the kids sprawl out on the carpet with their puzzles and games? Rooms that are heavily used, especially by pets and kids, benefit from long-lasting, durable, and stain-resistant carpets that are designed to hold up to heavy use. However, rooms with infrequent traffic are great candidates for intricate textures and lighter colors. Let’s continue our room list by indicating who uses each room:
- Living room – low – occasional adult use
- Family room – high – kids and pets
- Upstairs hallway – high – thruway to bedrooms
How Do You Want Your Carpet to Feel?
The way a carpet feels depends entirely upon its construction. Do you like plush, cushy, sink-in-with-your-feet carpet? Short, sweet and spongy? Each type of construction can be the best carpet for one space, and the worst for another. Frieze or textured types of carpet feel wonderful under foot; however, it can easily show seams, vacuum marks, and footprints, so it works best in low-traffic areas. Looped carpet is also very soft and the tightness of the yarn resists soil, so it is a better choice in a high-traffic area such as a family room.
Nylon carpeting is a great choice for busy areas as it resists crushing and matting. Are stains from pets and kids a concern for you? Triexta Fiber, a recent flooring innovation, resists both stains and wear while still being very soft. Let’s add the next category of “feel” to our room lists:
- Living room – low- occasional adult use – Frieze
- Family room – high – kids and pets – Triexta Fiber
- Upstairs hallway – high – thruway to bedrooms – Nylon
How Do You Want Your Carpet to Look?
There is a plethora of choices when it comes to deciding how you want your carpet to look in a room, from the color, to the pattern, to the height of the fibers. Color considerations can include how much light the room receives, how much traffic you want to hide, and of course the color scheme of the room. A light, neutral shade can make a room appear bigger, while a darker color can appear more modern and cozy. Carpet with multiple tones throughout can hide dirt and stains easier.
The pattern of the carpet offers even more options. Do you want short, dense strands? Strands that lay in all different directions? A combination of cut and uncut strands that form a distinct pattern in the carpet? Think about the color and pattern you would like to see in each room while also considering the use of the room.
- Living room – low – occasional adult use – Frieze – light color with a uniform look
- Family room – high – kids and pets – Triexta Fiber – medium color
- Upstairs hallway – high – thruway to bedrooms – Nylon- medium color
How Much Do You Want to Spend on Your Carpet?
Now, it’s time to consider cost. Several factors will influence the cost of the carpet you choose. The higher the durability of the carpet, the more it will cost. The ounce weight of the carpet, which is what determines its thickness and softness, will also dictate cost. Additionally, you can alter the price with the quality of the carpet pad.
When you are ready to take a look at your carpet options in person, take your room list with you to the flooring store. Flooring professionals will provide the information needed to pick the perfect carpet for each room in your home. For example, in the family room, you might choose Triexta Fiber carpeting in a medium-color, patterned plush with a thick pad. The Triexta Fiber will provide durability, the color and pattern will hide dirt and footprints, and the thick pad will give the kids a nice cushy surface on which to play. In the living room, a plush, light-colored Frieze carpet with a thick pad will provide softness and beauty in a low-traffic room where durability is not as big of an issue.
As you can see, a bit of pre-planning goes a long way when it comes to choosing the best carpet for your home. Once your new carpet has been installed, look to Brothers Cleaning to protect your investment long-term. Life is lived on the surfaces of your home. We have the tools and the expertise to keep those surfaces looking and smelling clean for years to come.