Carpets are expensive, so if we choose the wrong one, it can prove to be a costly error. So how do you ensure you’re choosing the right carpet?
In most cases, when we buy a home, it comes with carpet. It will either be a newly built, or a previously-owned property. If your new property is a new build, you would have had the opportunity to upgrade to a better carpet and padding offered. You can, of course, choose the cheapest carpet known to mankind, which is commonly referred to as ‘builder’s grade carpet’ – it will be the the cheapest, thinnest carpet available to buy.
You might think that a carpet is just a carpet and pad is just pad, but you’d be wrong. This is definitely one of those occasions where the saying: ‘you get what you pay for’ rings true.
Making Your Buying Decision
The first thing to consider when choosing the right carpet, is the colour. You need to colour match the hard surfaces within your property, like tile, hardwood flooring and stone. The second might be for the paint in a given room and the last colour match will be to compliment the wallpaper and your home’s other interiors.
You also need to consider the texture and weight of your carpet. For example, a carpet weighing 32 ounces per square inch, has more carpet fibres then a 16-ounce carpet. You will be able to feel the difference. Go to carpet a retailer and ask to see two different swatches. Put your fingers like a claw and push straight down from top to the bottom of the fibres, using your fingertips. You should notice an immediate difference in carpet density. It will also reflect in the price per square yard.
The difference is the number of stitches per square inch. On a much more denser carpet, it will be difficult to see down to the primary backing where the carpet is stitched in.
The pad is also measured in ounces and pounds. Once again, the higher the number, the more dense the pad. The density can range in feeling. By using a pinch test between the top and bottom of the pad you can compare densities. There is foam all the way up to feeling like a large pencil eraser. The higher the better.
Try to stay away from rubber-based product, like a waffle print, as they have been known to dry rot where hot water pipes run through the concrete subflooring. They also don’t provide any absorption for collecting water spills.
Material Matters
It would also be wise to choose the right carpet for the right application. If you were born during Baby Boomer era, you would have ran into carpets that were made from polyester. Those fibres were dyed first before they were extruded as fibre. They never faded from the sun or bleach spills and lasted forever but were harder to clean.
Nylon came around and was softer to the hand and cleaned up better but spills could permanently stain the fibres and due to costs, generally come in lighter colours. Almost all darker colours will be more expensive to produce due to more dye in the process. More dyes prevented stains due to the lack of dye sites available.
Fourth Generation carpets removed the nuisance of static electricity when walking across a room and touching anything conductive to release a jolting shock. But Fifth Generation carpets involved the incorporation of stain resistance. The key to this technology was to create a transparent dye. Normally after dyeing half of the carpet’s dye sites in a light colour, the remaining dye sites would be open for stains once installed.
Good luck on choosing the right carpet. We hope that this article will help you to make the right choice.