What type of carpet should I choose, is one of the biggest questions you need to ask as it depends on the room. Choosing a new carpet can also be difficult because the chances are, it will be with you for many years to come. Therefore it is always a good idea to choose the carpet, and then choose other items such as paint and furniture to match the carpet.
Performance over colour and texture
When choosing a carpet, there are different aspects to think about such as colour, texture and style to match your chosen theme. It is also essential to take into consideration, the type and quality of fibre of the carpet to ensure it performs well.
It is worth thinking about how long you need the carpet to last and explaining this when choosing the carpet. We would estimate that people typically change their carpet every 10-12 years, but some might be looking for something at a lower cost or some may be wanting their carpet to last 20 years or more! There are many carpets out there, so you should be able to find something to suit your needs.
High traffic versus luxury
Most carpets share the basic principle of carpet pile and backing, but there are various ways they are made to give different textures and wear characteristics. The main factors that determine the quality of a carpet are the density of the pile and the quality of the fibres used for the pile content.
As always, a general rule of thumb is the more you pay the better the carpet quality will be. However, there can be times when putting the wrong carpet down in the wrong area can be a costly mistake. In general, we feel the thicker and softer the carpet is, although will feel amazing when newly fitted, the more prone to ‘pile flattening’ it will be. This will be devastatingly obvious in higher traffic areas such as the hall, stairs, landing and study. Keeping the luxurious and longer pile carpets for your lounge and bedroom is the best advice.
Hall, Stairs and Landings
For high-traffic areas such as the hall, stairs and landing, we recommend choosing something hard-wearing with a short, dense pile (loop or twist). The appearance is maintained and the pile flattening is less prominent with this choice of carpet.
Primo Choice Elite (right) is one of our best-selling ranges for performance, durability and appearance. We also stock four very modern colours in our showroom. Take a look at our showroom stock ranges now.
Boujee Bedrooms
In a room such as your bedroom, or even your lounge, you may wish to choose a thick luxury Saxony pile. This will give you a more luxurious feel, but over time the thick pile will show more signs of pile flattening. Pile flattening is not the carpet wearing out, the pile is just being flattened in the traffic areas such as the doorway and disrupts the appearance of the carpet.
Sensation and Sensation Heathers (Left) are beautiful examples of luxury lounge and bedroom carpets. We have many other best-selling ranges such as Invictus Magnificus, and Olympus that will cause a stir. We offer a sample service, so please pop in and take the samples home to view.
Maintenance is key
The pile content will ultimately affect your carpet choice. 100% polypropylene offers a bleach-cleanability and stain warranty. Therefore this will suit a busy family life with children. Wool carpets offer better wear quality and longevity, but cannot be cleaned with bleach to remove any stains. Wool collections will cost more per square metre, and therefore may not be suitable for your budget or short-term future plans.
Carpet maintenance really is key to keeping any carpet looking its best. Hop over to our aftercare advice page, or check out wool cleaning tips with the WoolSafe Organisation ‘Stain Wizard’.
We hope you have found this useful and we will look into different carpet types in more detail in another blog.
