How to Choose Carpet

A new carpet is a long-term investment, so reasonable care should be taken in its selection. After all, a good quality carpet will give you many years of service and you’ll want to choose one you can live with. A carpet is a decorative investment, since it can establish the mood of a room or reflect your own individual style. It is a most valuable ally in giving you a sense of pride in your home.

A carpet is a practical investment that can:

• Make everything in the room look better.
• Reduce room noise level by baffling annoying sounds. A carpet can even improve the performance of a stereo system by eliminating echoes.
• Help increase home safety.
• Reduce maintenance and day-to-day care considerably as compared with other types of floor covering or bare floors.

Color Comes First

The first step in your carpet buying venture is to decide on the color. Neutral colors such as golds, greens, beiges, grays and browns can do with a variety of room decors. If you are planning to live with the carpet for a long time, but contemplate repainting the walls, changing curtains, draperies, or slipcovers, these are safe colors because they are neutrals.

Colors can be combines in a variety of ways. Let’s call them basic, harmonious and complimentary color schemes. Basic color effects begin with a single color family. Harmonious colors are those which are compatible with your basic color. They are colors adjacent to that color on the color wheel. If we select green as the base color, then blue-green would be one of the harmonious colors. Complimentary colors are those opposite one another on the color wheel. A color scheme utilizing green with its opposite color red would be a typical example.

Remember too, that warm colors (reds, yellows, oranges) make a room appear smaller, cozier and "alive," while the cool colors (blues, greens, grays) can lend a more spacious relaxing effect to a room.

Next Step - The Kind Of Carpet

Over 90% of all carpets sold today are tufted rather than woven. Tufting refers to a manufacturing process in which loops of hare are pulled through a primary backing to form a face or surface pile. These loops can be cut, uncut or used in combination, to achieve some interesting styling effects with color tones, carpet manufacturers can offer you greater variety to choose from in carved or sculpted designs.

There are four representative types of cut-pile carpet textures: Shag, Plush, Frieze and Saxony.

The total look imparted by these textures ranges from the formal (plush) to the informal (shag). The textures are differentiated by the amount of twist in their in their yarns. Plush yarns have less twist. Saxonies are often in between, while Frieze yarns are tightly twisted. For carpet used on stairs, hallways, entryways and other high traffic areas, the more dense constructions are best. Technically, shag carpets can be all cut pile, a combination of cut and loop or an all loop pile. Generally, they are not as dense as the plush or Saxony types, but the pile heights are usually higher and the yarns apparently thicker. Shags are comfortable and easy to live with, however, they are not recommended for high traffic areas.

Quality and Price

"You get what you pay for" is an axiom that certainly holds true in carpet selection. Carpets are available in a wide range of per-square-yard prices, and you’ll want to rely on the carpet salesman for his best advice.

Quality of carpet and resultant performance are determined by:

• Pile density. If you bend back a corner of carpet, you may or may not be able to see the backing material behind the pile yarns. The less visible it is, the denser the pile.
• Height of pile, the yarn length as measured from the backing material.
• Inherent strength of the fiber selected. The stronger the fiber, the longer it will stand up under conditions of wear.

It can be summed up this way: A carpet with dense and inherently strong fiber yarns will offer the best abrasion resistance. The denser, the better ... and the price will be proportionately higher.

Kinds of Carpet Fiber

Each kind of carpet fiber has its individual characteristics, therefore your choice should be based on the performance expected from the carpet.

Natural wool fiber, with its inherently good resistance to crushing, is a traditional choice for high priced carpets. Spots and stains on a wool carpet can be readily removed, but the abrasion resistance is not up to polyester, nylon or polypropylene. Many people prefer the practicality of these latter fibers. Polyester is a popular man-made fiber that lends colorfastness, easy care, low static and durability to carpets. A nylon carpet fiber wears very well, but soils more readily than polyester or polypropylene and is more prone to static. When properly constructed, nylon is a good choice for high traffic areas. Acrylic carpet fiber features excellent pattern retention and looks and feels like wool. Its resistance to abrasion is not on par with polyester or nylon. Polypropylene is a synthetic fiber primarily used in loop constructions. It has good abrasion resistance, excellent cleanability and low static.

More Advice

Backing. A secondary backing can be out of jute or synthetic fibers and it gives the carpet more dimensional stability. The carpet manufacturer selects both the primary and secondary backing most appropriate for the intended use. Carpet underlay adds wear life to your carpet. Underlay may be of sponge, rubber, foam, or a felted material, and many carpets are supplied with foam padding already attached. The underlay adds to the life of your carpet by absorbing wear, and it provides a more luxurious feel.

This information is brought to you by James W. Smith Real Estate, specializing in real estate sales in Pawleys Island and Litchfield Beach.

James W. Smith Real Estate also handles all of your property management needs for your home for Pawleys Island Rentals and Litchfield Beach Rentals.