Carpet Buying Guide
When looking to purchase a new Carpet, there are a few key choices to make. As well as choosing the best colour or pattern to suit your area, you'll also need to think about the type of Carpet and a material. From wool to synthetics, there are plenty of materials and styles available.
Which product you choose will depend on where you're installing the Carpet, and ultimately what your budget is.
The main things to consider are:
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How much you want to spend. Costs can vary from £4.49m2 for a simple synthetic to more than £60m2 for a premium natural variant
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Who (and what) will be walking on the Carpet? Heavy-traffic areas, such as a hallway, will benefit from more hard-wearing material. If you have children or you like to entertain, you'll need something that's easy to clean. Pets with claws will rule out looped Carpets that can easily snag.
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The look and feel you're after. The way your Carpet is manufactured will affect how it looks – from glossy and plush, to tight and dense – and how it feels underfoot. Think about whether you want a super soft pile you can sink your toes into or something flatter and more hard wearing.
Why choose Carpet?
Carpet is good for making a room cosier and giving warmth to your floors. It's a good choice if you tend to walk around barefoot. Benefits such as soundproofing or to provide a non-slip surface on stairs. It can easily be lifted to do work on floorboards or plumbing below. Objects dropped on a carpet are less likely to break than those dropped on a hard floor, they're easier to lay over uneven sub-floors and can do a better job of disguising a problem.
The pile of a Carpet describes its individual fibres. These can be looped (where the fibres loop back into the backing material) or cut (cut off at the top). The key measurements you'll need to know to assess a Carpet's durability are its density – how closely knitted together its fibres are – and its pile height. In general, short, dense, heavy Carpets are more durable and hard-wearing than those with loose, shaggy fibres. There are a few ways to check a Carpet's durability before you buy, but one quick test is to press your thumb into the pile. The more quickly it springs back and recovers, the more dense and resilient it should be. You can also take a look at the back of the Carpet to see how the manufacturer recommends using the Carpet. Short, dense piles (Twists) will be suitable for both bedrooms and higher traffic halls and stairs. Saxony Carpets with long, loose strands are lighter and less durable than short, dense ones.
There are two main types of Carpet in the UK: woven and tufted. The difference lies in the way they're made: woven Carpets are labour intensive and therefore more expensive, while tufted Carpets are easier to produce. Most Carpet sold in the UK is tufted. Tufted Carpets are made by a machine that punches pile yarn into the base material and come in a variety of styles and materials. They also come in a wide range of prices, starting at just £4.49m2 for the cheapest synthetic Carpets, and from around £12.99m2 per square metre for basic wool Carpets. Tufted Carpets can have either looped or cut pile, which mean they can have very different appearances.
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