Choosing Carpet

Carpet is a fantastic insulator, much more than hard flooring and will help keep a room warm. And your home’s insulation is increased when carpet is combined with a good underlay. Reducing heat loss in your home helps you save money spent on gas or electricity heating bills, especially in the cold winter months.

Carpets are more effective at absorbing sound than hard flooring, helping create a quieter, more tranquil living space – particularly important in flats, or on the stairs. Sound carries in a room without carpet, creating an echo effect, because hard surfaces can’t absorb sound as well as carpet can.

You’ll feel the comfort and warmth of your carpet from that first step in the morning, to last thing at night. Together with a good quality underlay, with every step you take around the home, carpet acts like a shock absorber for your body. As well as the cushioning effect of carpet, what better feeling is there than soft, cosy carpet between your toes on a cold winter morning?

Installing and replacing a carpet is a relatively straightforward process, compared to hard flooring. Create an elegant, luxurious look by using a soft, silky Deep Pile carpet or a country, casual look with a textured Loop Pile carpet. You can easily change the colour and look and feel of your home, just by changing your carpet.

Hard surfaces can be slippery, a concern for the elderly and very young. Carpet provides a soft landing and can prevent some falls in the first instance, particularly on stairs.  It also means likelihood of damage to your precious breakable items, in the event of accidents.

We get asked this quite a lot! As founding members of Carpet Recycling UK (CRUK), since 2008 we've helped CRUK divert over 700,000 tonnes of carpet waste from landfill to recycling or energy recovery. The aim of CRUK is to ensure that by year 2020, 60% of carpets are diverted from landfills and re-cycled.

For years folks suffering with respiratory concerns were advised to replace their carpets with hard flooring. However several studies have shown that carpet traps airborne dust in the pile surface, ready to be vacuumed away, thus improving air quality. Whereas in rooms with a bare floor the airborne dust is free to float in the air. (DAAB German Allergy and Asthma Society 2005) For specific medical advice in the cases of allergies and asthma always consult your doctor.

Although carpet can vary in price, more often than not, carpet costs less than hard flooring. A lot of hard flooring types such as laminate, wood, vinyl tiles require special preparation of the sub floor too, which can increase the cost of new flooring, meaning that carpet is generally more cost effective.