Is carpet the right choice for your home?
Perhaps a better question is if carpet is the right choice throughout your home. Choosing flooring for your home is a personal decision based on your own preferences, as well as your lifestyle.
Carpet was the standard preference throughout most homes for many years. That has changed in recent years, and many homeowners choose hard surface flooring throughout most of their home because it is easier to maintain, and less prone to aggravate allergies.
Carpet may be the right choice for your home, but consider your lifestyle and that of the members of your household before making a decision. If you have a very busy lifestyle, children and indoor pets, carpet may not be the best solution for your flooring.
If your household fits this description, perhaps limiting carpet to the formal living area and the master bedroom would be a good compromise. The other living areas of your household could be covered with ceramic tile, hardwood flooring, or laminate flooring, and you would still have the luxury of carpet under your feet in the formal living area and the master bedroom.
Carpet Selection Tips
Purchase the best grade of carpet that will fit into your budget. Better quality of carpet will stand the test of time.
Styles of carpet vary from dense short plush to Berber. Each has it’s good and bad points. Plush will shed some especially in the beginning, and Berber tends to snag.
Choose the color carefully. Neutral colors will fit into your decor and allow many changes as the years pass. If you must have a more colorful carpet, choose a color you know you can live with and not tire of over time. Think also of future changes in decor. You alone know the colors you most favor when decorating your home, so choose a color that will integrate with those changes.
Whatever color and style you choose should be in every room you carpet. Don’t make the mistake of changing from room to room. This will devalue your home if you should decide to sell in the future. We are a moveable society, and even if you have no plans to move, life sometimes surprises us.
Quality and Maintenance of Your Carpet
As mentioned before, purchase the best quality you can afford. Ask questions about the durability and how well the carpet will hold up as well as how it will respond to cleaning when needed. Most carpeting today, has stain resistance built in, but be sure to ask.
Shop around, ask questions, and compare prices. Prices on carpet and the installation can vary greatly from one retailer to another.
Do you have a good vacuum? When you are making a major investment in carpeting, the price of a good vacuum is small in comparison, and essential. The biggest enemy your carpet will have is dirt. Vacuum regularly with a good vacuum and your carpet will last much longer.
