Selecting a Carpet – How to Determine What to Buy

Have you ever stood in the center of a carpet store, looking at hundreds of samples that all seem the same? This one looks like that one but is half the price, how can that be? Have you ever bought an expensive carpet and two years later, it was all matted and uglied out. You ask around and find out it looks bad because you bought a low quality carpet for twice as much as you should have.

I remember in high school I was friends with one of the most beautiful girls on campus, she was madly in love with one of the schools most popular studs, high school sweet hearts that married to be a true Ken and Barbie couple. Several years later, I ran into them and I was rather surprised, his oversized biceps were now soft and giggly, this six-pack abs had turned into more of a pony keg, and he was unshaven wearing a wrinkled shirt.

What does this have to do with picking carpet, well we often pick a carpet based on its outward appearance, the carpets looks is like the “Ken” in my story, he may have the looks of a prize catch but has no character, substance or ability to endure life’s trials.

When selecting a carpet I establish specifications for several categories. Looks, color and styling being the last thing I look at. I know this is reverse of how most people select a carpet, but when I specify a carpet, I am looking for a product that will meet and exceed my expectations. I want to replace the carpet because it has lived a good life and we are tired of the color, not because it has uglied out prematurely and has to be replaced out of necessity.

The first few things you need to consider are:

1. What is the required life expectancy, does it need to last 2, 5, 10, 15 years or longer.
   1. I use to maintain a large movie theater chain that understood their carpet lifecycle. They installed new carpet every 4 years, cleaned it twice a year for 3 years, did not clean it at all the 4^th year and replaced it at the end of the 4^th year.
   2. One of my clients needed a carpet to last 15 to 20 years. They use to buy cheap carpet that lasted 3 to 8 years but realized replacing carpet that often was costing a lot of money. They started to select carpet based on performance instead of price and now their carpets are lasting 20 to 25 years.
   3. Once the life expectancy is determined, you need to understand life cycle costs, budget and total cost of ownership.
      1. In my youth, I drove a Jaguar XJ-12, the cost of the car was not the most part cost in owning an old Jaguar, and the maintenance actually cost more than the car did.
      2. If you buy a low budget carpet it may require more maintenance, low upfront cost carpet can actually cost you more than buying a high performance carpet.

 

Life cycle costs include upfront cost, installation cost, cleaning cost and potential repair or other maintenance costs. Cutting corners on the backing, cushion, installation, adhesives etc, will eventually lead to product failure and you will need to spend money fixing or replace the carpet.

 

1. For example, I know of one project that did not want to spend an additional $5000 dollars to have the floor sealed when they knew the building had a moisture problem. Within one year, the floor was full of bubbles; they had not budgeted for repairs but had to fix the bubbles because they became a tripping hazard.

 

They spent money every year repairing new bubbles and eventually the project was prematurely replaced 10 years before expected. Spending $5000 extra up front would have saved over $60,000 in repairs and replacement.

 

1. Determine what fiber best meets my requirements, you can select low-end fibers like Olefins, Polypropylene, medium priced fibers like Polyester, Nylon 6, or more expensive fibers like Nylon 6.6, or wool.

 

Do you need a soft touch for a hotel room or Executive Office or Board Room? Do you need a carpet to resist food spills, elderly traffic with unavoidable accidents or are close to a major freeway or under a flight path and deal with atmospheric conditions? What performance characters do you need the fiber have?

 

1. Do you need broadloom or carpet tiles? Are you in a high-rise building or have office cubicles that make landing and installing broadloom carpet difficult? Is it a facility with a lot of spills or stains that could require patching or replacement? The location, installation and type of use may determine if broadloom or tile is a better option.

 

1. Backing systems is very important, if your project is a low end project and only need a carpet for 2 -5 years you wouldn’t need a high performance backing system. Do you deal with many liquid spills and could benefit from a moisture barrier. Keeping the spills from soaking into the backing makes cleaning easier reducing maintenance costs. Do you need a hard back for roller traffic or cushion back for a softer feel?

 

1. Installation Methods, what type of floor is it going over, does the subfloor have any special issues that need to be addressed?
   1. On one project, the customer was installing carpet over a beautiful wood floor they planned of restoring in a few years. They installed a temporary carpet that would not require tackless strips or the use adhesives that would cause damage to the wood.
   2. Another carpet was installed was over 8” asbestos tiles. The owner could not afford abatement, did not want to glue the carpet to the tiles in case they were loose, and lifted.

The installation method requirement can determine the type of carpet you install.

1. The main three components of carpet design to hide traffic are
   1. Multi-colors
   2. Multi-texture
   3. Darker colors

 

As an independent carpet inspector, I often inspect carpet problems for large carpet mills. One of the most common customer complaints I see is poor carpet performance. Most of the time the wrong carpet was specified and it did not meet the customers’ expectations. The wrong fiber system, wrong color, wrong construction, wrong backing, etc can cause a carpet to ugly out and require premature replacement.

 

1. Construction plays a major role in selecting a carpet that will perform.
   1. For example, cut pile carpets tend to pool or watermark quickly, most find watermarking makes the carpet look worn or dirty. I find the industry definition for watermarking, pooling or shading rather humorous. The industry describes this as “… a known characteristic of a luxurious carpet.”

In other words, the carpet industry cannot figure out how to prevent pooling so it is labeled as an acceptable characteristic of a cut pile carpet. Pooling, pattern walk out, traffic lane gray, matting and crushing are just a few of the problems you can have with the wrong construction.

High performance carpets are engineered with a good balance of loop, or cut and loop to avoid the fibers from falling over and looking matted or crushed. Not too long ago I inspected a patterned carpet where the pattern in the middle of the hall had completely walked out. The patterns along the edges were still bold and beautiful. The carpet was scheduled to be pre-maturely replaced because it uglied out and the owners could not stand the way it looked.

 

1. Maintenance is a major component of the total life cycle cost, color, construction, fiber and use can greatly decrease or increase your maintenance cost. Proper maintenance programs can greatly extend the life of a carpet, poor maintenance can cut a carpets life in half. Determine what your maintenance budget is how often you are able to clean the carpet and select a carpet that reduces your maintenance needs not increases it.

As you can see there is a lot more to selecting a carpet then picking the least expensive carpet on the rack. These are just a few things you should consider when specifying a carpet.