A guide to buying carpet

Carpets are a great addition to one’s house/apartment, as they give a great contrast to the house or apartment depending on which kind of carpet is used. The very same feature of controlling the contrast of the house just by changing the fabric on the floor, makes buying carpet a viable option. Apart from this, the carpets also carry additional advantages like hiding dirt, enhancing comfort by providing the soft feel, insulation from cold and protection from impact, especially for kids.

With a whole assortment of different kinds of carpets available out there, here is a list of points to consider for buying carpet.

Types are carpet

Buying carpets are a great option for house and for that particular reason, one needs to understand the different types of carpets available out there. The three major categories are cut-pile (where the yarns woven by machines/handmade are cut), the loop pile (the yarns are not cut) and cut-loop-pile. Each of these give a unique texture to the carpet. In terms of pros and cons, there is no winner here. This is more of a preference on how one prefers. Within these categories, they are further categorized, but these are the top three to be considered.

Material

There is one particular thought to be considered before buying carpets, if they are going on the wall or on the floor. The carpets come in different fibers like wool, cotton, nylon, etc. Around 90% of the homes in the United States with carpets have opted for the synthetic nylon carpets. Other than nylon, other synthetic materials in use are polyester and polypropylene. The big onus for the synthetic materials is the price. The synthetic carpets range from $5 to a maximum of $50 per square yard. The primary reason for this is that the synthetic fiber carpets are usually machine-made, however, the woolen ones are usually man-made. This range from $45 to $100 per square yard.

Patterns and colors

The carpets come in a whole assortment of patterns and colors. The type of colors and patterns are an important point to consider before buying carpets, as they could be dependent on the presence of kids and pets. The synthetic ones are again a favorite here, as they are dyed in synthetic dyes, which are stain resistant do not bleed much in case they are wet. The synthetic fibers also come in different patterns and also enables them to be used for outdoors as well as indoors. Woolen ones primarily are for indoors and are generally dyed in natural colors, which makes maintaining them a messy proposition. Also it might not be safe with kids and pets around.

Size

The last major consideration for buying carpets is the size of the carpet. One must decide if the carpets are for the apartment floors or the walls. If they are going to be used within one room or more rooms or within small area. The different dimensions available here are room carpets (covers entire room area), area carpets (specific area size required) and carpet runners (long narrow carpets for stairs).