Category: Choosing Flooring

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Carpets or Hardwood Floors?

Carpets or hardwood floors? If you’re remodeling or building a new home or business, this is one question that’s going to come up throughout the planning stages.

Both carpets and hardwood floors can provide benefits to interior spaces, whether that be in comfort, practicality, or looks. When deciding if you should in fact go the route of carpet, it’s important to understand the reasons why. To help you with your decision we’re going to list the top five reasons why you should use carpet over hardwood and other alternative flooring options for your next project.

Carpet Allows More Personal Expression than Hardwood Flooring

While hardwood flooring can look beautiful in the right setting, carpet easily beats it as a creative outlet. Whether you are trying to build specific colors and branding for a business premise, or create the perfect interior space in your living room, carpet will allow you to express yourself through colors and textures in a way that hardwoods can’t compete with.

Carpet Is More Comfortable

You can choose carpet that is soft underfoot, which will help to create a more inviting feel in a home or business. Retail operations can benefit from carpet because it creates a more welcoming space that is also comfortable to browse through.

Carpet Is Safer for Active Children

If you have children in the home, carpet is the safest flooring for them. Hardwood can mean more injuries from falls and bumps, whereas carpet provides a softer layer of protection.

Carpet Allows for a Warmer and Quieter Home

Carpet is an insulator and it will work in two ways in a home or commercial space. Carpet will insulate against cold, and can trap heat. This means that a carpeted room is more economical, especially when you’re using climate control or indoor heaters/air conditioners. Carpet also insulates against sound which is a beneficial in offices, as well as in homes.

Carpet Is More Cost Effective than Hardwood

Carpet can be had for a fraction of the cost of hardwood, and even when compared to laminated wood or vinyl tiles. Carpet can last for years in a home or commercial space and is easily maintained. For projects where managing cost is a key consideration, carpet will always come out on top.

When it comes to flooring, carpets are the best choice because of their relatively low cost, ability to insulate, variety of designs and colors, safety, comfort, and longevity. When you want to create a unique and practical look for your home or commercial property, choose carpets for your floors.

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Four Great Ideas for Redecorating a Teenager’s Room

Pleasing your teenager is a challenging task but when it comes to redecorating their room try a number of possibilities. Some of these DIY decoration projects are quite easy to execute and they will result in amazing living space transformations.

Change the Carpet
Changing the color, style and fabric of the carpet in your teenager’s room can help you accomplish a number of interior design goals. A thick and soft carpet will immediately add comfort and sophistication. A brighter color can make the ambiance in the room a lot livelier.

You can try various DIY carpet projects. The use of carpet tiles is one great idea because you simply need to stick those to the cleaned floor. The project can be a wonderful bonding experience for you and your teenager.

Color Coordination
Once you choose the carpet color, go on and add a few more bright spots to the room.

Getting the walls painted and choosing bright bedding will both be fun options for transforming a teen’s room. Talk to your child about the selection of the colors – some teenagers may be uncomfortable with excessive brightness.

Bare-Brick Wall
Are you looking forward to creating a slightly more sophisticated teenager’s room? A bare-brick wall is a really cool possibility that both girls and boys will enjoy.

You can have an entire wall like this or you can create a special study corner for your teenager. Contrasting the simplicity of the bare bricks with fun and modernistic furniture is another exciting decorating option.

A Themed Teen Room
If you want to execute a large-scale redecoration project, you can think about creating a theme room for your teenager.

Do you have a young artist, rock musician or movie fan living with you? All of these are great decorating ideas. A little bit of research will boost your creativity – you will discover many amazing ideas for teenager theme rooms online.

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Make a Big Entrance With Carpet Tile in the Entryway

The first thing people see when they walk in the door of any establishment is the entryway floor. As that is the case, it matters a good deal what kind of flooring is used in this space as it will be the first impression made on people coming through the door. It should be easy to maintain so it always looks its best.

Carpet tiles are the perfect choice for entryways. Installation is the first of many reasons they are one of the favored choices to make that first impression. Easy and fast to install means that new flooring can be in place with little disruption to normal business hours. The installation crew can begin installation after the business closes for the day and be done before it opens again on the next business day, whether it is the next morning or after a weekend.

Not all establishments are what could be called closed overnight or over the weekend but do have times of low traffic in the entryway. This is the perfect time for installation or cleaning to take place. Restaurants are completely closed at night but hotels and nursing homes always have people in them at all hours. Night or early mornings are often when low noise maintenance and installations take place. Carpet tiles can be installed without making much noise so guests or residents are not disturbed during the process. Cleaning doesn’t take long so even when that needs to be done during daytime hours, it is finished quickly so people going in and out are not impeded.

Entryways get most of the traffic in any business so durability is an issue. Carpet tiles are not only durable but should an area start showing wear and tear, new tiles can easily be put in place of worn tiles. The color holds well in tiles so new tiles blend in well without being too noticeably different.

Color is another reason tile carpeting is a wise choice. They come in a wide choice of colors so matching or complimenting the entryway’s decor or the decor of the area just beyond the entrance is easy. The entrance can be set apart from the rest of the area with tiles of slightly different colors being placed to form a pattern. This can prove to be helpful when there is nothing else to distinguish what is considered the entryway. Hotels and restaurants may find this to be a useful way to separate an entry area from the rest of a lobby area. Some establishments use a small area of vinyl flooring to do this. Carpet tiles or vinyl works well so either is an option but vinyl does mean the area can be slippery when there is wet weather such as rain or snow.

If your establishment, whether it is a hotel, restaurant, nursing home or other type, consider carpet tile flooring before you make a final decision on what you place in your entryway. The reasons to choose carpeting tiles will likely make them the best choice.

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Allergy Free Floor Coverings

If you suffer from allergies, you know first hand the kind of problems that can ensue from carpets that are not regularly cleaned and dust that has built up. In many cases, you’ll hear about allergy free flooring. The reality is–that it’s not a reality.

Is there any such thing as magic carpet? Sadly, the answer to that is no. For the allergy suffering home owner, the ideal home would be one that had no carpeting inside it at all. The problem is that it collects dander, grease, smoke, household products, mold and mildew spores and even dust mites.

Going carpet free may be the best solution for an alergy suffer but let’s face it, floor coverings make a vast difference in how you feel and how you live.

If you’re an allergy sufferer, you can do yourself a major favor by getting rid of your carpets. Take out the wall to wall carpeting and replace it with tiled flooring or hardwood flooring that is far easier to clean and maintain. If you’re looking for a bit of warmth underfoot, try some dhurrie or rag rugs that can be easily washed and readily cleaned. Vacuum them and wash them often.

If you select hardwood, laminate or vinyl flooring, don’t make the mistake of thinking that it doesn’t require regular cleaning simply because it’s not carpeting. This kind of flooring can also collect dust. The only difference is that you can see it more readily and are able to clean it more rapidly. The floorings mentioned many also harbor dust and mildew if they are not cleaned regularly and sealed properly so make sure that your installer is an expert in installation.

If you truly believe that you can’t live without a carpet, and many people do, then consider how often you’ll need to clean it in order to ensure your own good health. The best way to clean your carpet is to vacuum. If you’re prone to allergies, making sure that you vacuum regularly, at the least every day is the best way to keep at least some of your allergies at bay.

While vacuuming can’t keep the dust mites at bay , to some extent it does help and it can do a lot to lower your allergic reactions. While you can’t remove dust mites with a vacuum, you can remove the things like skin flakes, pet dander and other things that can cause problems for you. The best way to go is also to clean the carpets weekly with a steam cleaner or a damp cleaner to help to eliminate some of the allergens.

Chemicals that kill dust mites have been promising but not enough clinical trials exist to prove the value. Too there are some natural ingredients which may cause allergic reactions to be careful what you use in the chemical department until you know if it may affect you in some way.

Another method that you might be able to use is the make sure that you’ve got a no shoes policy in your home. While this won’t do it all, it can prevent a lot of things from being dragged in from the outside world into your home and may lower the need to clean the carpets as frequently.

In spite of anything else that you do, you’ll want to keep the carpet vacuuming schedule religiously and to ensure that you keep pets brushed and as free of shedding hair as you can.

If you truly love carpeting, while it may not be the best choice for you, it’s still a choice that you can live with by taking reasonable care to eradicate the many allergens that can live in your carpet.

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First Impressions

hotel lobby carpetMom used to always say, “you only have one chance to make a good first impression.” She, and my dad, business partners and motel operators knew this statement to be is true for their business as well as personal life. From the moment patrons set foot in the high-gloss lobby, floors play an essential role in shaping that first impression.

But, there is a particular challenge in optimal floor care for hospitality venues such as hotels because they are open daily, around the clock. Due to constant foot traffic and various weather conditions, dirt and debris will be tracked into the premises. Sub-standard floor care can lead to expensive maintenance and instigate dangerous conditions for users.

Lobbies may create the best first impression but other areas in the establishment such as guest rooms, meeting rooms, kitchens, gaming areas and so on, should present with gleaming floor surfaces. It takes perseverance and a lot of rigorous work to ensure floors look like new. Professional cleaning staff should be proud of their exceptional performance, skill level and knowledge of correct floor maintenance, as the results of their work makes an impression on all people who enter the building.

When floors are scrupulously clean with a brilliant shine, everyone coming in the building will get a positive first impression. Scratches or scrapes, dust bunnies underneath furniture or yellow stains on hard floors, indicate sloppy maintenance. Patrons look at floors to measure a facility’s overall standards of cleanliness.

Similar to the health care industry, hospitality sectors focus on preventative maintenance. There are basic techniques that prevent floors from getting grubby. While even the simplest of these are often disregarded, they affect how often professional cleaning staff are required and expenditure for their service.

Put rigorous attention on a radius of: 20 feet, exterior and 30 feet, interior, at every entrance. Either wash down or sweep the exterior area daily to eliminate dirt that could be tracked inside. Next, be extra vigilant about vacuuming or sweeping high traffic areas.

Cleaning staff should be provided with sufficient cleaning and personal protective equipment and supplies. Set up policies and procedures for individual floor care duties. Provide cleaning staff with ongoing education. Make them aware of the Certified Floor Care Technician (FCT) course, which is obtainable through the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification.

Encourage guest participation in a clean environment by placing trash containers in restrooms and near entrances and elevators.

Preventative maintenance and deep cleaning extends the life of flooring, protects the owner’s investment and portrays a stellar first impression to patrons.

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Why You Should Choose Carpet for Your Basement Floors

A finished basement can be an awesome spot to hang out. Whether you’re planning on turning the space into a man cave, a game room, a workshop, or even a home office, one of the biggest decisions you’ll have to make is on flooring. The right flooring will make all the difference in the dynamic of your design, and it can make or break the usability of the space.

Factors to Consider

Style aside, there are two major factors to consider in choosing your flooring: moisture and temperature. Basements tend to be considerably colder than the rest of the house, so a tile or cement flooring only makes the space feel colder and less inviting.

Depending on your region, your basement may be damper as well. Leaks are an obvious concern; however, you’d be surprised to know how much moisture gets in without a single leak. Of course, little cracks in the floor can seep moisture vapor, but an intact concrete floor will also emit a degree of moisture. If your washer and dryer are in your basement, that just adds to the moisture factor.

Because of these two factors, carpet is almost always the best choice for basement flooring. It’s warm underfoot, and it’s far more “breathable” than wood or laminate flooring. It’s also extremely versatile, and you can find a carpet style and feel to fit any décor plan.

What About Mold?

There’s a lot of debate over this issue, and there are plenty of good points on both sides. The fact is, carpet stands up to moisture as well or better than many types of flooring. It’s far more breathable than sheet vinyl, wood, or wood laminate, so if you’re just dealing with light moisture, your carpets will fare just fine. Of course, you can also install a dehumidifier to keep that bit of moisture at bay.

In the event of an actual leak, carpeting is actually much easier to salvage than other types of flooring. A carpet can be dried out and the water extracted before mold can even set in, whereas wood, laminate or vinyl would likely have to be replaced.

Choosing the Right Carpet

To get the best value out of your basement, you definitely have to pick the right type of carpeting. Not all carpet is created equal, and certain types will work better in a basement space. Here are a few qualities to look for:

– Man-made – Nylon or polyester fibers will stand up to moisture much better than natural fibers.

– Pad-less – Padding will keep moisture trapped under the carpet, so it’s best avoided.

– Low pile – Thick carpet might feel luxurious underfoot, but it doesn’t breathe as easily. Low pile carpet won’t retain as much moisture, and it’ll be easier to clean and dry if the need arises.

– Sectioned – This is one of the smartest moves in picking basement carpeting. By opting for carpet tiles, you can easily and cheaply replace any sections that do get damaged if your basement springs a leak.

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Glow in the Dark Carpet and Gym Floors

There are many different types of carpet including shag, plush, low rise carpets, as well as many others.

While many people know about these different types of carpet, there are a couple unique carpets you may not always think about. One of them is Glow in The Dark carpet. There are a few that may actually glow in the dark, but what most of these carpets are is black light sensitive. There are numerous patterns and designs to choose from. You have a choice between stars and planets, swirls, and geometrical designs. If you are interested in just added a little “glow in the dark” spice to a room you can buy carpet tiles for a small area. As you can imagine, one of the rooms in your home that is great for this carpet style is the kids’ bedroom. However they are used in a number of applications, from bars to theaters, theme restaurants and more.

You may not normally think about it, but a gym is also a great place to put in a carpet. Schools often have large gyms that are used for a variety of functions. Many have hard floors, which are great for basketball and other similar sports. However these gyms are often used for many different sports, kickball or gymnastics, just to name a few. In addition you have many other functions as well. You have your assemblies, dances, and other gatherings. Using gym carpet can allow you to hold many different functions without scuffing and messing up your gym floor. In some cases, with budget cuts, many sports activities have been eliminated because of budget cuts, so using a gym carpet is a great way to be able to use your gym. Being able to use the building for multiple events also saves money on having to build a separate building for different functions.

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How to Remove and Replace Carpet Tiles on your Floor

One of the best DIY home products that you can use in nearly any room are carpet tiles. Getting carpet tiles installed means that you can remove some of them and still leave others in place so that the entire floor doesn’t have to be replaced. The question is, how do you remove them and is it as easy as you’ve been told that it is in order to replace just a few pieces of the carpet?

The answer is, yes, it can be easily accomplished, but like anything else, there are techniques that will make it more easily accomplished. If the tiles are slightly newer, have been down for a year or less, you may be able to remove them with little to no effort simply using a scraping knife to lift the edge of the carpet from the tile or concrete below.

If they are slightly older and have been on the floor for a while, there will be a little more effort required, but with the right tools and products you can accomplish it in record time.

Pull up one corner on the tile. The first tile is the most difficult. Try pushing the corner of a paint-scraper under the edge to pry it loose. Peel off the tiles using the scraper or the pliers to help you to pull them up. If you can get them loose and they don’t lose a lot of adhesive, scrub the floor with trisodium photosphate and remove it. If the glue is very hard and attached, you’ll have to scrape it off prior to adding the new tiles to ensure that they get a good solid grip on the floor beneath them.

Replace the old tiles with new ones, pressing firmly to make sure they are stuck well in place.

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