There is not a doubt in my mind that Hardwood Flooring or Engineered Hardwood Flooring is the most desirable type of flooring available to North Americans today. There is something about a hardwood floor that screams out luxury and elegance. To me hardwood and engineered hardwood is so luxurious because a floor will be made up of hundreds or thousands of boards and every board has its own unique look, meaning there are not two boards the same throughout the entire room, which makes for a very stunning look.
My family at 6:00 am ready for playtime
Although hardwood flooring is very luxurious and rich looking, after starting a family my wife and I have come to the conclusion that an area rug not only adds warmth to the luxurious hardwood as well as the room, it also provides a great spot for kids to play and crawl around. We have two dogs and a beautiful 4 month old girl named Evelyn Grace, our home has hard surface in the living-room, kitchen and hall with carpet in the bedrooms for comfort. We love the hardwood look! However we don't want our little baby playing on the hard surface, not only because of comfort but also because we don't want our flooring destroyed!An area rug was perfect solution to our problem because we wanted our home to look luxurious but at the same time we are very practical. We put an area rug in the living room for our girl to play on and she loves it! We also like the feel of it on our feet while watching TV as well as the warmth it adds to our room. At first we thought it would be hard to keep clean, however it is really no harder to clean than a hardwood floor and according to the CRI (Carpet & Rug Institute) a carpet will actually provide a home with a better air quality over a hard surface floor.
Sometimes it is difficult to find the perfect colour, size, shape or pattern in a stock area rug. At Owen Flooring we custom cut and bind any one of our carpets to the size, shape, style and colour of our customers wants or needs. There are many pattern and colour options available as well with Masland Carpets, Dixie Home, STAINMASTER as well as Phenix Flooring. If your family is anything like mine, once you find that perfect area rug made for your home or room, you will certainly become a big fan of the comfort and style it brings with it!
"What is the best carpet to buy?" is a question that can not be answered, or at least will not have the same answer for everyone. When I began my career as a carpet salesman I received some great advice from a good friend and mentor Glen Matton of Deacon Flooring in London On. He said "Don't always sell the customer what they want, you should sell them what they need!" Oh??? I said?? "You wouldn't sell a loose looped carpet to a customer with a bunch of cats because the consumer likes that particular carpet, the cats will destroy it in no time!" he said.That was great advice from a great guy, and since then I do my best to sell customers on products that better fit their needs while certainly still respecting their wants. If you are a serious capet consumer do yourself a favor a read my next few blog posts, so that when shopping for a new carpet, you not only purchase what you want in a carpet but also what you need in a carpet.
Over the next little while I will be posting about carpet to hopefully educate you on what is the best carpet to buy FOR YOU!
Vol#4 Under-pad
Carpet underpad is very important feature to know about when purchasing a new carpet. Many homeowners and carpet customers seem to think that the thicker the underpad the better the underpad and this is certainly not the case, not the case at all! Remember carpet underpad does much more than provide a cushion for you to walk on. A good underpad will actually keep your carpet from wearing out too fast and save you money in the long run! A good pad is firm keeping the carpet from compressing down, the firmer the pad the longer your carpet will last making you a much happier customer.
The Carpet Cushion Council have set a standard for residential carpet underpad at 3/8" thick and 5ib weight. This is most certainly not good enough pad, in fact I won't even sell it! At Owen Flooring we recommend a 3/8" firm 8ib chip foam underpad with a vapour barrier. Why? I am glad you asked! 3/8" is the thickness of the tack strip that is installed all the way around the pad therefor making a nice level carpet appearance all the way around your room. If I were to use a thicker pad the carpet would dip down when it meets the tack strip. The reason we use an 8ib firm pad is that I feel an 8ib pad is heavy enough to withstand the abuse that an average family will give it. Why a vapour barrier? The vapour barrier goes in between the carpet and the pad, this prevents spills and dirt from leaking through the carpet and into the pad, it keeps the spill on the pad for an easy clean up, rather than the spill leaking into the pad and being in there forever.
There are plenty of types of under-pad available, and stores have been trying to upsell them for years and years, however know that a 8ib 3/8" firm pad with a vapour barrier will work great in your home for years to come regardless of the Carpet Style, the Carpet Fiber, or the Carpet Twist. In my opinion a 3/8" 8ib firm pad is the best pad dollar for dollar available on the market today. If I were going to try to upgrade, I certainly would not go thicker or softer, I would still choose 3/8" but perhaps a bit heavier of a pad or even a rubber pad with a heavy heavy weight to it.
Do yourself a favour ask your salesman about the under-pad, be sure it is a 3/8" firm pad with an 8ib weight, or something very close to these numbers, because if you get too thin or too thick of a pad it will affect your carpet appearance and if you get to light of weight, it will affect the longevity of your carpet.
"What is the best carpet to buy?" is a question that can not be answered, or at least will not have the same answer for everyone. When I began my career as a carpet salesman I received some great advice from a good friend and mentor Glen Matton of Deacon Flooring in London On. He said "Don't always sell the customer what they want, you should sell them what they need!" Oh??? I said?? "You wouldn't sell a loose looped carpet to a customer with a bunch of cats because the consumer likes that particular carpet, the cats will destroy it in no time!" he said.That was great advice from a great guy, and since then I do my best to sell customers on products that better fit their needs while certainly still respecting their wants. If you are a serious capet consumer do yourself a favor a read my next few blog posts, so that when shopping for a new carpet, you not only purchase what you want in a carpet but also what you need in a carpet.
Over the next week or so we will be posting about carpet to hopefully educate you on what is the best carpet to buy FOR YOU! Vol #3 Twist A carpets twist is in my opinion is the third most important thing to look for when purchasing a carpet, however often times a customer does not even know about the importance of a twist. Most carpet consumers think the weight or the pile is most important mainly because that is what some uneducated big box store carpet sales person told them. The truth is weight and pile are important features in a carpets construction, however in my opinion the first thing to look at is Vol#1 Style the second being Vol#2 Fiber and the third is the Twist. The twist of a carpet is not relevant in a loop constructed or berber style carpet because of the way berber is made differently from plush or frieze style carpets, however you should already know this if you have read Vol#1 Style.To me the twist is oh so very important to a carpets quality because the twist of a carpet is what makes the carpet stand up right, if that twist is loose or unravels the carpet will (wear) or fall down and look matted. The twist in a carpet is very similar to the twist in a hair braid, the tighter the braid the more braids you get and the stronger that braid is.
This will likely be the shortest and easiest blog post in the
The twist is often rated in carpet stores as TPI and it stands for Turns Per Inch. It is quite simple really the TPI is the number of times the carpet fiber is twisted in an inch. Some companies don't advertise their TPI however it is easy for you the customer to see if a carpet has a good number of twists to it or not. This is one of the reasons Frieze Style carpet is my favorite style, the carpet is longer allowing the carpet manufacturer to twist the carpet more times, which in turn makes frieze wear so well even when made out of a Phenix Flooring PET Polyester fiber.
If you read Vol#2 Fiber you will see the Stainmaster Nylon is my favorite fiber and I mostly explained why, however I left out gauge. The gauge of a carpet strand is how thick the strand in the twist is and the thinner the strand the better. Why? Because the thinner the strand the more times it can be twisted also allowing for more carpet material to be place in the carpet. Similar to linen sheets thread count, the smaller the thread the more material gets into the sheet creating better performance. Nylon carpet can be made much thinner than a PET or PTT creating a much higher quality product.
So if you are looking for that thick plush carpet that so many people are these days, spread the carpet with your fingers, count the twists and pick the highest number. If you purchase a plush Stainmaster nylon carpet with a high TPI and you clean your carpet regularly, you will have a beautiful plush carpet for years to come!
If you are looking for the Frieze or short shag, the TPI is still very important so do yourself a favour and be sure to count those twists!
"What is the best carpet to buy?" is a question that can not be answered, or at least will not have the same answer for everyone. When I began my career as a carpet salesman I received some great advice from a good friend and mentor Glen Matton of Deacon Flooring in London On. He said "Don't always sell the customer what they want, you should sell them what they need!" Oh??? I said?? "You wouldn't sell a loose looped carpet to a customer with a bunch of cats because the consumer likes that particular carpet, the cats will destroy it in no time!" he said.That was great advice from a great guy, and since then I do my best to sell customers on products that better fit their needs while certainly still respecting their wants. If you are a serious capet consumer do yourself a favor a read my next few blog posts, so that when shopping for a new carpet, you not only purchase what you want in a carpet but also what you need in a carpet.
Over the next week or so we will be posting about carpet to hopefully educate you on what is the best carpet to buy FOR YOU?
Vol#2 Fiber
There are several types of fibers available today, however today we will be only discussing the four main types that are generally used in a residential setting. Although most carpet consumers think pile height and weight are the most important thing to look for in a carpet, I strongly disagree. I feel the material used is one of if not the most important features when purchasing a carpet. The only thing that is as important or more important can be read about in Vol#1 Style because your first step is picking a carpet style, the next step is the fiber, then we will talk about a carpet twist in Vol#3 Twist
Stainmaster Nylon Carpet
Nylon fiber has been being used in carpets since the early 1960's and has proven itself to be the strongest of all the carpet fibers today. Nylon fiber is very versatile, you will find carpet styles such as berbers, plush's, patterned as well as frieze's made out of nylon fiber. Nylon is my personal favorite fiber, actually STAINMASTER Nylon is my favorite fiber. The reason Stainmaster nylon is my favorite nylon is they have the strongest nylon 6.6 as well as the best treatment for their nylon which in turn gives them an advantage of giving the best warranties as well as the best product. Having that said there is still another important area to cover when it comes to a quality carpet and that is the twist, however we will address that in Vol#3 Twist.
Phenix Polyester
Polyester or PET fiber is very environmentally friendly in fact some people call it pop bottle carpet because it is made from recycled water or pop bottles. Polyester is naturally very stain resistant as well as very soft and is generally less expensive than nylon giving a customer a more affordable carpet. When polyester first came in to the market there was many issues with it wearing far too quickly, however with today's advanced technology it stands up allot better! A polyester carpet when woven and twisted properly can last a long time in a home. A polyester plush carpet would be recommended for area rugs, bedrooms, living rooms etc. and in todays market is likely what is installed in the average home. If using a polyester in a high traffic area like stairs or hallways, I would generally suggest a berber or pattern style because they are the best for wear in a high traffic area.
PTT Polyester or Triexta Polyester fiber is what the Mohawk SmartStrand is made out of. Mohawk has marked this product as #1 is stain resistance and has used videos of zoo animals walking on it to market its quality. This product is polyester so it is naturally great for stains and is naturally soft just like a PET polyester however it has it's own classification of PTT. Again PTT much like PET is amazing for stains and is ultra soft, however it is on par with the cost of a Stainmaster nylon but it wears similar to a PET, therefor I believe it is not the carpet it markets itself to be. Until educating myself about carpet by reading third party articles, talking to installers and carpet salesman over the last few years, I was fooled by the clever zoo marketing as well, however this zoo carpet might be excellent for stains and ultra soft, however I am not alone when I say dollar for dollar it will not outlast a carpet made of nylon. I generally suggest anyone looking at this type of carpeting to purchase a PET Polyester because you will get a very similar look and feel with a reduced price tag.
Kraus Berber
Polypropylene or Olefin fiber is amazing for sun resistance and fading because of the way it is made. Olefin fiber will not absorb water and it is very stain resistant. Olefin is a weak fiber therefor I do not recommend it for any carpet style other than berber. I recommend this for a berber because when making a berber carpet it is not as important to have a really strong fiber because of the loop technology used.
Below is a chart I made that shows the qualities of each of the four main carpet types
.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*)
