When deciding what kind of flooring to put in a particular room, there are a lot of options to choose from. Hardwood or tile? Vinyl or laminate? Why not just get some simple carpeting? There are a number of benefits to using carpet in your home.
1. It’s Cost Effective Over Time
There are many different types of carpet you can install, which range in price from fairly cheap to rather costly. However, on average, you can expect to pay about $25-30 per yard. It’s not as much as, say, hardwood, but a bit more expensive than vinyl. You’re also more likely to want to hire a professional installer than with vinyl or laminate, which can both be done as DIY projects.
However, where carpet will save you is in maintenance. Hard floors need to be cleaned more than twice as often as carpeted floors, and the cleaning supplies can cost up to seven times as much. Also, though you may be able to install certain hard floors yourself, prepping the subfloor is still a tedious and painstaking process for which you may have to hire a professional. Carpet, on the other hand, can be installed simply, over just about any type of subfloor you have.
So while you may spend a little more in the beginning, over time, carpet will save you a lot.
2. It Improves Your Indoor Air Quality
Even with a rigorous cleaning regimen, dust and other contaminants tend to accumulate in your home. These contaminants can exacerbate allergies and asthma and even foster viruses. It’s important to do what you can to keep them at bay.
When dust settles on a hard floor, it immediately gets kicked back up into the air by foot traffic, or even a light draft. It keeps the contaminants circulating through your home. Carpet, however, traps that dust in its fibers, keeping it there until it can be vacuumed up. This way, it reduces the contaminants in your air, improving the overall air quality and helping you breathe easier.
3. It’s Safer
Hard floors can be slippery, making it easier to fall down and sustain injury, particularly for small children. Stairs especially pose a major falling hazard and can lead to serious accidents. Carpeting provides better traction for the feet, helping to prevent those falls.
Of course, accidents still happen, and a person can fall just about anywhere. But carpets help to cushion those falls, giving you something soft to land on, rather than hard wood or tile. By installing carpet in your home, you’re not only helping reduce the risk of falling, but also the risk of injury in the event that falls do happen.
4. It’s Quiet
It’s the middle of the night. You’re trying to sleep. But all you can hear is the “Click, click, click,” of your pet’s nails as they walk back and forth across the tile floor. Or maybe you like to go to bed early, but someone else in your home stays out late. As soon as they get home, you’ll hear the “Clomp! Clomp!” of their shoes as they walk across the hardwood. The sound bounces off the walls and echoes through the whole house.
Carpet absorbs sound, reducing the overall noise level in your home. And if you have carpet with padding, it can further cushion any footfalls, keeping things quiet and peaceful at any time of day or night.
5. It Feels Good
Not only is soft, padded carpeting beneficial to people in the house who are looking to reduce noise levels, it’s very nice for the person walking on it. It feels soft and comfortable underfoot, and the fibers are generally much more appealing to bare feet than hard floors.
In addition, carpets absorb and retain heat more effectively. We all know the horror of stepping on a cold tile floor first thing in the morning. Carpets eliminate that annoyance. Not only that, but their heat absorption helps reduce heat loss for the whole room, saving you money on heating bills.
Making Carpet Work for You…
Perhaps the best benefit to putting in carpeting is its versatility. There are all sorts of colors, styles, patterns, and textures to choose from. They can complement any home décor and accommodate any lifestyle, and will last you for years. What kind of carpet will you install in your home?