When it comes time to purchasing carpet, we all want the best quality we can afford. After all, we’ve all lived with sub-par carpeting in a rental unit, or visited a home with threadbare carpets that looked anything but appealing.
- We want quality
- We want plush
- We want a great color
- We want something that will last for years
Yet your first visit to the store to look at carpeting can leave you completely overwhelmed.
If you visit a big box store, you’ll wander the aisles looking at a few select carpets without a lot of facts surrounding the samples you’ll see. Are they good? Are the priced reasonably? Does the salesperson have any clue about what good carpet really is?
As you leave in frustration, your next stop might be a retail flooring center. But if you were slightly confused by a big box store’s samples, adding hundreds more will only add to the confusion.
When you begin looking at carpeting samples, you may notice that they have a rating system in place. The ratings are usually used to gauge their durability and appearance. Sounds like a good way to determine which carpets are best, right?
The carpet rating scale has been designed by the manufacturers themselves based on in house testing. So the rating is only relevant to the test conditions at each manufacturer. Most rating systems rate carpet performance on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the top rated carpet for performance under heavy duty testing. Which means for high traffic areas in your home, a 4 or 5 rated carpet would be best used in areas of your home with the highest traffic, like hallways and stairs.
Keep in mind that the rating system is subjective, and is usually assigned with averages in mind. You know your home and your situation better than anyone. If you run a day care out of your home, a 5 rated carpet would be a must in your living space where action takes place every single day. Likewise, a bedroom filled with 3 year old triplets would require a very durable carpet to keep up with the daily activities.
When you have specific needs, and need answers that will leave you loving your carpeting for many years into the future, the best place to start is with a consultant. We’ve helped many homeowners find the perfect carpeting for their situation. Give us a call today.