What Are The Negatives Of Carpets?
A lot of people want to know what the best features are about flooring types, but in most rooms your flooring comes down to your own style. In the living room for example, you’re free to pick whatever flooring you want, they all have different benefits.
So we thought we’d discuss the disadvantages of each flooring type, starting with carpets, and where you should avoid carpeting.
Last Updated: 09/04/2024
Contents
The Many Benefits Of Carpets
Carpets tend to be on the cheaper side of the flooring spectrum. They create a cushion of air between their fibres which gives carpet a really nice insulating advantage over other flooring types which in turn makes both standing on them more comfortable, as well as raising the ambient temperature of the room too.
This means on a cold day, your carpets won’t freeze your toes. Stepping out of bed onto a carpet won’t start your day off on the wrong foot. Settling into your living room on an evening will seem more comfortable with a carpeted floor and you’ll actually reduce your energy bills by creating an environment that helps minimize heat loss, and lets you postpone turning up the thermostat.
Carpet hides dirt and dust a lot easier than vinyl and laminate, and the fibres will hold onto dust and pollen until you vacuum, which is ideal for allergy sufferers. There’s an absolutely ridiculous amount of colours, shades, patterns and textures to carpets which means they can fit in with any colour scheme or choice of décor!
The Cons of Carpets
Carpet really only has one major downfall and a couple of less significant issues. The main issue is its ability to soak up the things you really don’t want to linger in your flooring.
The highest Googled search term for flooring in general is how to remove various stains from carpets. Red Wine is the biggest contender here.
Carpets will not handle moisture, be that drink spills or simply moist air. If you leave the clothes dryer on without ventilation then your carpet will become soggy and start to smell musty as the damp sets in.
Stains are very difficult to remove from carpets if they’re left for too long. Red wine can permanently dye a carpet unless you act immediately, and even then it’s not a given that you can save it. There’s also dropped things that are incredibly hard to get from carpets – candle wax, gum etc.
You can read about stains and how to remove them here – How To Remove Stains From Carpets
Carpets absolutely have their place in the home, but for the above reasons, never insulate a bathroom or a kitchen as spills and moisture are pretty much guaranteed there.
The Minor Inconveniences of Carpets
The first is that it needs more maintenance to stay in good condition. Carpets should be vacuumed at least once a week or the dirt and dust will be incredibly hard to remove because it’ll get trodden into the fibres deep enough that a normal home vacuum won’t recover it. They also need a thorough deep clean twice a year, which is a large task in itself.
Read more about Deep Cleaning here: How To Deep Clean Your Carpets
This is manageable though – it’s doable to hoover up once a week, but the point here is that it’s a must. If you wanted to, you can leave laminate and vinyl to gather dust and dirt for months, and all you’ll need is a deep mopping session to remove it all. Not for carpet, if you left your carpet in that situation for an extended period of time then your carpets lifespan is reduced.
The Durability of Carpets
Foot traffic will usually be okay with carpets, unless you live with people who drag their heels. Compression on a carpet is okay, because the vacuum each week will pull the fibres back up and give life back into the carpet. Friction is the undoing of carpets though.
If you drag your feet regularly across the carpet, that’s adding wear to the carpet. If you’re dragging heavy furniture around the carpet, that’s also adding wear.
For this reason avoid carpeting a dining room – the chair legs will get dragged around the carpet even if it’s just in and out at the table. Laminate and vinyl on the other hand practically welcome you to drag things across them – they’re both very scratch resistant and hard wearing, though they both have their shortcomings too, which only carpet improves on.
In Conclusion - Are Carpets Impractical As A Flooring Option?
Honestly, yes and no. It fully depends on where you plan to put the carpet and what kind of family lives in your home. If you’re a single occupier or you’re a couple, having a soft and warm carpet in the living room makes your time to unwind that little bit more effective.
If you’ve got energetic pets or messy toddlers however, a carpet might be the worst option if your living room is prone to spills and scratches.
In the winter you’ll really see the benefit of having carpeted bedrooms – the last thing you want to be doing is having to up the thermostat so you can stop shivering for long enough to get to sleep.
Kitchens and Bathrooms are the worst places to put a carpet. In both rooms you’ll have disgusting carpets in dire need of a deep clean within a couple of weeks.
Our general rule of thumb is to have bedrooms carpeted, living rooms either carpet or vinyl, bathrooms with vinyl, dining rooms laminate and kitchens either laminate or vinyl, with mats placed in front of the sink and the cooker, to keep your toes comfy.
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About The Author
Matt
Matt is a master at gathering relevant information and rolling it into a ball of digestibility. Fuelled by caffeine and metal bands, you'll usually find him in the office either writing blog posts with verification from our most experienced flooring fitters, creating new ad designs, working on our social media and website or finding ways to improve our customer's whole experience with us. Matt is part of the background force that keeps the Pay Weekly side of Easipay Carpets growing.
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