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Carpet Guide

Carpeting not only quiets a room but also offers homeowners more warmth and softness to touch than any other flooring product. Carpet is also more forgiving when installed over uneven subfloors, such as an uneven concrete slab.

The newest trends in carpeting are more sophisticated elegant patterned designs. Many patterned textured carpets such as multi-looped berbers are becoming more popular with homeowners. The result gives a more three-dimensional appearance and pattern-on-pattern gives carpeting a more artistic and elegant look and also helps hide traffic patterns.

Advancements in carpet fiber technology and in carpet construction are making carpets softer, more stain-resistant and helping retain their like-new appearance far better than ever before. (See our Mohawk SmartStand Carpet page for an example.) Among the most popular choices in carpeting construction with homeowners today are berber carpet, patterned carpets and textured cut pile saxonies that don't show foot prints or traffic patterns.

Even carpet cushions have dramatically been improved. Carpet cushions are now available that will block spills from penetrating the cushion and soaking into the subfloor. Some cushions help eliminate odors in your carpet as well.

If you are confused about which carpet is best for your situation, see our Types of Carpeting page.

Listed below are some of the advantages to using carpet in your home:

• Carpet adds warmth and is soft under feet and easier on children's knees.
• Carpet is much quieter than hard surfaces floors.
• Carpet comes in a wide variety of color tones and hues.
• Carpet is easy to decorate with and offers many solid color tones for rooms with patterned wall coverings.
• Carpet can hide many subfloor irregularities that would not be permitted with hard surfaces floors.
• Carpet can go over a variety of substrates and on all grade levels, even concrete slabs in basements.
• Carpet is economical and the installation costs are much less than some of the hard surface products.