From the Floors Up

What Type of Flooring Do I Choose?

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Are you in the market for new floors? If so, if you are anything like us, we tend to be guilty of overlooking the importance of flooring choices and how that choice will affect the style and function of our home. To help, we have listed a few tips below that will help you choose the right flooring for your lifestyle and family!

Daily Activity

Your lifestyle is critical when choosing the right flooring for your home. For instance, do you have children, pets, or friends and family coming and going? If so, your floors must withstand heavy traffic and be resilient to moisture and dirt. Ceramic tile and vinyl flooring are durable, tough, and ideal for high-traffic areas. Hardwood floors are durable, but will scratch and over time and require refinishing. If you prefer softness underfoot and have minimal traffic, consider carpet or using area rugs over hardwood and tile flooring. Just keep in mind the function and style of each room and choose your floors accordingly.

Specific Room Tips for Individual Rooms

Foyers

Foyer entryways should always say welcome and introduce your style. A key factor to remember for entryways is preventing dirt and debris from being tracked into the home. If snow, rain, mud, and sand are elements in the entry, consider stone, tile or hardwoods. Just make sure you place an entry mat outside before entering to trap and absorb much of the debris.

Interior Floors

To protect your entry interior floors, rugs are always the perfect solution while adding pops of color that enhance the entry foyer.

Living Rooms

Family and great rooms are active rooms, so remember that area rugs are ideal over tile and hardwood floors. They help add an element of comfort and style to your classic flooring options.

Bedrooms

Many people still prefer carpet in bedrooms simply for the softness and warmth on bare feet.

Kitchens, Bathrooms, and Laundry Rooms

Keep in mind that kitchens, bathrooms, laundry/utility rooms are considered work areas, and the flooring should resist water as well as be durable.

Flooring Cost

Flooring is priced per square foot for product and labor. Understanding flooring pricing is an essential factor to keep you on track and within budget. Keep in mind the product grades of quality and the padding or moisture barrier for carpet, hardwood, and vinyl plank flooring. Another factor for flooring cost is longevity. Floors need to be maintained, and the type of flooring you choose will depend on how often you must replace them.

Please reach out with any and all questions. We are here to help you make the best decision for your next floor!

Pros and Cons of Carpet

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Carpet is a timeless flooring option that businesses and homeowners continue to love. It comes in many diverse styles with added benefits. That is why it is no surprise that the popularity continues today as we see advancements in fiber technology and resistance to staining. However, like any flooring option, carpet has its own set of pros and cons. Let us explore both to see if carpet is right for your home.

PROS

Comfort

Carpet is one of the most comfortable flooring options on the market. When paired with a heavy 8 oz pad, it is unrivaled by any flooring option for comfort. This feature can make the coziness from your ground spread to other areas of the room, creating a comfortable oasis.

Options

Carpet also comes in a wide variety of colors, patterns, and textures. The endless options make finding the perfect carpet to complement your house easy. Plus, with so many diverse styles, carpet is versatile enough to work with any design theme.

Warmth

Carpet is also a very cozy and warm flooring option. Rest assured that you can wake up and walk around your home barefoot without getting cold feet. It is an excellent insulator and stays warm all year round.

CONS

Stains

Technology improvements are making carpets better at being stain resistant. From solution-dyed fibers to stain guards, carpets have come a very long way. However, carpet fibers can still stain. This feature may be a concern depending on the environment that you are looking to have it installed.

Seams

Carpet is typically manufactured in twelve-foot-wide rolls. This feature means any room that is over twelve feet in width or length is going to need a seam. It is also directional, which means your carpet will have cross seams as well. No seam is 100% invisible, so you may need to consider this depending on the application.

Traffic Patterns

Some carpet can wear down and matte. The resilience is much better in nylon carpet than polyester, yet you may begin to see traffic patterns. Note that all carpets are made different, and some can help prevent this better than others.

Water

We are beginning to see waterproof carpets, just starting to enter the market. However, many carpets are not waterproof and can be ideal for bacteria to form. It is best to keep carpet away from wet areas.

All and all, carpet is an excellent flooring choice. It is incredibly versatile and adaptable for many environments. Keep in mind that different qualities of carpets can handle situations differently. Be sure to talk to your sales representative about the right carpet for your lifestyle.

Area Rug Placement for a Guest Bedroom

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Area rugs are a favorite element for designers wanting to add ambiance, texture, and coziness to a room. We love how area rugs will add pops of color and specifically define a space. We have two essential tips to share with you for furniture placement in regards to your area rug that will bring the entire bedroom together. Please enjoy!

Options for Rug Placement: Guest Room 

  1. Buy an area rug that will fit under the bottom two-thirds of the bed so that it can be seen from both sides and at the bottom of the bed. 
  2. Buy hallway runners and place them on both sides of the bed and one at the foot of the bed. 

Typically, we prefer the first option, but let’s talk a little about the size and shape of the space.

Option 1

If your bed is centered in the middle of the room, designers will go with option one by placing an area rug under the bottom two-thirds of the bed. You need to make sure that your area rug is large enough to extend to the nightstands on both sides of the bed and try to make at least eighteen inches are visible from the end of the bed. If you choose a rug that is too small and does not meet these guidelines, the room and furniture placement may look misplaced! Generally speaking, try and keep about eight to twelve inches from the edge of the rug to the wall.

Option 2

We love this option of using runners, especially if you have gorgeous hardwood or natural stone floors! Also, this is a perfect look if you have a smaller bedroom. We will start with a single runner at the foot of the bed. Make sure that your runner goes from edge to edge or a little wider than the bed for a perfect placement! For runners on each side of the bed, make sure they start at the front of your end tables and run to almost the end of the bed.

If you are still having a little trouble trying to figure out the furniture placement, actually map it out on a piece of paper. There are also free websites where you can enter the room’s dimensions and lay the furniture out with respect to the size of the area rug. Good luck, and please let us know how your bedroom turns out!

Measuring for Flooring and Its Variables

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Many companies will come out and measure before installing flooring – this is not because you are naïve and do not know how to measure a room. In fact, it is to ensure they order enough flooring for your project. Every room will come with its own variables, and in many situations, you need to know more than the square footage of a room. While linear footage can help give your flooring company a general idea, there are still many variables to consider. Here is a brief look at why measuring flooring can have many variables:

Carpet

When carpet is manufactured, it is typically created on a large roll. These rolls are traditionally 12-feet in width and can be up to 300-feet in length. The size of your room determines how much length you will need. So, if your room is below 12 feet in width, you will just order for the length.

  • Example: 11×11 Bedroom will call for a 12×11 roll of carpet
  • Example: 10×14 Bedroom will call for a 12×14 roll of carpet

However, what happens when you have a room that is 16×14 can completely change the equation. A room over 12-foot will need to be seamed. Carpet is directional, which means it needs to run the same way to be installed correctly. So, a room that is 16×14 could be complete with two 12×16 piece rolls; however, there would be a substantial amount of wasted product! So, these areas are created by making cross seams.

Carpet can also be calculated out differently depending on how many rooms or the shape of the rooms being done. Some rooms may be L-shaped. There are several variables that can go into the exact measurement needed for carpet.

Tile, Hardwood, & LVP

Prepackage flooring that comes in boxes can be a little simpler to figure out the measurements. If a box says it contains 27 square feet of material and you are doing a room that is 100 square feet, you will need four boxes. Unfortunately, the problem arises when you have an area that is just over a box amount. Let us say you have a box of LVP that covers 20 square feet, and your room is exactly 100 square feet. Would this mean you need five boxes of LVP? Not quite because you need to calculate waste. In these situations, you will most likely need to invest in six boxes of flooring. Also, some products may come damaged from the manufacturer with a broken tile or a splintered piece of hardwood. Calculating a little heavy is always a safe bet.

If a company asks to come out and measure, it is best you have them do so to help keep your quote exact. With many variables from transitions to installation, a trained eye is best. This can help assure that you are getting just the right amount of flooring.

Solution-Dyed Carpets

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When shopping for carpet, you will come across many different styles, materials, loops, and colors. Carpets can all have added pros and cons, depending on how they are manufactured and what material is used to create the fibers. You may be interested in a natural material such as wool or go another route such as a synthetic carpet fiber like polyester. There are two types of ways that synthetic carpets are dyed. While how your carpet is dyed may not seem like a big deal to you, there are benefits that may interest you in purchasing a solution-dyed carpet. Let’s take a look!

Traditional Dyeing Methods

There are many ways carpets are dyed, but generally, the traditional way is through dipping the fibers. Fibers are created with a very neutral color like grey or beige. These fibers are created then ran through a dye to stain the fibers. While this process is very complex and can have different stages in the process, this is, traditionally, how color is added to fibers. Imagine an apple. When you see an apple, it has a red coat on the outside of it. However, when you cut a knife through the apple, you can reveal the true white color beneath the skin. This is how the traditional dyed method affects carpets.

Solution-Dyed

Carpets have been engineered to be constructed through synthetic materials. These materials can consist of liquid polymer compounds and chemicals being converted into fibers. Unlike the traditional method, where the fibers are dyed after the carpet fibers are created, solution-dyeing adds the color with the chemical compounds. This allows the fibers to be dyed pre-production and be the true color all the way throughout the carpet. The liquid is then fed through spinnerets and created into yarn to make carpet fibers. So, unlike an apple, you now have a carrot. If you cut the carrot in half, you will still have the orange all the way throughout the vegetable.

Added Benefits

While this can only be done with synthetic fibers, there are many added benefits to the process. The fibers hold the color through themselves. This makes them very difficult for color to fade from sunlight or foot traffic. They are also more stain-resistant since the fibers have already been fully stained. This makes it much more difficult for them to absorb a new stain. Some solution-dyed carpets can also be cleaned with very heavy-duty cleaning compounds such as bleach without color fading!

Whether you are looking for commercial or residential carpet, understanding some of the added value to solution-dyed carpet may help you in the decision-making process. While non-solution-dyed carpets are still excellent choices, this added benefit should not be ignored. For more insight on flooring and manufacturing benefits, make sure to subscribe!

From the Floors Up

From the Floors Up blog was created with the goal of providing a destination for consumers, designers and those interested in the flooring, design, and kitchen and bath industries. Here you’ll find, current, accurate and informative information that is always just a click away!

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