When thinking of purchasing new carpet there are certain things you should consider.
1. Colour – Best advice is to simply go as dark as your area to be covered can handle! A light colour can get dirty quickly even if it’s a good quality, especially if stains aren’t attended to immediately and in the correct manner.
2. Style – Especially when it comes to hotels and other areas expected to receive a fair amount of wear, a carpet with more than one colour or even a pattern certainly can help to aid in the carpet looking good for as long as it possibly can in regards to stains and such… Anything that creates a mottled type of effect is great for hiding future stains and wear ‘n’ tear.
3. Quality/weight – This is a vitally important trait to consider before your purchase. If you’re the type of client that wants the carpet to be a real investment and thus last as long as it possibly can then you need to purchase a higher weighted, denser product. Commercially a carpet 40oz and above is a good commercial carpet; 45oz and above is the best quality commercial carpet. Most carpets below this weight are no where near as good bar a few exceptions. If you’re the type of customer who changes their carpet every 3-5 years to keep up with current trends, then you would be best choosing a medium grade/priced carpet as to pay extra for something you won’t allow to reach it’s full life is a waste of money.
4. Type – There are several types of carpet in regards to yarn type used. Alpaca is mainly used for really upmarket areas but does shed excess yarn more than other types but is ultra soft and luxurious too. Wool is the obvious choice, it has already stood the test of time and doesn’t need any stain treatments to be applied (doesn’t this make a statement?).
A good wool carpet will usually out perform other carpet fibres. Pure wool carpet is, on average, more expensive than synthetic carpet but the performance gains makes it money well spent.
Nylons are typically used for domestic purposes only. Some nylons these days do not pass Australian building fire codes so one must be very careful of this. Solution dyed nylons can be good carpets but one must still be careful as many stores these days win quotes by automatically quoting on the cheapest SDN on the market which passes the fire codes.
These cheap SDNs aren’t the best value for your money. More expensive ones can perform well though. Polypropylenes are always the cheapest carpet option. Normally only used for cheap rental properties these days; many retailers will even win quotes by quoting on a poly carpet. Poly carpets do not pass the majority of fire building codes. They are quite tough surprisingly but do not clean well at all.
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