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Custom Home Painting & Carpet
HOW TO BUY CARPET
You'll find thousands of carpet styles, colors and patterns at The Home Depot. A knowledgeable sales associate will be available to help you choose the carpet that's right for you. To make the selection process a little easier, take some time to think through your carpet purchase before you visit the store. That way, you'll have a good sense of which carpets will work for you and which won't. The more you know about the kind of carpet you want, the faster you'll find it.

Here are some questions to get you started.

Do you own your home, or do you rent? How long are you planning to stay?
   If you own your home, a premium carpet is worth the investment, especially if you're planning to stay in your home for a number of years. Remember, the carpet you select will be an important feature of your home. You'll want to be sure it matches your taste, meets your needs and supports your lifestyle.
   If you plan to sell your home, the right carpet will enhance the beauty of your home, increasing its value and making it easier to sell.
   If you rent, choose carpet that's right for your circumstances. Consider your budget, your performance requirements and your taste, and factor in how long you plan to stay in your home.



Which room do you plan to carpet?
   Understanding your room's specific needs will help you choose the right carpet. For example, the plush carpet that's perfect for your master bedroom is probably not the best choice for your kitchen or recreation room. Consider these factors:
   TRAFFIC: How many people use the room and how frequently? Are there specific patterns or lanes of traffic that should be considered? Does the room provide access to the outside? If so, what kinds of materials are likely to be carried into the room?
   USAGE: What activities take place in the room and how often? How might each of these activities either affect or be affected by the room's carpet?
   PETS: Do you have pets in the house and will they use they room? The number and kind of pets you have may make certain carpets less appropriate.
   SAFETY: Will young children, disabled people or elderly people be using the room? In a children's playroom, for example, a carpet that's soft to land on makes sense - but not so soft that it's slippery. Wheelchairs need a firm surface to move easily, so high-pile, plush carpets may not work while shorter, denser loop carpets may be perfect.

What type of look is important to you?
   Does the style, color or pattern of the carpet you are considering match the mood and activities of your room? Do they reflect your decorating preferences? Matters of taste and style are as important as traffic or usage issues.
   Is the feel of the carpet an important consideration? If people will frequently sit or lounge on the carpet, how it feels is very important. If people will mostly just walk on the carpet, durability and resistance to dirt may be more important than its feel.



How much carpet will you need?
   Carpet prices vary. Knowing how much carpet your room requires can help you find carpets that best match your budget. Use our Carpet Calculator to estimate how much carpet you'll need.

Now that you've thought about how you plan to use your carpet and have a better sense of what kind of carpet will work, you're ready to choose which fiber and style you'd like. You should also assess a carpet's durability — how long it will look like new — before you buy it.

Once you've made these three key choices — fiber, style and durability — you're on your way to choosing the right carpet.

Selecting Carpet & Rugs

Benefits of Carpets and Rugs


Carpet - nothing looks like it, feels like it or performs like it. Carpet is a key decorative and functional element in a home or business. Carpet - It just feels better.

Comfort - Insulation
Carpet provides an added measure of warmth and insulation with its millions of fibers and places between them to hold warmth or to insulate against extreme heat or cold. It's warmer to sit on or work on, providing more stable temperatures for foot and leg comfort near the floor. In colder climates or seasons, it retains warm air longer, an important benefit in our energy-conscious world. In warm climates, it also insulates against invasive heat.
When the insulation value is important, the carpet's label may offer an "R-value," and a cushion label may offer one, as well. When the carpet R-value is not available, CRI suggests multiplying the total carpet thickness measured in inches by a factor of 2.6 to approximate the carpet's R-value. The R-values are additive for any combination of materials. For example, a combination of carpet with an R-value of 1.3 and a prime polyurethane cushion with an R-value of 1.6 will yield an overall R-value of 2.9.

Aesthetics - The Foundation of Decorating
Because carpet is a foundation of decorating, covering a large quantity of the surface of our living spaces, it is an important consideration in the overall scheme of color and texture. It can provide simplicity and casualness for softness and liveability; or it can provide pizzazz with vibrant color and heavier textures for making a decorating "statement." Carpet can be one of the easiest ways to personalize an environment - its color can be a neutral foundation "in the background," or it can be a vibrant focal point.

Safety from Slip/Fall
Especially for small children, seniors, and generally the entire family, safety in the home is a primary focus. We seek a stable, non-slick walking surface that prevents slips and falls and for the time when someone does trip, a surface that protects from bruises and other injuries. Carpet is great for cushioning our foot steps, minimizing slips and minimizing injuries from falls. It's hard to watch a toddler take his first steps on a cold hard floor. Carpet's softness and cushioning nature is ideal for family activity - whether it is the first steps of a toddler, the slow steps of the grandparent, or the fast action of the mother or teen-ager.

Sound Reduction Qualities of Carpet
Carpet is as Easy on Your Ears as Your Feet
With the introduction of computers, speaker telephones, big screen TV's and video games, our homes have become a lot noisier. Fortunately, the solution to this problem of airborne sounds can be found right below our feet -- carpet.

Carpet not only serves as a beautiful floor covering, it also provides sound insulation. Additionally, carpet creates an aesthetic ambiance conducive to lowered voices and heightened privacy. The sound-reducing qualities of carpet include: Carpet absorbs sound
Recently, home builders have moved towards reshaping the home by combining all of the living area rooms into one big, open space. This layout promotes the family togetherness, but also creates a noisy atmosphere. With the addition of carpet, sound is absorbed rather than bounced off the floor and back onto the walls and furniture. Results from tests show that there is a pronounced "hush" in carpeted rooms.

   Carpet and cushion reduces noise better
Carpet serves as an effective noise-reducer because it absorbs the sound of foot traffic within the home. These results are even more pronounced with the addition of carpet cushion. Research shows that properly specified carpet and cushion combinations produce better noise-reduction than carpet alone. Carpet cushion also increases comfort and ergonomic qualities, adds insulation, and extends the life of your carpet by protecting it against wear and tear.

The CRI "Residential Carpet Installation Standard, CRI 105" calls for carpet cushion that is both firm and resilient and no more than 7/16 of an inch thick. Under the thinner carpet styles, such as some Berbers, use an even thinner cushion - maximum 3/8".

   Carpet and cushion insulate between floors
Carpet works as a sound barrier between floors by helping to block sound transmission to rooms below. Carpet and carpet cushion are especially effective in masking the "hollow" sound from foot traffic often associated with staircases. Specific noise reduction data can be obtained from CRI.

Simple Maintenance
Regular, but simple, care on carpet helps counter the abuse your carpet suffers and help it retain its beauty. What other home furnishing is walked all over? Vacuum every few days in high traffic areas, and once a week in less-used areas. Use a well-functioning vacuum cleaner, with an enclosed, efficient, dust-catching bag.

Most carpet today has been treated for stain resistance and soil retardance, but stain resistant does not necessarily mean "stain proof." Address spills quickly and remove them as soon as possible to afford the easiest spot removal. Act preventively and avoid contact with difficult spots that are hard to remove - makeup, pesticides, disinfectants, iodine, mustard, and plant food products. Have carpet cleaned on a regular schedule, before it begins to show soil - a schedule of every 12 to 18 months by a professional cleaning company is reasonable for more used areas of the home.

Benefits for Seniors
Well known for its ability to provide warmth and style to a room, absorb unwanted noise, and provide firm traction, carpet is continuing to gain a reputation as the floor covering of choice for senior adults and their families.

   Safety is tops
Safety is a top consideration for seniors, who seek a stable, non-slick walking surface that protects them from "slip and fall" accidents. Carpeted surfaces are significantly more effective at preventing slips and falls than hard, smooth surfaces.
Maintaining balance, a consideration for individuals who use braces, a cane or a walker, can be less difficult with low pile carpet combined with an extra firm cushion. CRI also recommends securely fastening carpet and rugs to provide firmer footing.
Carpet can also reduce or eliminate reflected glare, minimizing disorientation, and can reduce leg fatigue associated with walking or standing on hard surfaces.

   Healing colors
Studies have shown that color has psychological affects on moods. With this in mind, blues, greens, teal, mauve, coral, peach and warm neutrals are often chosen for their soothing effects. Avoid "hot" tones such as red, which may raise blood pressures for some, and yellow, which may cause nausea and anxiety to someone that already is not feeling well.

Color also plays a significant role with Alzheimer's patients. According to the Alzheimer's Association, patients remember colors better than numbers; therefore, color in carpet can provide a memory link and better help to orient a person to a specific room or area.

   Acoustics - It's quieter
Privacy and unwanted noise can sometimes challenge senior parents, who appreciate their independence and may not be used to the noise levels created by visiting family members.

Carpet's ability to absorb airborne sound, reduce surface noise ("footfall noises"), and block sound transmission from floor to floor is well known. Carpet with an attached or separate cushion is the most effective way to control noise and minimize sound indoors.

   Comfort - Warm your ankles
Seniors whose feet and ankles are susceptible to temperature changes, will stay warmer on carpet due to its natural insulating properties. The surface temperature of carpet is substantially higher than that of hard surfaces due to its pile construction that acts as an efficient thermal insulator.

   Selecting Cushion/Pad


A firm and resilient carpet cushion is necessary to form a good foundation for your carpet, increasing its comfort and extending its life, by absorbing the impact of foot traffic. Cushion also adds insulation and reduces noise. For most residential carpet applications, choose cushion not more than 7/16" thick. If the carpet is a Berber or a low profile carpet, choose a cushion no more than 3/8" thick.

The appropriate carpet cushion, or "pad," provides additional resilience, acoustical, and thermal qualities, comfort underfoot, and can extend the life of the carpet. Cushion should be selected according to the carpet manufacturer's requirements for thickness and density. Improper selection of carpet cushion can accelerate loss of carpet surface appearance, cause wrinkling and buckling, cause separation of the carpet seams, and can cause a breakdown of the carpet structure itself. Improper cushion selection also may void applicable carpet manufacturer's warranties.

Carpet cushion is made primarily from polyurethane foam, fiber, or rubber and is available in a variety of styles and constructions to fit your needs. The type and thickness of cushion you need varies according to traffic levels and patterns. For example, bedrooms, dens, lounge areas and other rooms with light or moderate traffic can use thicker and softer cushion, while living rooms, family rooms, hallways, stairs and other heavy traffic areas require thinner, firmer cushion.

   Residential cut pile, cut and loop, or high-level loop carpet requires a resilient, firm cushion with a thickness of 7/16 inch or less. Types of cushion may be various polyurethane foams, including the very common bonded foam product often referred to as "rebond," fiber, or rubber.
   Berber carpet, or thinner loop or cut pile carpet
   Berber carpet is made with large, wide loops and it has been found that a stable, low-flexing, cushion foundation is necessary. A thicker, softer cushion is not acceptable. Cushion thickness should not exceed 3/8 inch for these type products. Again, check with the carpet manufacturer to see if a specific cushion is required. Following are suggested cushions for use under thinner or Berber carpet:
  
40 ounce rubberized jute
22-28 ounce/sq.yd felted synthetic fiber
8 lbs/cu.ft. bonded or "rebond" polyurethane
64 ounces + flat rubber
2.7 lbs/cu.ft prime polyurethane
10 lbs/cu.ft. or greater mechanically frothed prime polyurethane
Attached cushion—some carpet is made with the cushion attached. With this carpet, a separate cushion is not necessary.

Purchasing Residential Carpet for High Traffic Areas

When purchasing carpet for high traffic areas in your home, such as the family room, hallways and stairways, it is important to select durable carpet. Here are some quick tips for purchasing high performance carpet and cushion that meet the demands of a busy environment.

Carpet density - refers to the amount of pile yarn in the carpet and the closeness of the tufts. The denser, the better. Choose a dense, firm construction.
twist - describes the winding of the yarn around itself. Choose a tighter twist for enhanced durability.

pile/construction
   cut pile - Choose a shorter pile height.
   berber/loop - Choose a shorter, tighter yarn loop.
For more information read our Selecting Carpet page.

Cushion/Pad
Select the appropriate carpet cushion, or pad, according to the carpet manufacturer's requirements for type, thickness, and density. Carpet cushion is made primarily from polyurethane foam, fiber, or rubber. The type and thickness of cushion needed varies according to the type of carpet:
Cut pile, cut and loop, or high-level loop carpet requires a resilient, firm cushion with a maximum thickness of 7/16 inch with a minimum FHA density.

Berber, and other low-pile carpet, requires a thin, dense cushion with a maximum thickness of 3/8 inch.
For more information read our Selecting Cushion/Pad section.


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