Are you building a new home and trying to decide what type of flooring you want? Perhaps you’re renovating the flooring in your current home? Have you thought about opting for carpet either in a few rooms or throughout your house? While hardwood flooring, tile, and laminate have enjoyed a massive rise in popularity in recent years, carpet is still an excellent flooring choice. That’s especially true if you live in a cool climate or just crave a little softness under your feet.
If you’re contemplating carpet and aren’t quite sure if it’s right for your needs, our team at Hiltons Flooring is here to help! We offer both flooring and carpet services in DFW and Arlington. Below, we’ve outlined the pros and cons of using carpet in your home to give you a little more clarity in your decision-making process.
Pros of Installing Carpet in Your Home
A lot of people think carpet is inherently a huge pain since it naturally requires a bit more upkeep than hard floors. But that isn’t true at all! Carpeting actually offers homeowners several benefits. Check them out below.
Carpet Is Soft and Inviting
If you love the feeling of soft, fuzzy fabric beneath your feet, carpet delivers. It’s a little tougher to achieve that feel with tile, laminate, or hardwood since you’d need to use several rugs throughout your home to get the same effect. If you’re in the market for the comfiest, most inviting flooring option, carpet is your number one choice.
It Helps Control Noise
Installing carpet throughout your living areas or even in just a few bedrooms can really help cut down noise transmission throughout your home. Hardwood, laminate, and tile essentially reflect sound since they’re hard, so they can’t offer the same noise-dampening quality that carpet boasts. Since carpet actually helps absorb sound, it’s a great choice for upstairs rooms or even the upper levels of multi-unit dwellings.
Carpet Helps Keep Floors Warm
Nothing can help keep your feet warm quite like carpet, so if you’re prone to getting chilly indoors, it might be the best flooring option for you. Since carpet features a layer of padding (called underlay) beneath the carpet itself, it provides far more insulation than any hard flooring can.
Carpet Can Hide Dirt
Obviously, white carpet won’t do you any favors in the masking-dirty-floors department, but if you opt for darker-colored carpeting, it can work wonders for camouflaging dirt. Plus, even when the carpet does get dirty, all it takes is a quick vacuum to get it clean. Occasionally, you’ll want to shampoo your carpet too, but that doesn’t need to be done more than once a year.
Carpet Is Affordable
Compared to many flooring options, carpet is quite affordable. It’s certainly less expensive than hardwood, and generally it’s cheaper to install than laminate or ceramic tile too. If you’re on a budget and want high-quality flooring that both looks and feels great, carpet is an excellent choice.
Cons of Installing Carpet in Your Home
What are the potential drawbacks of installing carpet in your home? As with any type of flooring, carpeting does have a few disadvantages that any homeowner should consider. Learn all about them below.
Carpet Traps Allergens
If not cleaned regularly, carpets can trap dust, pollen, dirt, dust mites, and other allergens within its fibers. If you’re sensitive to those allergens or anyone in your home has respiratory difficulties, you may want to think twice before installing carpet. Of course, if you’re diligent about vacuuming, you’ll significantly reduce the amount of allergens your carpet harbors.
Carpet Shows Wear and Tear
Probably the greatest drawback of using carpet in your home is that it can show wear and tear and start to look dingy quickly if you don’t care for it properly. Light-colored carpets can stain easily, so they may not be a great choice for homes with small children or adults who don’t like cleaning.
Without proper care, carpet can also show quite a bit of wear and tear in areas that see high foot traffic, so it may be best reserved for bedrooms rather than entryways or hallways.
Carpet Can Be Susceptible to Moisture Damage
Because carpet is fabric and features underlay, it can trap moisture beneath the surface of the flooring. That moisture can prompt mold or mildew growth, which may pose a health hazard. Depending on the severity of the moisture problem, it could also do some damage to the subflooring if left unattended. However, moisture trapped beneath the surface of hard floors can also prompt mold and mildew growth and may also damage the floor’s structural components.
Carpet Requires Consistent Maintenance
A lot of people shy away from carpet simply because they’re not keen on vacuuming all the time or shampooing their floors. And while it’s true that carpet does require a bit more maintenance than hard flooring, it’s also true that any flooring must be cleaned regularly.
If you’re thinking about installing carpet in a rental home, consider your flooring options carefully. You never know how tenants might treat the floors and fixing damaged carpet when they move out is a lot more involved than replacing a tile or two or a few pieces of laminate or hardwood.
Hiltons Flooring: Your DFW Carpet Installation Experts
Contemplating installing carpet for your DFW home? Get in touch with our team at Hiltons Flooring to learn more about your options! Our experts can help you assess your flooring needs and recommend the best options for your unique home. Feel free to stop by our Arlington showroom to browse our extensive carpet selection or give us a call today at [phone] for more information. You can also send us a message with your information and questions, and a member of our team will be in touch!
