When you’re shopping for carpet one of the first things most of us typically do is FEEL carpet samples. We want to imagine how this will feel to actually sink our feet into its luxurious comfort. But how much do you actually KNOW about carpet and what should you consider before making this big commitment?
The “feel”of a carpet sample is just the beginning step in your carpet search! Here we discuss some of the main things to consider when doing your research.
Do you know what your carpet is made of?
There are five primary carpet fiber options you need to know and the benefits associated with each fiber type. Evaluating the area and activities where you plan to lay carpet is a good place to start and will help you narrow down the best fiber choice for your particular need.
The Five fiber options are:
Triexta– Highest performing & easiest to clean; less likely to mat down
Nylon-High performing less, likely to mat down; diverse in style and color options.
Polyester– superior stain-resistance, but unfortunately doesn’t have as good durability as Nylon or Triexta.
Olefin– Very durable & usually inexpensive
Wool– Natural fiber and durable.
The Four Main Carpet Types
There are four main carpet types to choose from. All have pros & cons to consider, depending on the area of your home & the look and feel you want to achieve. You might choose a different carpet type for a bedroom vs. family room.
Textured– provides an open canvas for flexible decor.
Twist– Delivers a casual and stylish look
Loop/Berber– provide a tailored look for more formal decor.
Pattern– provides an upscale look for more engaging decor.
The Pad can make all the difference!
Carpet padding is just as important, if not more than the carpet you choose. Padding, or the cushion is the foundation of every carpet installation and helps to increase the lifespan and comfort of your carpet.Padding is the real support structure for your carpet and will effect the life of your carpet holding up under constant wear & tear. Here is a great article comparing carpet padding to a bridge. The carpet=asphalt & padding=foundation.
The Six Main Padding types:.
Foam pad:Density is typically 2-5 lbs.
Frothed foam pad:Density should be 12+ lbs for durability.
Rebond pad:Density is 5-10 lbs.
Synthetic fiber pad:Usually rated in ounces but may be rated in pounds.
arrow-rightWaffle rubber pad: Go for a minimum of 64 ounces.
arrow-rightSlab rubber pad: Usually comes in 18-22 lbs
Most carpets call for a 7/16″ pad but that depends on the carpet fiber you choose but its important to follow the manufactures warranty pad requirements! Not doing so could forfeit your carpet warranty all together! So do your homework. If you find a carpet you are seriously considering, research it thoroughly online & from the actual carpet manufactures guide.
Never rely solely on a salesman or retailer to give you all the information needed to make an informed decision. We are not implying anyone is intentionally being dishonest. Only that, especially with major purchases,arming yourself with information is powerful & keeps you in control during the buying process. Usually with less regret!
Good luck in your search to find the perfect carpet to fit you and your family’s lifestyle. Hopefully this article helped educate on your carpet buying journey! Check out our full line of carpet options here.
If you want your floors to last long, you must take care of them properly. There are three things crucial for keeping your floors in top condition and they are cleaning, maintaining and prevention. The key to healthy floors is routine cleaning, and you should follow some cleaning protocols to prevent damage and maintain your floor’s appearance. Damage can also be minimized with regular maintenance and prevention. Therefore, let’s talk about these three stages in detail.
The best thing you can do to protect your floors from damage and scratches is dust them every day with a microfiber mop or swiffer. Microfiber cloths are great because they trap dirt, pet hair, particles and other allergens with static electricity. They are not only more effective, but also much safer than a broom, because some brooms have hard bristles that can scratch your floors. Every week you should vacuum your floors with a soft-bristled floor-brush attachment. Before you begin, dust your floors with a microfiber cloth, and then carefully vacuum them. Be cautious and don’t let the vacuum’s wheels damage the surface. Also, you can clean your floors every month with a floor cleaner. Use a damp mop with a flat microfiber head. Instead of using water to dampen the mop, use a light coat of cleaner made specifically for your type of floors and be frugal. If you have a hardwood floor, never use a wet mop or a steam mop, because they both can dull the finish and cause damage to your flooring.
If your floors have a surface finish, and most hardwood floors do, you can polish them once in every two or three months. Finishes protect and seal the wood and give your floor that glossy shine. Eventually, the finish on your floors will get worn out, there will be visible scratches, and their surface will start to look dull. Regular polishing will take care of that problem. Polishing is best done with a buffing pad that will even out small scratches and restore your floors’ shine. If regular cleaning and maintenance no longer help, it’s time to re-coat the surface. This usually needs to be done every five to ten years, depending on the foot traffic and cleaning habits. After re-coating, your floors will look brand new.
Some floors, if properly maintained and cleaned, can last well over a hundred years. But, when your floors need a little rejuvenation, it’s best you hire an expert. They will apply a new coat of finish or sand your floors. It’s smart to sand all areas where you can see loss of color or deeper scratches. You can try to do some of these fixes yourself, but there’s nothing like a professional touch, so don’t hesitate to invest in this.
As always, prevention is the easiest and best cure. If possible, try to avoid walking on your floors in shoes, especially high heels. Those can easily damage the surface coat. Also, think about sticking felt pads to all furniture legs, because those too can dent and scratch your floors. Different colorful round rugs are another great solution. This way, you won’t bring so much dirt inside. It’s a little-known fact, but your floors are also sensitive to extreme temperature and humidity. The ideal temperature for hardwood floors is 15 to 25 degrees Celsius and the optimal humidity is somewhere between 30 and 50 percent. If temperature and humidity are not within these parameters, your floors can start buckling and gapping. Of course, you don’t have to keep your eyes on the thermometer and follow the humidity all the time. They have to change radically and stay that way for a longer period of time to really start affecting the floor. As you can see, maintaining your floors doesn’t have to be difficult. If you clean them regularly and apply some basic preventive measures, your floors will be in tip-top shape for many years to come.
I chose laminate flooring for my home, and I’m so happy with my decision. Choosing new flooring or your home is a choice that doesn’t come without serious consideration. After all, it’s a main focal point of your home. It’s going to be something that you look at and feel every single day. It also comes with a decent price tag, so you want to make sure you make the most informed decision, and one that works best for you and your family. As a retailer that sells many different types of flooring, I had a lot of options to weigh. But ultimately, laminate flooring won. Here is why I made the choice that I did, and why I haven’t regretted it for a minute!
Why Laminate Flooring Was The Choice For Me
Scratch Resistance:
I am a proud dog mom, and a lover of heels. I also move furniture around to fit my mood, whenever it may strike. So, I needed a flooring option that wouldn’t be ripped to shreds by some canine claws among other things. While hardwood doesn’t hold us so well against them, laminate solved this problem! While some are scratch resistant in an industrial setting as well as a residential setting, a simple residential scratch resistance was enough for my needs. Luckily, that was easy to find!
Hardwood Scratches
Water Resistance:
As I mentioned above, I love my pups. BUT, the occasionally have an accident. This can be devastating for real hardwood floors, and a real pain for carpet. Hardwood can be water damaged in a matter of hours if left unattended, which can happen if you happen to be away when the accident occurs.
Pet stains on hardwood flooring
Not only that, but spills or leaks can cause the same chaos. Pulling up hardwood to replace it due to water damage is costly, and no fun at all. Our laminate is water resistant, so it was a great choice for us! While it can still be damaged if let sit too long (the face is water resistant but in between the joints is not), it gave us peace of mind knowing that if we weren’t there to clean up the issue right away, we wouldst be out of pocket or out of our minds with anger.
Dirt and Bacteria:
While carpet technology has come a long way in the last several years, having pets or kids can make carpet a pretty dirty place. We have a dog who gets immense joy from rolling in the dirt, and then coming inside and rolling around on the floor. Image the build up of dirt after a week or two? Not to mention the dog hair. With another long haired dog, it is a constant battle to keep up with it, and vacuums don’t always get everything. I like to be able to SEE exactly what is on my floor, so that I can clean it up. With carpet, its often a guessing game. Did I get it all? Or is it still dirty. Smells can also linger in carpet that just can’t in hardwood floors.
Stain Resistance:
While I don’t have kids just yet, I am expecting my first. On top of that, my husband and I have our fair share of clumsy moments. Stains are a reality. Wine and spaghetti sauce on carpet are never idea (and don’t forget about the pet stains I mentioned before). Not only is the clean up time consuming, it never seems to be 100%. Having to stare at the remnants of a failed cleaning every day would be enough to drive me mad! I preferred the easy clean up of laminate to that of carpet. To make areas more cozy, I’ll just get a rug! I can switch them out if they ever get too damaged or I want a change.
Price:
Ok, lets be honest. We live in a world where price is an issue to be considered, at least for the majority of us. We always want to know that we are getting the best possible product for the best possible price. I am a young person in my first home. I am on a pretty strict budget. A high end hardwood wasn’t an option, even though I wasn’t sure that was the best choice for me in the end anyway. LVT is another great option, with all of the benefits of laminate flooring, but the colors that I liked were more than I was able to spend, so I made a compromise. So laminate flooring made sense to me from the beginning, because I was able to get everything I needed, at a price I could actually afford. So there you have it. My top 5 reasons that I chose laminate flooring over hardwood floors and carpet. Do you love your laminate or wish you had chosen something else? Are you still trying to figure out which flooring is best for you? Let us know in the comments!
Builders Surplus is a full service renovation company with locations in Louisville, Kentucky, and Newport, Kentucky, which also serves Cincinnati, Ohio. We are the leading provider of Ledge Stone, wall tile and backsplash tile in Louisville, Newport, and Cincinnati. We specialize in interior design, kitchen design, bathroom remodel, building materials, and home improvement. Interior Design and measurements come as a free service to our clients. We sell building materials ranging in every price point, from unfinished kitchen cabinets to top of the line Wellborn cabinets. In addition to interior design, we also offer installation services. If you have any questions or would like to set up a free design consultation with one of our interior designers, we would encourage you to do so. We love sharing our knowledge with clients & potential home renovators. We write about interior design, home decor, decorating ideas, and home improvement. We hope you’ll check back in for our next article! Happy Renovation!
Luxury Vinyl Tile, commonly called LVT flooring, is one of the newer flooring products on the scene. Now, don’t let the word VINYL fool you. Most of the time, when people hear about vinyl flooring, they think of cheap linoleum sheets or unattractive vinyl tiles that were used in decades past. They weren’t the most durable and they defiantly weren’t the nicest to look at. LVT flooring is NOT this type of vinyl. Technological advances in flooring manufacturing have come such a long way in the last few years. The new class of vinyl, or LVT flooring, is some of the nicest looking flooring around. It is easy to install, durable, and most products are 100% waterproof. This makes it a favorite for commercial applications, residential installations and for contractors and handymen themselves. What hasn’t yet caught on quite as much is the consumers knowledge of this amazing product.
LVT Flooring Durability
LVT flooring is constructed using polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. This non-toxic property gives the material a firm yet elastic makeup. The material is said to be resilient because of its ability to compress and expand with contact instead of cracking. Obviously, this is something that you’d want in a flooring choice. Luxury vinyl flooring is also protected by durable “wear layer” of urethane for maximum protection and orthopedic comfort. The thicker the wear layer is, the more durable the flooring to high foot traffic. There are four layers fused together to create what we know as LVT flooring:
The resilient vinyl backing (or cork backing)
The vinyl color layer
The photographic film layer which gives it’s appearance
The urethane or aluminum oxide top layer. The protective top layer, which can also be referred to as thewear layer or mil layer is a very important component in the durability of LVT. Quality LVT products will have as high as a 40 mil layer. Commercial applications can successfully utilize 20 mil or above. Lower mil layers are available, but should be specified only for light traffic applications.
No matter which LVT product you choose, odds are, it’s very durable. They were created with durability in mind and you won’t need to shy away from it if you have pets, kids, furniture with sharp edges, or wear stiletto heels on a regular basis.
LVT Flooring: A Vision Of Perfection
LVT Flooring can mimic so many other flooring options, such as tile or real hardwood. Most people cannot tell the difference. CoreTEC, one of our favorite LVT providers, has just come out with their HD line, which is actually etched and embossed, giving it and even more realistic look that the already realistic LVT on the market today. Because Luxury Vinyl flooring can be made to look like hardwoods, stone, ceramic tile, metal flooring, bamboo, marble, and more, the odds are there is a vinyl tile, plank, or sheet out there to match just about any flooring material you desire. Many high end designers are opting to have LVT in their offices and buildings. They could choose any flooring choice, they know all the pros and cons, yet they still choose LVT. That should tell you something.
Drowning in Durability
One of the most sought after qualities, as well as the biggest improvement over your traditional vinyl flooring, is the face that LVT flooring is completely water and moisture resistant. You can literally let the planks or tiles sit in a bucket of water and it won’t warp, discolor, and the edges won’t lose their integrity. This is THE perfect flooring for basements, water prone areas like bathrooms, laundry rooms or mudrooms. Homes in areas with risk of floods would be highly encouraged to look into this. Pet owners are also loving this fact, as no more ruined flooring because of an accident!
A Quiet Confidence
Another great quality about SOME types of LVT flooring is the sound dampening cork back. You can find this in the CoreTEC plus line. This cork backing acts as a built in underlayment. This means that while it is a slight bump up from the cost of a CoreTEC One, you don’t have to buy an underlayment or take the time to put it down, so you’ve saved time and money already. In 2 story homes this sound dampening quality is crucial.
Lay it Down Easy
In addition to all the other wonderful qualities of LVT flooring, this is probably the easiest flooring to install. Making it a great DIY project for those of you who like to get their hands dirty! The simple click and lock installation can be done in a breeze with no prior experience. We would always recommend watching a good youtube video first, though! It’s also able to be installed above or below grade. Yeah, we pretty much think it’s the perfect floor, too.
Features & Benefits Galore!
The features and benefits of LVT flooring are endless. Here is a list that the World Floor Covering Association put together to show all the features and benefits of LVT flooring:
LVT Features
Incredibly realistic photo replication of natural materials (photogravure process) –
Brands that offer 100% vinyl material
Inherent safety features
Ease of maintenance
Excellent selection of sizes, shapes
Naturally water resistant
Scratch, stain, dent and scuff resistant
Cost effective
Exceptional durability
Exceptional durability
More resilient than other hard surface floors
Amazing aesthetics
LVT Benefits
The look and feel of nature’s best materials at a lower cost are a reality of Luxury Vinyl Tile flooring manufacturing
Vinyl flooring satisfies Green building standards and earns LEED points in commercial applications.
Meets requirements of commercial flammability codes, slip resistant requirements…and a menu of other safety codes
Simple damp mopping is the recommended cleaning procedure for LVT floors
The size options vary by manufacturer, but many styles are available in 12 x 12”, 18 x 18”, 12 x 24” sizes, and planks in standard (3 x 36” 4.5 x 36) and extra-large widths (7 or 9’ widths).
LVT floors are inherently water resistant (and fairly impervious to wet spills from above). It’s important to install over flat, dry, approved substrates so that no water seepage occurs beneath the floor.
Specialized wear layers (most common are 20 mil; some offer up to a 40 mil layer). Then the floors are coated with urethane to enhance durability
Economics factor favorably into the specification of Luxury Vinyl Tile Flooring for both commercial and residential applications, giving the look and feel of rich, natural materials at a lower cost
Since most luxury vinyl tile flooring is also constructed to withstand commercial wear and tear, it’s ideal for residential high-traffic areas as well as other areas of the home. Warranties vary by manufacturer, but it’s not unusual to see 20-25 year warranties on brand name luxury vinyl tile flooring.
Because there are multi-layers of vinyl in luxury vinyl tile flooring as well as a resilient backing as the foundation, LVT tiles and planks have more resilience underfoot. It’s easier to stand on for long periods of time AND as an added benefit, it tends to be warmer underfoot than ceramic.
There has been a stunning transformation in the design aesthetics of Luxury vinyl tile flooring in the last five years. If you are linking it to “industrial” looking floors, this is where you need to throw away your misconceptions and do some research. This may be the one biggest factor that has caused interior designers to stand up and take note of the new brand of LVT. The realism of the total look, INCLUDING distressed wood finishes, stone and slate tactile surface textures, and even woven textiles imbedded in the wear layers, are grabbing attention.
We hope this has been enlightening! If you have any questions that weren’t covered about LVT flooring, feel free to let us know in the comments, or contact us! We also have a wide selection of LVT in stock daily or available for custom order. Come see us for all of your LVT needs!
Builders Surplus is a full service renovation company with locations in Louisville, Kentucky, and Newport, Kentucky, which also serves Cincinnati, Ohio. We specialize in interior design, kitchen design, bathroom remodel, building materials, and home improvement. Interior Design and measurements come as a free service to our clients. We sell building materials ranging in every price point, from unfinished kitchen cabinets to top of the line Wellborn cabinets. In addition to interior design, we also offer installation services. If you have any questions or would like to set up a free design consultation with one of our interior designers, we would encourage you to do so. We love sharing our knowledge with clients & potential home renovators. We write about interior design, home decor, decorating ideas, and home improvement. We hope you’ll check back in for our next article! Happy Renovation! Written By: Allie Bloyd
While researching this particular subject I found that there exists an actual text book called “Advances in Carpet Manufacture” and you can find it here, ya know, if you’re interested in going that in depth! Now, being a recent college graduate myself, I – for one – don’t want to subject you to the torture that is reading an entire text book. So, I’m going to learn you a thing in 5 minutes or less that will hopefully stick better than my calculus professors lecture on why we need calculus in our everyday life. So, the prevailing argument against carpet that gives it a bad wrap is that it holds onto a bunch of nasty things that can make people sick, allergies a living hell, and that it’s generally dirty. While this used to be the case for older carpet types, that’s not necessarily true today thanks to proper maintenance and cleanings as well as some cool technical and manufacturing advancements that have improved the overall state of carpet!
Magic Fresh®
Magic Fresh is a particular, patented, formula that Beaulieu makes for their line of Bliss carpets. Other brands and manufacturers have similar features on their newer carpet lines, but Beaulieu Bliss is what we have here and are more familiar with it! Magic Fresh is a blend of materials that helps to block and get rid of odor from pets, cooking, dirt, and other nasties that can be found in your carpet. It’s not like a spray on chemical, it’s actually apart of each little-bitty carpet fiber! This allows the feature to be self-renewing so it’s constantly working to keep your carpets smelling fresh! Beaulieu compares it to that box of baking soda that you keep in your fridge – except you don’t need to replace it!
Silver Release®
This is kind of like Magic Fresh, except that this super cool advancement is actually used in surgical masks, bandages, and laundry equipment to kill microbes and other icky junk (that can also cause bad odors)! This technology uses silver, zinc and copper ions that are placed in the fibers of the carpet and some sciency stuff happens where these ions take the moisture from the air that the bacteria would normally feed off of and get rid of it, starving the microbes and essentially creating an anti-bacterial carpet! Say whaaa?
Scotchguard™
Carpet Protector by 3M
This wonderful feature is the one that you’ll notice the most, mostly because your carpet will look cleaner and will be easier to clean as well! The Scotchguard treatment is applied to each fiber in the carpet, creating a tough superhero-like barrier that defends the fibers from dirt, grime and stains! It’s not waterproof! But the treatment does make water- and oil-based stains as well as dirt and dust to be more easily cleaned and vacuumed up! So we have anti-oder, anti-microbial and stain-fighting technology that’s seriously impacting and innovating the carpet manufacturing process – creating a cleaner product for your home and family! These particular features are only available from the Beaulieu carpet line! Other brands are also coming out with their own formulas that can do pretty much the same thing, however Beaulieu has the lead and are the experts on these emerging technologies!
Spoiler Alert: I still haven’t used calculus outside of that class!
Builders Surplus is a full service renovation company with locations in Louisville, Kentucky, and Newport, Kentucky, which also serves Cincinnati, Ohio. We specialize in interior design, kitchen design, bathroom remodel, building materials, and home improvement. Interior Design and measurements come as a free service to our clients. We sell building materials ranging in every price point, from unfinished kitchen cabinets to top of the line Wellborn cabinets. In addition to interior design, we also offer installation services. If you have any questions or would like to set up a free design consultation with one of our interior designers, we would encourage you to do so. We love sharing our knowledge with clients & potential home renovators. We write about interior design, home decor, decorating ideas, and home improvement. We hope you’ll check back in for our next article! Happy Renovation! Written By: Kat Flaherty
Finding the right kind of flooring for your home and your project can be a daunting task because if you’re anything like my Dad, then you want hardwood flooring throughout the home – including the kitchen and the bath, but you also want as little maintenance as possible on it. We all know that’s just not a possibility with hardwoods. However, now-a-days because the look of hardwood floors is so in demand vendors have developed floors that look like wood, can be installed anywhere in the home, and require very little upkeep. But what is this magical and mysterious unicorn of the flooring world? You might know it as Luxury Vinyl Tile (LVT) but this flooring is a subcategory of LVT, and it’s called WPC.
What is WPC flooring?
WPC stands for Wood Plastic/Polymer Composite. The fact of it is: many WPC flooring types don’t actually contain any actual wood, but a wood flour (a finely ground wood powder) made from hardwoods. However, this doesn’t hinder the strength or durability, especially since it’s combined with tough plastics! WPC flooring is technically a LVT (Luxury Vinyl Tile/Plank) because it has a vinyl surface. It can also be marketed as being an engineered or enhanced vinyl floor. People have known about LVT and similar products for a while, but WPC is just catching on in terms of popularity. The reason it’s gaining so much popularity and flying off our shelves is because of the promises that it makes as being dimensionally stable, waterproof, and recyclable! Our main WPC product, Aqua Vision, also starts at a lower price point than the other LVT’s we carry.
So it’s an LVT?
No, but yes. Just so we’re clear WPC is not actually vinyl – it’s just marketed as a Luxury or Engineered Vinyl because vinyl is more widely well known; and because people know what it is that makes it easier to market! So, basically at this point, until WPC becomes a household term for flooring WPC and LVT are somewhat interchangeable. Remember when you were in grade school and you learned that a square was a rectangle, but a rectangle is not a square? It’s the same concept. WPC floors are LVT but LVT floors are not WPC floors.
Aqua Vision vs. Other LVTs?
What’s the difference?
Well, we, like many other businesses that sell flooring have also been marketing our WPC floors along with our LVT products. However, the most distinct difference between Aqua Vision and other LVTs is that is it 100% waterproof. They use this stuff by pools! That’s how serious they are about this stuff being waterproof!
Any Advantages?
Many LVTs will advertise themselves as being waterproof to some degree – and some are – but Aqua Vision is 100% waterproof. This means that it can be installed below-grade, for example: in your basement, in moisture-rich environments, like your bathroom, or anywhere that other floors like hardwood, laminate, or carpet would never go! Other advantages to Aqua Vision and other WPC floors is that it has a rigid core design! This means that it’s dimensionally stable and that, in turn, means that it can be installed just about anywhere and over just about any hard surface floor without showing any dips or imperfections! This also means that it won’t expand, so it doesn’t need time to acclimate before being installed in your home or business and that it doesn’t need any spaces during installation to account for any shifting or expanding! Aqua Vision and other WPC is really the future of Vinyl and Laminate flooring! The way that the popularity of this product is rising, we’re sure that it’s going to stick around for a long time because of it’s many advantages of being waterproof, easy to install and maintain! Nothing is stopping this product from flying off the shelves and into homes around the country!
Builders Surplus is a full service renovation company with locations in Louisville, Kentucky, and Newport, Kentucky, which also serves Cincinnati, Ohio. We specialize in interior design, kitchen design, bathroom remodel, building materials, and home improvement. Interior Design and measurements come as a free service to our clients. We sell building materials ranging in every price point, from unfinished kitchen cabinets to top of the line Wellborn cabinets. In addition to interior design, we also offer installation services. If you have any questions or would like to set up a free design consultation with one of our interior designers, we would encourage you to do so. We love sharing our knowledge with clients & potential home renovators. We write about interior design, home decor, decorating ideas, and home improvement. We hope you’ll check back in for our next article! Happy Renovation! Written By: Kat Flaherty
Louisville: 502.968.8858
