Carpet Installation

Selecting Your New Carpet

Floor Coverings & More provides you with the latest carpet patterns and styles and with the most highly trained carpet technicians to give you a perfect room every time.

Texture, color, and pattern are the key words for today's carpet styles.  If you haven't shopped for carpet in a while, be prepared to be pleasantly surprised.  The possibilities are endless!  Our goal is to help you navigate the selection process for carpet, and provide information about this important investment for your home.

The best part about choosing carpet for your home is the wide variety of products available.  In general, the more texture and pattern a carpet has, the less soil and wear it will show.  Carpet comes in many different styles, but can be broken down into two main categories:  cut pile or loop.

Your Lifestyle and Your New Carpet

Before shopping for carpet consider the function of your space and how much traffic will flow through the room.  If you have existing carpet, analyze what kind of wear and soiling are apparent.  One of the most important aspects of keeping carpet looking good is selecting the right construction and color for the space.  For high traffic areas, consider a carpet with texture - either a cut pile with tightly twisted tufts or a multilevel loop.  Color will also play a role in minimizing the wear and tear your new carpet will take.  Medium and dark colors will show less soil than light colors.

What Carpet to Choose

Once you understand the type of carpet you need the fun begins and you can select the carpet you desire.  There are a few typical scenarios when it comes to choosing carpet.  The first is matching your current furnishings to new carpet.  When you go shopping, take samples of your upholstery fabrics, window treatments, paint and wallpaper with you.  Lay your samples out on the floor and look at the samples as a group.  If you are looking for carpet for the entire house, you will probably want to go with a neutral color.  Today's neutrals are more than just beige, however.  Consider khaki, taupe, gray, green, blue, terra cotta.  The key to working with these colors is to pick versions that have been neutralized or grayed down to a subtle version of the pure hue.

When to Choose Your Capeting

Another dilemma shoppers face is having to choose carpet before the rest of the furnishings have been decided.  The good news is your color options are wide open.  If there is a color you love, or one that you are drawn to, you can feel confident that you will be happy selecting carpet in that color range.  Let the carpet color suggest a general color theme that can continue throughout the house.  It is usually better to keep the carpet consistent between rooms, unless you have natural breaks where you have different types of flooring (where wood meets carpet, for example) if you do have the opportunity to change carpets in various areas, by all means do.  A tweedy  looking patterned loop provides a tailored look for a family room or home office.  Plush cut pile carpet is great to dink your feet into in the bedroom.  Selecting a variety of carpet styles will add another dimension to your home.

Guidelines For Selecting Carpet

• Generally, the more dense the carpet pile, the more durable the carpet and the better it will perform. Look for tufts that are tightly packed together. If you can easily part the pile and see its backing, the carpet is not very dense.
• The more texture the carpet has, the less wear it will show. Berber styles with their large, thick loops will maintain an even appearance under heavy foot traffic.
• Small, repeating patterns can help distract your eye from the appearance of wear.
• Smooth, plush Saxonies will create a luxurious, formal feeling, but will also show footprints and vacuum marks. These visual effects, known as shading, are built-in to the carpet's construction to highlight the lush texture.
• If you find shading objectionable, then Textured Saxonies are a better choice for your home, especially for areas that receive a fair amount of traffic.
• Loop pile carpets are generally thought of as a casual style, often seen in family rooms and play areas. While loop pile carpets once started out in office environments, they have now become popular in homes with children and pets because they are very forgiving of heavy traffic.
• There's no way around it: Light colors are bound to show more soiling than medium and dark hues.

Carpet Maintenance

Check out our Carpet and Area Rug Maintenance section for tips and suggestions on how to maintain and clean your new flooring.