Carpet advantages
When (re)furnishing your home, the many pro’s of wall-to-wall carpet simply cannot be ignored. Broadloom carpet has it all: warmth, softness and ambience.
No other flooring is as crucial to the unique character of your house. And honestly, what’s more delightful than stretching out in front on the fireplace with a book or tablet, or shuffling around the room on bare feet to feel the fabric unique sensation? Carpet puts the ‘c’ in ‘coziness’.
Bespoke carpets
Shuffling around the room on bare feet to feel fabric's unique sensation
Bespoke broadloom carpet offers endless possibilities... Sleek minimalism, refined elegance or warm rusticity: whatever your taste or lifestyle, carpet can handle it. Available in a vast range of textures, colours and designs, you will always find a carpet that complements your wallpaper, curtains and paint colours to create that perfect harmony.
Saving energy costs with carpet
Carpet has excellent floor insulation properties. If your feet are warm, the rest of you will be warm too.
Looking for ways to save on your energy bill? Better have a good look at your floor! Uninsulated floors account for 10 to 20% heat loss in the home. The right carpet can help you to reduce energy costs in heating and cooling as it’s an exceptionally good insulating material.
Research shows the insulation value of carpet can be up to 10 times higher than that of hard floor covering. The reason behind this is that carpet fibres are natural insulators with low heat conduction values. In addition, the surface pile of carpet with its millions of tiny fibres traps air and further increases its thermal insulation. The larger the area covered with carpet, the more insulation can be obtained. Wall-to-wall carpets are therefore preferred for maximum insulation.
Carpet improves acoustics
Since carpet improves acoustics, your favourite music will sound much better in a carpeted room.
Concert halls and cinemas all over the world are fitted with carpet. The reason? Carpet halves the reverberation time of sound waves reflecting off the walls and furniture, offering better acoustics.
The same goes for your home: music just sound better in a carpeted room. That’s why sophisticated home-entertainment equipment and smart speaker arrangements can only deliver top quality in combination with wall-to-wall carpet.
Non-slip flooring
Antislip flooring for elderly
Older people who find walking increasingly difficult will feel safer on carpet, because the chances of slipping are very low. A slippery staircase can be made less dangerous with carpet.. And if someone does fall, the risk of fractures and other injuries is considerably lower. Scientific studies have shown that the impact of a fall is absorbed much better by a sufficiently thick carpet.
Child safety
Do you have young children crawling or learning to walk in your house? They will have a go sooner on a soft carpet.And when they inevitably fall over, there will be less scrapes and bruises than with other flooring. Better for the baby’s body and soul and better for the parents’ tranquility.
A carpeted floor feels warmer underfoot and does not require the heating that a smooth surface may. Leading ergonomics experts and engineers have discovered that in order to feel comfortable, the difference in temperature between your head and feet should not exceed 2.5 °C. This heat difference almost never occurs with a quality wall-to-wall carpet, because of its excellent thermal insulation properties. As carpet removes cold at the level of your feet and ankles, you would even feel more comfortable in a carpeted room where the temperature is one or two degrees lower than in a room with a hard floor.
This will allow you to turn the central heating thermostat down by a few notches without losing comfort. By doing so, you will add further energy savings to those shown above.
Source: Prof. Dr. Ing. Lothar Siebel, Sachverständiger für Bauphysik, FH Aachen
Ever wondered why the insulating effect of carpet is ten times higher than that of hard floors?
The explanation is simple: physics teaches us that air is a poor conductor of heat and therefore a good insulator. That’s exactly why there is air between the two panels of glass in double glazing. The same logic goes for carpet: between the carpet fibres there is a layer of trapped air that acts as an insulator. Of course, the extent of this depends on the fibres and pile depth. The thicker the carpet, the better its insulating effect. Carpet with underlay delivers even better results.
This illustration shows that carpet reduces the heat flow through the floor by acting as an insulator
(Source: Dr. Lothar Siebel, Sachverständiger für Bauphysik, Aachen)
(Source: GUT Gemeinschaft umweltfreundlicher Teppichboden e.V)
| Material | Thermal Insulation* R value (m2K/W) |
| Concrete (10 cm thick) | 0.07 |
| Plywood (1 cm thick) | 0.08 |
| Carpet (1 cm thick) | 0.18 |
| Fibreglass insulation (1 cm thick) | 0.22 |
* The R-value is used to measure a material’s resistance to heat transfer or thermal resistance – the higher the R-value the greater the insulating effect.
Table 1. Carpet Buyers Handbook (R values converted to metric units used in Australia = m²K/W)
(Source: Carpet institute of Australia Limited)
Injuries resulting from falls are a major health problem for the elderly. Falls in older people are caused by various factors: dizziness, balance problems, medication, muscle and skeletal conditions, confusion, neurological problems, visual impairments etc. When older people fall, they break bones more often because their bone structure is weaker.
In a carpeted house there is hardly any chance of slipping and the consequences of a fall are often less serious.
Due to the rising number of elderly people in society, the number of hip fractures around the world will increase from an estimated 1.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2050
- In the United Kingdom around 15,500 people need medical treatment every year for injuries caused by slipping on wooden floors or stairs. (Source: The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents, quoted in “The Birmingham Evening Mail”, 23.08.2001, “Do it yourself, warning after death”)
- Due to the rising number of elderly people, the number of hip fractures around the world will increase from an estimated 1.7 million in 1990 to 6.3 million in 2050.
Carpet offers an answer to these daunting numbers. British biomechanical research has revealed that the risk of fracturing a hip is four times lower for falls on carpet with a pile depth of 7 millimetres than for falls on a pvc floor, and six times lower than for falls on a concrete floor.
(Source: Booth et al., 1996 BR Orth. Res. Soc. Proc., Sept.)
Sound proofing floors
Reducing disruptive impact noise carried through the floor and walls is one of the main features of carpet.
Do you throw regular parties at your house or apartment? Your neighbours will thank you if the living space is carpeted. Since carpet is an exceptional sound absorber, carpet can reduce the sound of walking by 25 to 34 decibels — whereas laminate flooring reduces surface sounds by only 1 to 6 decibels. Consider it a gift to your neighbours.
At the same time, carpet reduces noise in the living space itself, as well as noise from neighbours. The reverberation time (reflection time for sound waves) in a carpeted room is halved compared to a space with hard flooring, creating a soft atmosphere where people talk more quietly. In addition, carpet also substantially reduces noise nuisance from road traffic and construction work.
Carpets absorbs sounds up to ten times better than hard flooring, to make sure that you and your neighbours are not disturbed.
(Source: The Building Performance Centre, Napier University, Edinburgh - 2004)
Compared to hard flooring, the generated sounds in a carpeted room are lower. In addition, the duration of the reflected sounds is shorter, so there’s no irritating distortion. This enables people to talk more softly.
(Source: GUT, Gemeinschaft umweltfreundlicher Teppichboden e.V.)
Of all flooring materials, carpet offers the best noise reduction. It strongly reduces sound reverberation and absorbs over ten times more airborne noise than any other flooring material. By creating more quietness, carpet considerably enhances the feeling of well-being.
(Source : Dow Chemical)
Due to its ability to lower generated sounds and shorten the duration of reflected sounds, carpet is the floor covering of choice in cars, trains, airplanes, meeting rooms, cinemas, concert halls and open plan offices... and your home.
(Source: The building performance centre, Napier University, Edinburgh, 2004)
- cars, trains and aeroplanes are fitted with carpet floor coverings? It all has to do with the excellent sound insulation properties of carpet floor coverings.
- besides concert halls and cinemas, many meeting rooms, university lecture halls and open plan offices worldwide are fitted with carpet? Here also the optimization of the space’s acoustics is the key issue.
- 23% of Dutch adults have problems with excessive noise from their neighbours? (Source: Dutch Noise Abatement Society - 2004)
- Of all German citizens with neighbours, only 10% cannot hear them? The remaining 90% have to listen to what their neighbours are doing. (Source: Deutsches Umweltbundesamt, UBA)
- 75% of noise complaints in Great Britain in 2001-2002 concerned noise nuisance at home and the number of complaints increased by 350% over 17 years? (Source: CIEH – The Environment in your pocket – 2004)
(Source: Scottish House Condition Survey by Scottish Homes - 1996)
Healthier indoor air quality
For people with a sensitive respiratory system it is obvious: Choose flooring that "traps" dust and does not allow it to return to the air.
Carpet ensures better and healthier quality of air in your house. The piles of the carpet form a three-dimensional structure, trapping particulate matter (fine dust) and allergens. So particulate matter and allergens cannot continue to circulate in the room with every air movement, as is the case with hard flooring. Once it has settled, dust will not drift back up again, even when the carpet is walked across. This is because the particles are trapped by the carpet. Of course you need to clean your carpet regularly with a good vacuum cleaner (fitted with a roller brush and micro filter (HEPA filter)) at least twice a week.
In 2006 the GUI (Gesellschaft für Umwelt- und Innenraumanalytik) carried out a study commissioned by the Deutscher Allergie- und Asthmabund e.V. (DAAB). The air in over 100 randomly selected homes was analysed. During this analysis the concentration of particulate matter in carpeted interiors was compared with that in living spaces with a hard floor. The results of the study were clear-cut: the average concentration of fine dust in interiors with a hard floor was twice as high as in carpeted interiors. The limit applied in Germany for external air (50 µg) was exceeded by 20% in interiors with hard floors.
The piles of the carpet form a three-dimensional trap for fine dust and allergens.
In carpeted rooms the concentration of dust particles is significantly lower than in interiors with hard flooring.
Allergens are substances that can cause hypersensitive immune system reactions (allergic reactions) in individuals who are sensitive to them.
Particulate matter is a form of air pollution. Airborne particles smaller than 10 micrometres are considered particulate matter. Research has revealed that particulate matter is damaging to health when inhaled. The main sources of particulate matter are traffic (40%), industry (23%) and agriculture (20%). Particulate matter exists as a result of combustion processes, for example in cars (mainly diesel engines), power stations and industrial and private combustion plants. But it can also be a consequence of storage and transporting of coal, ore and cereals as well as wear and tear on tyres and roads.
Households also make a substantial contribution, through the use of multi-fuel boilers, open fireplaces and the barbecue, smoking cigarettes and driving a car, for example. The soot particles emitted by combustion in an open fireplace, contain relatively high levels of harmful substances, due to incomplete combustion. This form of emission also takes place in the immediate environment and at ground level. Finally, particulate matter can have natural origins, such as wind-blown soil and sea salt.
(Image courtesy of the U.S. EPA)
Fine dust quantity indoors
The average concentration of fine particles indoors was twice as high in interiors that had hard surfaces as in interiors with carpet, exceeding the limit values of 50g/m3 set in Germany for outside air. For sensitive people who have a fragile respiratory system, choosing a floor that traps dust and doesn’t send it into the air becomes a truly preventive action.
(Source: Deutscher Allergie- und Asthmabund e.V. (DAAB) and Gesellschaft für Umwelt- und Innenraumanalytik (GUI Mönchengladbach) - Dr. Dipl.-Ing. Andreas Winkens.)
Carpet releases fewer particles into the breathing area
This test shows the amount of dust released in the air when walking on carpet during 16 minutes, compared to a hard surface with the same dust load. Not only is there much more dust released into the air when walking on a hard floor, the amount of dust also keeps rising after one stops walking.
(Source: Cleaning and foot Traffic Emissions Analysis, Prof.Testing Laboratory, Dalton GA, Asbury G., 2002)
HEPA stands for “High Efficiency Particulate Air” and denotes a special kind of air filter that traps up to 99.999995% of all dust particles larger than 0.3 micrometres (µm), depending on the specific filter type. The HEPA filter was developed in the 1940s, as part of the “Manhattan Project” (development of the atom bomb), to prevent the spread of radioactive pollution.
The filter was commercialised in the 1950s. The name was protected as a trademark and at the same time a generic name for high efficiency filters.
