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Floors: Wood vs Carpet

24.01.18

There are many choices available for your floor surface covering, but the two most popular are certainly wood or carpet. It can be difficult to balance your personal preference with what works best for your property. For this blog, we’ll take a look at the benefits of both floor types to help you work out what choice is right for you.

Wood

Wooden floors are usually associated with an elegant interior that embraces modernity so, stylistically speaking, the theme of your interior design should help to inform you about how suitable a wood floor would be. They usually have quite basic or minimalistic designs, if any, but this isn’t the criticism it sounds like. A minimalist design can be timeless, while detailed designs can go out of fashion or even develop stylistic associations that might not fit with your current aesthetic.

But there are several other advantages for wooden floors. For instance, they are durable to the point that a well-looked-after floor could last a lifetime. They’re also easy to clean and don’t absorb smells, thanks to the lack of adsorbing fibres. Speaking of fibres, their absence means wooden floors won’t collect or store dust and microorganisms, which can cause problems for those with allergies. Carpets are constantly sending dust particles into the air every time someone walks across them. Not only are carpets guilty of spreading dust into the air, but also of using up non-renewable resources because most carpets are produced from petroleum. Hardwood floors come from trees (obviously) which are a renewable resource.

Wood floors also tend to last longer than you would expect, as long as you’re willing to refinish your floor if something happens to it. By sanding away the floor until the damaged or stained area is gone and then filling the space with finish products, you can revitalise a damaged floor.

Finally, another advantage of wood is that you can always place a rug over a wooden floor, should you want it. Carpets don’t really have that option. There aren’t many carpeted floors with chunks cut out to expose a wooded area for decoration. Considering all those benefits, wooden floors are looking like a convenient, stylish option for your property, aren’t they?

Carpet

Well, hold your horses there because carpets have something to say about this. First and foremost is comfort – a soft flooring is more luxurious on your feet. It comes in particularly helpful first thing in the morning in a bedroom during winter. Getting out of bed and stepping onto a hard, cold floor is enough to make you late for work! Not only are carpets excellent for keeping your feet warm, but they’re also significantly better at insulating your property, helping to stop heat escaping (although this doesn’t mean we advocate having carpets on the walls). Carpets also come in a much wider range of designs and materials, opening up your options in patterns, colour, and physical feeling in more interesting and varied ways that wood can offer.

The occupants of the property will have an impact on your choice of flooring as well. If there are any young children, then you might prefer carpeted floors for the added layer of protection they can offer. Children have a way of falling over at the drop of a hat, and knowing the floor isn’t a hard surface can be a comforting safety measure.

One of the biggest complaints about wooden flooring is the noise. Not only do wooden floors not insulate noise especially efficiently, but they are actually very loud themselves. Upstairs, wooden flooring can be heard by anyone underneath, with older boards offering the additional creak or squeak to simulate the atmosphere of a haunted house. Carpets add a layer of padded noise insulation between feet and the floorboards, meaning a much quieter, more peaceful (and less creepy) house.

 

So now you are armed with everything you need to know about whether carpets or wooden floors are best for your property. Are you more interested in the sleek, timeless style of a wooden floor, or do you prefer the comfort and design flexibility of carpets? Maybe that new carpet smell excites you (although that smell is actually the chemicals that make up the fibres and plastic backing evaporating into the air, with the adhesive smell adding to that)? Either way, there is no wrong choice because what works best for your property and what works best for you are all the criteria you need. You can’t go wrong if you choose what feels right.

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Andrew Montlake

Written by Andrew Montlake

Andrew Montlake, better known as Monty, began his journey with an Hons degree in Economics & Politics before starting in the mortgage industry in February 1994. As a main founder of Coreco in 2009, he successfully grew the brand, marketing, and communications, and was made MD in 2019 focussing on the overall vision, strategy, and culture of the company. As Coreco’s media spokesperson, Andrew can often be seen or heard on TV and radio as well as regularly commenting in the national, local, and trade press. He is the author of this acclaimed Mortgage Blog and is well-known for his social media, podcasts, and public speaking. Andrew is now proud to serve as Chairman of the Association of Mortgage Intermediaries, (AMI) as a cheerleader for the Mortgage Industry as a whole and continues to work at the coal face, writing mortgage business and advising clients.

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