How to Choose the Perfect Carpet for your Home

Choosing the right flooring is a huge part of making a house feel like a home. With the right balance of hard flooring and carpet, you can make your home cosy and welcoming.

When you’re redecorating or renovating a room, there are endless possibilities for carpets. You’ll need to think about how much traffic the room gets, carpet piles and the level of comfort you want.

Take a look at our advice on choosing the perfect carpet for any room of your home.

Decide on your family’s needs

Work out which carpet is best for your family. If you’re at home a lot, you’ll want carpets that are comfortable but also easy to keep clean.

Another consideration is how much sunlight exposure it will get, as this could fade the colour.

Whatever you decide is your top priority, there will be a type of carpet pile to suit you.

Choose which pile you want

Carpet piles are the yarn that carpet manufacturers use to make it. It’s usually looped or cut to a certain length then twisted so it stays in place.

The more twisted the yarn is, the more durable the carpet is. There are lots of different styles of pile and they all make different textures. Overall, the pile you want depends on what you use your room for and how much traffic it gets.

Patterned loop pile
Patterned loop pile has loops of different sizes to create designs. It can give a room a casual look, so can be good for living rooms or kids bedrooms.

Cut pile
Cut pile has cut and twisted straight strands, and the amount of twist in it can have an effect on how soft the carpet is. Usually it is very soft, which means that you can sometimes see footprints and marks from the vacuum cleaner.

There are different types of cut pile. Frieze pile is very durable so can be good in commercial buildings, but textured pile is better in areas that see lots of traffic in your home because it’s durable and doesn’t get tracks.

Saxony and velvet piles are luxurious and feel soft, but you can wear the carpet down easily and show tracks.

Cut-loop pile
Cut-loop pile is great for lots of different designs. It uses a combination of cut yarn and looped yarn, and can be comfortable and durable in any room.

How much can you expect to pay?

The type of carpet you choose will affect the price – of course, the higher the quality the more you will pay. A budget carpet may cost £7 per m², but for a premium carpet you could pay over £30 per m².

For a mid range carpet installation in a room that is 30m², expect to pay around £700. This includes the carpet fitter removing the old flooring, disposing of it, and fitting new underlay and carpet. It also includes grippers and door easing.

Whichever type of carpet you choose, a carpet fitter will be able to help you get the most out of your new flooring option and give you advice on how to care for it. Simply click on ‘Start my Project’ to get quotes for carpet fitting now.