This one has bugged me for some time and I thought it best to invite comments on it. Why do people use carpets in modern homes? Answer may be obvious to you but to me it has always been bit of a mystery. Is it just for the decorative purpose, or is there some other reason as well.
Carpets arose as an industry mostly in Asia, and Turkey in particular. Central Asia had widely diverging climates year round and perhaps even during day/night. They probably needed to cover the floor for preserving the internal temperature at desired levels. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carpets seems to agree with me on this. However, this is hardly true in the modern home with the advent of central air conditioning. Besides in coastal regions of India, there is hardly a change in temperature year round. So we come back to the original question, why do we use carpets?
If the answer is just for decoration, I have another query. Why don’t we decorate our ceilings with something similar? Seems to me it is a whole area that could be used creatively. After all, it is the first sight we see in the morning. Somehow, I have never seen ceilings in any homes used creatively. Perhaps, it is because we don’t have an industry supporting that like we do for floor carpeting.
I am not sure, but I think carpets help contain dust and needs to be vacuumed only once in a while. I have noticed carpetted offices to be slightly dust free. This is just a hunch.
I wasn’t into the whole carpet thing until recently. I installed a home theater system and wanted to hide some of the wires that were running on the floor. Lined up carpets and runners along the walls. Aesthetically sweeping stuff under the you-know-what
The reverse argument is also possible for the dust thing. Carpets can accumulate dust that would have otherwise been vacuumed away. Carpet cleaning is one of the dustier experiences one can go through
Hiding wires is an innovative usage alright. At our home, we have pushed the TV very close to the wall to avoid it.
Another possible use, footfalls are much more silent on a carpet than on the real floor. So in expensive hotel lobbies & clubs, carpeting probably makes sense.
Having lived abroad several years, I would love to add my experience on Carpets.
Pros
1.Good material for insulation (provided the room itself is insulated, like using wooden walls, vacuum sealed double pane glass, no air-gaps, central heating/cooling)
2. Does not add weight
3. Absorbs shocks
4. Cheaper on Labour
5. Can walk across without cold-feet even before the room heater gets activated.
The above factors are very crucial for cold countries, as well as countries that use light weight floors
Cons
1. Sweat, grime, dust, stain gets easily absorbed, causing odour, fungus.
2. Difficult to maintain (removing stains, steam cleaning)
3. Needs replacement (atleast every 2-3 years)
4. Not suitable for high traffic areas (near bathrooms, kitchens), where you may have to use rubberized cotton mats additionally.
5. Need to be careful with babies, as they can easily pop-in stuff hidden in the carpet.
So in conclusion,
Warm countries - Use tiles if you have open-windows. Use wooden floors if you have central air-conditioning all the time.
Cold countries - Use wooden floors if you have central heating all the time. Else use carpets, especially if you are on a tight budget.
wow, Sudarsan.. that’s an amazing summing up.. Would never have thought of all that by myself.
Do make this into a post when you get the time. Think this qualifies as one of those valuable, must-see comments.
I think most of the posters above me have summed up pretty much everything there is to be said about carpets. However heres my take
1) I totally agee with deeptrance, if u own a home theatre system, then u need a carpet to hide those cables running all the way from the television to your couch!! (rear speakers)
2) Insulation!! Apart from thermal insulation, carpets also offer acoustic/sound insulation. It damps the sound and hence the chances of echo is reduced in the room.
3) Collects dust. Though vacuuming a carpet is harder, it accumlates dust. That way you have only the carpet to clean. Also vacuum cleaners work better on carpets than on floors.( atleast in my personal experience)
4) This may be unconventional. But carpets are also a way of boasting and status symbol!! You can entertain your guests with stories about how on your last trip to the middle east you picked up this persian carpet of yours.
5) If you have wooden flooring and have others living a floor below yours, then carpets are necessitated by the fact that you walking across the room can be an annoyance to them. Carpets neatly damp those sounds into faint sounds
I’m a recent immigrant to the US, and I have really hated these carpets. The main reason for that is that our carpet got infested with bedbugs. Having a tiled floor would have made the entire process of getting rid of them a pretty easy job. But with the carpet, its a loooot more difficult.
@ Sanjay
Sorry to hear about the “bugs”. How did this happen in the first place? Also, if you live in a cold place, walking on tiled floor could be a pain , right?
Won’t vacuuming get rid of bed bugs ? If you can remove the carpet and its small enough to be washed, after vacuuming thoroughly, I suggest washing in ‘hot’ water.
I live in Texas. Texas weather is a lot like India’s southern weather. I can’t remove the carpet btw, coz its stuck to the floor, and its all over the house. And no we can’t vacuum bed bugs, coz they hide in crevices and carpet linings, and my carpet is the hairy kind.
how about contacting a pest removal company. perhaps they could help?