Floored: a guide to carpet

By Alex Brooks

Carpet brings a cosy, comforting warmth to homes - it's also one of the cheapest floor coverings. It comes in a mind boggling array of styles, grades and finishes. It also has a mixed performance on the eco front, with plenty of experts worried about the glues used in the material, as well as the stain-resistance treatments that are applied to keep carpet looking good.

So where do you start if you want carpet? With the material:

1. Woolly goods

Top of the pile, wool carpets can last at least 15 years and will naturally resist soiling and heat. They come in loop piles, which offers an even texture that wears well. They also come in a cut pile from a hard twist through to plush pile.

2. Synthetic debate

Carpets made from non-natural fibres like nylon, acrylic, polypropylene or polyester can come in a more dazzling array of colours or patterns and will offer great value compared to wool. They tend not to look as good for as long as wool, but they will be a more affordable choice.

3. Natural, man

Natural, organic materials like coir, sisal and jute are making a comeback. All of these fibres are scratchy rather than cuddly but they will last well and shouldn't emit as many VOCs, provided they aren't treated or glued.

4. Tiles smile

Carpet tiles are a great modular flooring choice that can increase wear and tear, allowing owners to rotate worn tiles to make the floor last longer. They are popular in the American market, but not so widely available in Australia. Carpet tiles are more common in commercial fit-outs as they are hardwearing. They can be cheaper than broadloom carpets, and their pile may not be as thick.

5. Decorate and design with carpet

Patterned carpets can bring an intimacy to large spaces and will disguise dirty marks and stains. Small rooms might want to try stripes to stretch the dimensions and draw the eye in the direction of the stripe. Neutral colours are by far the most popular.

6. Tips for carpet shopping

Gather any fabric or paint samples - as well as pictures from your desire fils - and take them with you to the showrooms to start your hunt. Carpet is a really difficult thing to choose from a small sample. The whole floors of carpet can be hard to imagine, so take samples home and lie them on the floors of the rooms you plan to decorate. It's worth buying extra carpet to replace wear and tear in high-traffic areas.

7. Measure well

To get an accurate quote, measure each room you plan to carpet carefully, ideally noting doorways and powerpoints and any extruding spots such as fireplace hearths. Check that there is clearance under doors to allow the 5mm or so thickness the carpet will add. For the most part, carpet is priced by the square metre but is often sold on broadloom widths. This can mean that if a room is wider than the broadloom width, the carpet will need to be joined - and it's better to create the joins in low-traffic, unobtrusive positions. On top of the carpet price, you may have to pay laying and underlay.

8. Get with the underlay

Underlay can help quality carpets last longer. Check what the material is made of though, as some emit larger than necessary VOCs. Most underlay adds a luxuriously thick feel to the carpet, as well as adds extra noise insulation to the room. Before the carpet is laid, check the breakdown of the quote - it's the total on-the-floor price of carpet that counts and some unscrupulous shops might try to sell you cheap carpet but charge high installation and underlay costs.

9. Maintain the game

Carpet needs to be vacuumed once or twice a week to stay in peak condition (and keep dust mites at bay). It helps to put extra mats or rugs at doorways to collect dirt before it is tracked onto the carpet. In a high traffic area such as the entrance to a lounge, it can also help avoid wear and tear to place a small runner down.Clean spills immediate, ideally blotting stains clean rather than harsh rubbing or scrubbing which can damage the pile. Steam clean carpets once a year to keep them in great shape.