This is an age old question that most home owners find asking themselves when its time to build a home or renovate. Which is better hardwood or carpet?
There are a lot of people who don’t care about the pro’s and con’s of either. They simply prefer hardwood or they simply prefer carpet and aren’t willing to budge on this decision for anything. Unfortunately, their mind is made up and this list is not for them.
But, if you are weighing the options and just can’t decide which is better or which is going to add more value to your home please take a moment and look at the information below. First off and straight to the point answer would be that you need to tackle this question not for the whole house, but instead room by room.
Pro’s of Carpeting Your Home
Climate
Installing carpet will allow your living space to be warmer for those who like to walk around their home with bare feet. With hardwood flooring it is much cooler on the feet and in winter may cause you to increase the heating.
Noise
With carpeted floored rooms you will find that the noise is suppressed quite considerably. If you find that you have a multilevel home you will know that having hardwood floors on the top level will create a certain amount of noise for the lower levels to hear.
Options
When shopping for carpet you will find an endless amount of options to place in your home while shopping for hardwood flooring can be a bit limited. There are much fewer options in hardwood flooring.
Furniture Stability
For those who do not like to continually rearrange furniture this might be the biggest pro of all. With carpet you will find that the furniture will stay put a lot better than if you had hardwood floors. Although with this it is much more difficult to move your furniture.
Con’s of Carpeting Your Home
Stains
Speaking to the pet owners of the world you know this all to well. Carpet can stain and be impossible to remove. Now, most stains can be removed by steam machines and cleaning services that you can hire to do this for your home, but there are exceptions to every rule. That one stain that no matter what you put on it or what you try to remove with it just wants to stay around.
Harsh Chemicals
Now, before I go any further I realize harsh might be a strong word. Nowadays more and more people are looking to all natural formulas to use in their homes. Chemicals used in carpets are not all natural. Either are the chemicals used to steam clean your carpet. If you are looking to reduce the use of chemicals in your home going with hardwood might be a better option.
The Crud Factor
In other words, dirt! No matter how hard you try vacuuming doesn’t get all the dirt out of your carpets. This is definitely not something you like to do everyday and it takes quite a bit of time to vacuum. With hardwood floors clean up is much simple and you can see if you have removed all the dirt since they aren’t trapped in any fibers like carpet.
Personal Taste
Hardwood flooring is very popular right now and honestly been popular for quite some time. Although at the end of the day it all matters to your personal taste and what you prefer. Your home is a reflection of your taste and ultimately your personality. You should decorate your home to your liking and have fun with it!
Replacement
Though purchasing and installing carpet is less expensive you must also remember that the lifetime of your carpet is much shorter than that of hardwood flooring.
From a designing standpoint it really all comes down to how you feeling about it. It is your home and you need to love it! Remember we must design and decorate our home for us not just for our guest.