Two issues that came up recently questioned the sanity of consumers who buy flooring material. The first has to do with aluminum oxide in vinyl sheet goods and Luxury vinyl tile. The question posed by the consumer to the flooring dealer who shared this with us is, “what are the dangers of being poisoned by the aluminum in the aluminum oxide finish on some of our vinyl sheet goods and LVT products. Apparently the husband wears his socks, but no shoes, in the house and is concerned about this. I don’t mean to belittle his concern, but honestly, we read every trade paper that comes our way and I’ve NEVER heard this concern before. Are my customers as nuts as I think they are?”
The answer is yes with an explanation. Everyday we are bombarded by information having to do with our health and how things in products may adversely affect us. So yes customers are nuts to think they’ll be harmed by something they hear of in flooring products, or other products for that matter but they’ve often been driven there by the media and the scare tactics used by someone who thinks they’re an expert on subjects they actually know nothing about. Water is toxic if you drink massive volumes of it and it is the essence of life on earth. Does that mean that we should stop drinking water? Certainly not! The self appointed “you’re poisoning us police” are working overtime. The aluminum in flooring materials, where it is used, is not going to come out and endanger the welfare or health of anyone walking on it. If this were the case, and I mentioned something similar about the concern for carpet and the consumers health a few issues ago, the people who make the stuff, sell it and install it would be keeling over dead from being so close to it and that’s not happening. Further more this dealers online search turned up plenty of articles regarding the use of aluminum cookware, and the presence of aluminum in medications (and pickles!), but not one mention of flooring. So I guess it’s safe to say that if aluminum was going to harm us we’d have all been harmed long ago by the toasted cheese sandwiches our mothers made us in aluminum frying pans as kids. The American public might be getting fat from eating too much food cooked in aluminum cookware and that’s compromising their health but the aluminum itself is not to blame.
IS IT GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION?
This is another question that’s come up on two separate occasions recently, one actually involving a law suit. Is there a right or wrong direction to install a carpet? There is no set rule for this and no industry standards but there are those that will say that the pile direction should be facing toward you as you enter a room. Now, if there are entries from several vantage points this is a moot point. The carpet should be installed so the longest drops run the length of the room. However if there is a light source that will shine across the seam, the seam should be running into the light source. Then there is the question of layout and eliminating as much waste as possible and as much seaming as possible. So the answer to, “Is it going in the right direction?” depends on the circumstances. In a home all the carpet should be going in the same direction so as to avoid shade variations. On stairs the pile should face you as you go up the stairs but there is not hard and fast rule for this either. What you have to do to avoid problems and question with pile direction is to actually go to the house to lay out the job and then discuss with the consumer the options, if any, there are in the layout and direction of the carpet and if they have any preferences. Most people don’t have any idea carpet has a direction to it so it may be of absolutely no concern and bringing it up may even cause problems but they should confirm the layout and in doing so this will negate a question of pile direction. Usually, depending on the lighting and amount of windows looking into the pile lay will cause the carpet to look darker and from the opposite direction may make it appear darker. This is also influenced by the style of the carpet, its color and construction and the luster of the yarn. The shinier the yarn the more it will reflect light and this can wash out the color or pattern. So the question of a carpet going in the right direction doesn’t have a pat answer as there are a number of variables to be considered.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts