This was the title of an article on the MSN Real Estate website a few months ago saying that more Americans are turning to hardwoods, decorative concrete and other hard surfaces to send their home values skyrocketing. There’s no question that hard surface flooring is in great demand. This is a fact and every major manufacturer has gotten involved in the production or distribution of hard surface flooring materials of all kinds. If you watch any of the home shows, particularly House Hunters on HGTV one of the first things most prospective buyers make a comment on is the flooring. They will comment on the wood floors or typically on replacing what’s currently installed with something else; most often wood. Wood is considered a sign of quality.
Don’t be fooled however into thinking carpet is dead, far from it. Carpet has actually gained market share slightly and still commands the majority of the flooring materials sold. It is the most comfortable and still the best value buy, by far, of any flooring material. Carpet, according to surveys around the country, is also the least expensive flooring material to install. Given the surge in fashion and styling carpet has undergone, it potentially is the most stylish flooring material there is. A little imagination and creativity can create a unique appearance by using patterned products, textures, and implementing borders. Most people who sell carpet don’t even consider the design element of carpet and how well it lends itself to the creation of a unique space.
Carpet keeps getting better and better. The technology in fibers, treatments, backings and design and the filtering down of extraordinary structural and patterning elements from the commercial market have all contributed to carpet products that are better than ever before. Certainly we all live in homes that contain hard surface flooring and more people want hard surface in more places than ever before. Hard surface is more practical in kitchens, laundry rooms, powder and bathrooms and high traffic areas. It can make a grand statement in a large foyer or make a common foyer more elaborate. But you can’t beat the comfort, quiet, softness, luxury and warmth of carpet. The limitations of design and styling of carpet are only in the mind of those who sell it. Anything the mind can conceive in a design, style color or individuality can be created with the advanced equipment available today by any number of manufacturers. The woven manufacturers have been creating product like this for decades that is seen by millions in casinos, upscale hotels, cruise ships and corporate offices. Even the carpet being used in better retail stores is higher styled today. These environs are the same facilities seen by the consumers who shop your stores. They are exposed to carpet in a way most of you don’t even consider. The opportunities to sell more and better escape most retailers who don’t allow themselves to be attuned to the possibilities.
To answer the question posed in the title, carpet is not dead now nor will it be. The segment continues to grow and the prospects for that continuing are not dimming. Relative to claims, the largest growth category for complaints is wood, which is also one of the fastest growing product segments. Is this a proportional issue? To an extent, yes, but, like most floor covering, wood is not understood the way it should be by those who sell it. For that matter neither is carpet. Again, if you know the products you sell, their limitations, where they should be used and how, what they’ll do when subjected to use, abuse and poor maintenance you will avoid claims and can actually provide products that deliver what the consumer expects. Unfortunately this is information that is not supplied or that you don’t avail yourselves of. How many of you have the vast amounts of information provided from the Wood Associations?
God forbid someone should tell you that you can’t use white carpet in a family room populated by an active family that lives in the room and takes very poor care of the carpet. How could it not look bad? This is where the “bad press” comes from and the negatives are predicated on ignorance not common sense. Would you wear your Sunday best to work in the yard and then complain about how they didn’t hold up? The right carpet in the right place will work every time. The problem is not the carpet it’s the people who market and sell it. Granted there is a substantial amount of carpet that makes it out of the mills that is less than perfect. All of the defects can be sourced and corrected so they won’t occur again; we’ve known this for years. Much of the growth of hard surface has been generated by people being lied to about how well certain carpets will perform. Disillusionment about any product will cause this to happen time and again. So, again, carpet is not dead, not even ill.
If you need help with any flooring material question, information or otherwise, call us. You can’t find a better source for answers.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts