But the experts say when it comes down to it, the task of carpeting your digs need not be intimidating as what people are putting underfoot in their homes nowadays generally falls into two styles — cut pile and loop.

CUT PILE — just how it sounds and generally the more popular choice — is made by forming a loop and pulling it through a backing, then cutting the loop at the top and leaving tufts of yarn standing up. Shag, saxony, velvet and textured carpet all fall under the cut pile heading.

LOOP is also just that — its individual strands are pulled through the backing twice, creating a loop. Sisal, berber and cable are all types of looped carpet, which has become a big seller for high-traffic areas of the home.

What room clients plan to carpet plays into the decision-making, as do lifestyle, age and level of care they would like to put into maintaining its appearance, says Greg Holtz, floor covering manager for Jordans Floor Coverings (5914 3 St. S.W.). Those with small children or pets may have different needs and abilities to keep the floors looking tops than, for example, a retired lady who lives alone and keeps her place spotless.

The downside to cut pile can be the tendency for it to show footprints or directional lines (think vacuuming), so the younger generation is often swayed from this type due to lifestyle. “Loop is definitely lower maintenance,” says Holtz.

While some carpet gurus will advise against the style for pet owners, Holtz says it’s a bit of a misnomer looped carpets are not pet-friendly and Snoopy would need some gnarly claws to destroy most of today’s selections.

As for material, most carpets available are made from wool, nylon, olefin or polyester, with wool offering the best quality — but also carrying the highest price tag. Wool, which can offer double or even triple the lifespan of its man-made counterparts, ranges in price from $4 to $20 per square foot, but colours are significantly more limited and the natural material offers low stain resistance, so it’s not for the accident-prone.

A less expensive and popular alternative is nylon, which can range from $3 to $6.50 and offer the largest selection of colours and styles and generally stands up well to the tests of kids, pets, and time and is unlikely to become threadbare. It may eventually appear ratty, however, if not properly maintained.

“If you’ve got young kids I wouldn’t push a customer on wool carpet. Usually I try to keep it to the nylons,” says Holtz, adding nylon, whether “branded” or “unbranded” controls 90 per cent of the carpet market.

Among the least expensive in the carpet chain is olefin, or polypropelene, as it is the weakest of the fibres used to make carpet. It’s also a common material used in manufacturing berber. (Loop carpet is often mistaken for berber, but it actually can be made in loop or pile and refers to the colour flecks rather than style. Berber originates from a North African tribe’s garb, characterized by its muted tones).

Due to an inability to absorb, olefin has to be dyed when in a liquid form, rather than solution-stained, which also makes olefin a great choice for high-traffic areas. Its nature also makes it a dust magnet, and as a synthetic, it’s not the softest and perhaps a poor choice for small children’s rooms. Often the cheapest choice, it’s true “you get what you pay for” as olefin carries a seven-year lifespan at best.
“It’s great for a basement or a rental, and starts at about $1.50 a foot,” says Holtz.

The phrase “what’s old is new again” is also true of carpet. While not quite the pumpkin-orange or burnt gold predecessors of the ’70s requiring a rake, shag is back with a vengeance. In addition to its shag-orific softness under the toes, a benefit to the plush carpet variety is its ability to hide seams in the mix. Although slight, the downside to the new shag is it can show crushing or flattening in well-travelled spots, so it might not be the best choice for stairs and hallways.

“It really came on mainstream about five years ago and is really more traditional,” says Morley Woloschuk, account manager for Contempa Carpet Company (1315 – 11 Ave. S.W.), adding the style of cut pile carpeting sometimes called California berber.

Woloschuk says the newest kid on the carpet block is a hybrid of cut pile and loop styles, simply called — yes, you guessed it — cut and loop. The perfect marriage of the softness of pile and the ability to incorporate geometric patterns and textures that looping the material at varying heights allows, mixed-level cut and loop has really taken off.

One thing to remember with patterned carpets is you may be faced with a higher bill than originally expected, as matching up the pattern could mean more waste than a straight pile or loop style. “You are not only paying for the installation, but also the material; you are paying for a look,” says Woloschuk, adding there may also be a chance, especially in a large room, of seams showing in certain light.

People often liken how many ounces a carpet is — or its face weight in carpet-speak — with quality, but that view is pretty flimsy, say the experts. An equal, or even an inferior carpet can actually weigh exactly the same as another, says Holtz. “One thing I like to point out is weight has nothing to do with quality. Wearability has more to do with it.”

How the carpet is made and what material it is manufactured from is a good gauge of how it should stand up, but sometimes so is the label. Shaw is the first manufacturer to step up and offer a rating (up to five stars) for wearability of its products, but Holtz hopes others will do the same.

Anyone planning on taking advantage of Calgary’s hot resale market may want to consider laying carpet with the broadest range of appeal to a potential buyer. “You really have to be careful if you are thinking resale,” says Woloschuk. “I know it’s boring to some people, but it’s safer to go neutral,” he notes, adding cut pile is also a best bet.

Cleaning is key when aiming to keep a new carpet looking and lasting to its full potential. What many homeowners don’t realize is proper care (and therefore warranty protection) includes steam-cleaning at least every-year-and-a-half. “They all do come with some kind of stain guard, but it’s important to clean it annually, and with something that has heat extraction,” says Woloschuk.

Better quality carpets will often also come with a padded back, offering an extra level of protection underfoot for extra-spilly households or those with small children and pets. “It also gives you better acoustical values and does less damage on walls when they are installed, plus it contains the liquid better until you have a chance to get to it before it gets to the underpad,” says Woloschuk.

Almost as important, and some will argue more so, as how you treat carpet you have installed is what lies beneath. Underlay or underpad should never be a case of out of sight, out of mind, say the experts.
While rubber is typically deemed best, running at about $1.25 a square foot, with 20 or 22 pounds being most common, it’s not for everyone or every space as its non-insulating properties will leave basement floors cold, for example. Most common is chipped foam, a multi-coloured underpadding which comes in a variety of weights from four to eight pounds; unlike carpet, weight does matter in underlay, and the heavier, the better as they can prevent spills from reaching the subfloor or even bleeding back through. And homeowners with pets should always opt for one with a stain guard, such as Dupont’s Stainmaster, advise the experts.

“A key difference between the underpads is the protection they will put in it,” says Holtz, adding prices generally range from 40 cents to $1 per square-foot.

While some homeowners opt to upgrade underlay only in well-travelled areas, such as on stairs and in hallways, the slight price difference to do everywhere may be worth it in the long haul. “If you only upgrade on the stairs you will have inconsistent wear throughout your house. I recommend that people do the whole thing because it’s less than a dollar a square-foot more — it’s like buying insurance for your carpet,” says Woloschuk.

And a “buyer beware” when installing new carpet, even if your existing underlay is only a year-and-a-half old, says Holtz, is that a warranty for carpet — which can range from five to 15 years and have different durations for things like crushing and matting, quality and stain resistance — may be void unless you replace both the carpet and underlay. “That’s true for all manufacturers,” says Holtz.  NL