If you find yourself on the fence about a carpet replacement, consider these three key benefits of replacing it with a solid surface material like tile, vinyl, laminate, or wood. While carpet has its place as a flooring material, it’s among the highest maintenance and least durable products available. Whether you opt for a whole-house replacement or just for highly trafficked living, you may find it’s easier to live without carpet. Here are some benefits of doing just that.
Allergy Reduction
Carpets are magnets for dust and all its components that include dirt, dead skin cells, pet dander, and pollen, along with dust mites and roaches and their waste products. Unless you use a HEPA (high-efficiency particulate air) bag with your vacuum cleaner, those particulates get blown into the air, where they can cause allergic and asthmatic reactions.
Dust mites are particularly troublesome because they’re the most common allergen for humans. They thrive in carpeting, and as their populations grow, so do their waste products. Many people are sensitive to the proteins in dust mite and even roach waste, another common allergy trigger. Getting rid of carpeting eliminates one of the most hospitable habitats for dust mites and sometimes roaches in your home.
Besides the dust that carpets trap, carpets also harbor dirt and germs. Carpeting can’t withstand the kind of scrubbing that hard surface or vinyl flooring can. Vinyl floors—whether sheet, plank, or tile—withstand daily scrubbing.
It Always Looks Good
When a carpet is new, its appearance enhances a home, but over time, high traffic areas tend to mat, stains tend to spread and some are permanent. Furniture leaves divots behind when you rearrange a room. Hard surface flooring looks as good years later as it did on the first day it went down.
There’s little that can detract from or damage a wood, laminate, or vinyl floor, and if it does, an expert can repair it, bringing it back to its original appearance. Hard surface floors offer easy care and reduce the amount of maintenance and work associated with keeping homes clean and smelling fresh.
Anyone can clean a hard surface floor compared to carpeting that takes specialized equipment and trained operators. Carpet cleaning costs add up over time, while it takes just a damp cloth to wipe up spills on solid surface flooring.
Hard Surface Flooring Is Versatile
It’s easy to define spaces using hard surface materials as flooring by using accent rugs or runners. Different shapes, colors, designs and textures change the looks of a room immediately and without the high cost of changing out a carpet. This is especially useful if you’re the type of person who likes to go all out when it comes to decorating for the holidays or seasons.
Hard flooring is also far more compatible with new furniture or appliances than carpeting. It can be difficult to find color matches with carpet, but hardwood goes with almost anything, especially if you use the aforementioned rugs or runners. Hard flooring also gives you more options for customization of the floor itself. If you want to install a built-in vacuum system, in-floor heating, outlets, or nearly anything else, it’s much easier to do when working with a hard surface that can be easily shaped.
The type of flooring you influences your health and comfort. A hard surface floor enhances both and offers easy care and a long lifetime.
