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Show Consider room use before buying carpeting Whether you're moving into a new home, refurbishing an older one or just redecorating, shopping for carpet can be a perplexing experience. "Consumers have so many options in color, style and price that it's easy to get confused," says Marti Hill, fashion director at Galaxy Carpet Mills Inc. "Your lifestyle and pocketbook should provide some guidelines for your purchase. "What is the room used for? Play? Entertainment? Study? Before a salesperson can assist you, you should have a good idea of your needs and your budget." It is essential that carpeting be suited to the use and wear it will get. High-use areas, such as family rooms, hallways and stairs, will get more traffic than a sitting room or bedroom. Hill suggests that families with children consider the durability of nylon carpets that have soil, stain and static resistance built into the fiber. With proper care, these carpets will maintain their original appearance despite the wear and tear of an active familv. When discussing your carpet needs with your salesperson be ready, Hill advises, to answer questions like these: -How many children will be using the room and how often? --Will pets be allowed in the room? -Will the family be eating and drinking in the room? -How important is elegance? Maintenance? Main-tenance? Cleanup? ' -Is 'the room generally colder than the rest of the house? If so, urethane backing can help take the chill off the floor. Once you decide what kind of carpeting is' needed, the next decision is how much is needed. According to Hill, shoppers can buy more efficiently if they follow these steps: -Carefully measure the longest dimensions of the room you plan to carpet with a steel tape measure. "Pacing off" a room is never a good way to measure for carpeting. -Hallways also must be measured as well as closets and jogs in the walls. -A carpet retailer usually can provide a grid on which you can make a scale drawing of the room. Use it! It's an easy way to be accurate. -Note the size, the number and the exposure ex-posure of the windows in the room. Light will affect the way the color and texture of a carpet will look in a given room. -To help select a color, bring in a paint sample or fabric swatch to make sure the carpeting will blend with your furnishings. -Determine your decorating budget in advance and decide what portion can be spent on carpeting. When asked what determines the cost difference among different styles of carpet, Hill says that density - the amount of face yarn in the carpet - is the single most important determining factor. "In tufted carpet, the general rule is the more tufts per square inch, the more dense the carpet. The denser the carpet, the better the carpet will look, feel and wear," Hill says. |
