Carpet Really Does Keep You Warmer
In the winter, staying warm in your home is close to the top of your priority list. Coming in from the cold outside into a house that isn’t cozy is no fun at all, whether it’s just you or whether you’re having guests over.
If you’re a realtor and you’re showing a house it’s even more important to create a warm, welcoming environment so that prospective buyers can picture themselves living in the space. Believe it or not, carpet can make a substantial difference to the warmth of your home — and even save you some money on your power bill. Here’s how.
Carpet is an Excellent Insulator
By some estimates, 20 percent of the heat lost from a home goes through uninsulated floors. What some people might not know is that insulation works by trapping air. Whether it’s a jacket, a blanket, or the walls of your home, anything that keeps a layer of air from moving around will keep heat from leaving too.
Most carpet is made from synthetic fiber, which doesn’t conduct heat itself. Instead, all those fibers create a layer of trapped air between the room and the floor, keeping heat from radiating through the floors and being wasted.
Of course, this works from above as well as below. Everyone knows that hot air rises — in a poorly insulated home, all the heat from the downstairs rooms leaches through to your upstairs rooms. This makes it hard to manage the heat upstairs and keep things warm downstairs, which results in a hassle and an elevated power bill.
Don’t Skimp on Carpet Padding
Lots of people forget about carpet padding when they’re building or updating a home, or else they pick the cheapest option because they don’t think it matters much. That couldn’t be further from the truth.
High-quality carpet padding can reduce wear and tear on your carpet, reduce noise transmission through your floors, and feels much more comfortable underfoot, in addition to protecting the structural components of your home from spilled liquids.
It can also make a huge difference in insulating your home. High-quality carpet can have an R-value (a measure of how good a material is at insulating) of up to 2, and carpet pad is about the same, so a good carpet pad is basically doubling the heat-retaining capabilities of your flooring!
The Feeling of Coziness
We all know how unpleasant it is to walk on a cold bathroom floor with bare feet, and it’s no different when your whole home is floored with a hard surface like vinyl or hardwood. It’s enough to give you chills just thinking about it!
The fact is, carpet gives your home a soft, quiet, cozy feeling that just feels warmer, even if the temperature hasn’t changed much. If your home feels warmer, you can turn down the thermostat a few extra degrees — and every little bit helps
Come to Sloane’s
If your carpet or carpet padding is starting to show signs that it needs to be replaced, make an appointment to look around our warehouse! We’ve got a huge variety of styles, materials, textures, and colors in stock, so we’re sure we can find the right carpet to keep your home warm and comfortable for years to come.