The Best Carpet for High Traffic Areas in Your Home
Choosing a carpet can be difficult — you want it to be comfortable enough to walk around on, attractive enough to go with your furniture, and durable enough to last ten years or more. As if that weren’t enough, there are hundreds of options to choose from, including fiber, material, pattern, texture, and style. It can feel a little overwhelming!
But don’t worry. At Sloane’s Carpet Secret, we have decades of experience to help you find the exact carpet that best suits your needs. Whether it’s an upscale apartment, a house for your family, or a house you want to flip on a budget, we can find the right carpet for you.
When it comes to high-traffic areas in your home — hallways, living rooms, family rooms, stairs, basements, and so on — there are a few things you should look out for.
Durability
There’s always a trade-off between durability and comfort. The long, plush fibers of cut-pile carpets are luxurious and soft underfoot, but they wear out faster and tend to trap dirt, so they’re not a great option for areas that see a lot of heavy traffic. Shorter cut-pile textures, closed-loop styles, or cut-and-loop hybrids aren’t quite as soft, but they stand up much better to heavy use.
Which style of carpeting you choose for your high-traffic areas is up to your particular preferences, but we recommend Berber carpet for hallways and rooms that you use the most. Berber is a closed loop style, making it less likely to wear out. But rather than arranging the loops in regular rows, Berber carpets have loops that are twisted and layered over each other. As a result, the carpet is dense, soft, and resistant to stains and dirt, adding to its lifespan.
It’s also a good idea to look for a carpet with a good wear warranty. If the manufacturer is willing to vouch for the carpet, it’s a good choice for your home!
Material
Carpets come in a wide variety of materials, from natural fibers like wool, cotton, and sisal to a broad array of synthetic fibers. Though you can get almost any style of carpet in almost any material, your choice of material will affect both the durability and the appearance of your carpet. When it comes to durability without sacrificing softness, we recommend synthetic fibers. Here are a few of the options you can choose from:
- Nylon: nylon fibers are generally considered the most durable, but are usually not treated with a stain-resistant coating out of the factory. If you live in a home with small children or pets, where stains are commonplace, you’ll want to have your carpets treated for stain resistance occasionally.
- Polyester: Sometimes called PET, polyester is one of the softest synthetic options on the market. It’s also resistant to stains and very comfortable underfoot, but that comfort comes at the cost of durability. PET’s thin fibers tend to shed and trap dirt, making it harder to clean and reducing its lifespan.
- Olefin: Olefin isn’t as durable as nylon, but it’s very resistant to staining, fading, and mildew. It’s also a good cost-conscious choice, since it tends to be less expensive than other synthetic fibers.
- Triexta: Triexta is a relatively new type of fiber derived partially from corn sugar. It’s slightly more expensive than other options, but in our opinion, it lives up to the hype. The most common brand is Sorona SmartStrand, which checks every box from durability to color to comfort. To read more about Sorona Smartstrand, check out our article here!
Cleaning High-Traffic Carpets
The best way to extend the lifetime of carpets, especially in high-traffic areas, is to take good care of them. You should be vacuuming at least once a week to remove trapped dirt particles that can grind down the fibers and leave unsightly discolorations. Remember, there’s a right and a wrong way to vacuum — be thorough and use the right vacuum and your carpet will thank you.
We also recommend using a professional carpet cleaning service once a year. Hot water cleaning, or steam cleaning as it’s usually called, will extract dirt that’s deep in the fibers of your carpet where your vacuum can’t reach. We strongly recommend hiring a professional carpet cleaning service rather than renting one and doing it yourself. The difference in results can be dramatic.
Shop at Sloane’s
Just because you want the highest quality carpet doesn’t mean you need to overpay to get it. At Sloane’s, we stock some of the finest name brands and carpet types, including Solution Dyed PTT in a popular Berber fleck style, for a fraction of other retail cost.
Take a look at our selection here or set up an appointment to come see us at our showroom! We’ll show you the exact carpet that will be installed in your home and refer you to experts who can handle the carpet installation.
You want your carpet to last for years, especially in the places where you and your family spend the most time. We can make that happen. Give us a call today!