Do’s and Don’ts about Carpet Cleaning February 25, 2008

New carpeting can be elaborate and elegant, cool and contemporary or tasteful and traditional. It’s one of America’s most popular floor covering choices, enhances virtually any room and it can add value to your residence. Keeping that feeling, and your carpet in beautiful condition, is a challenge if you don’t know the proper steps of maintenance. And that’s why we created this section. We want you to know that, with the care guidelines below, your new carpet can stay attractive for many years, and many bare-foot crossings, to come.

DO’s

• Place walk-off mats wherever there are entrances to your home from high-soil areas like backyards, garages and so on. A few dollars invested in these mats can prevent a lot of dirt and grime from being tracked across your beautiful new carpet.
• Buy a quality vacuum and use it regularly. There have been significant improvements to vacuum cleaners in the past few years, making them easier to use, and better at doing their job. They’ve gotten lighter in weight, stronger in suction and loaded with convenience features. A good vacuum cleaner can be your carpet’s best friend so vacuum as often as you want! Thorough vacuuming removes loose dirt and dust from the fibers. Over time these particles dull your carpet’s appearance; frequent vacuuming maintains the beauty of your floor covering and extends its life.
  

Trends in Flooring - Carpet and Area Rugs February 8, 2008

TRENDS IN CARPET AND AREA RUGS

With hardwood and tile being selected in more living areas and hallways, this is allowing bedrooms and rooms off the hallway to have their own identities and themes. Carpet in the hallway can dictate that the surrounding rooms be the same material because when the doors are all open it doesn’t look so great for the hallway carpet to be seamed to several different colors or pattens of carpet. Hardwood or tile serves as a neutral divider. Because of this, rooms can have patterned carpets that compliment the theme of the room, bedding or drapery or wallpaper.

Natural fiber carpets and rugs have enough texture on their own, but the addition of raised patterns on top of that texture made me want to break out my checkbook and order some!

Carpet companies like Glen Eden are taking advantage of the metallic finishes that are so popular by incorporating them into their patterned carpets. (left)

Because of the continued use and success of hard surfaces in main living areas as well as bedrooms, area rugs are in high demand. Like other colorful accents, rugs are being shown with lots of color, bright and bold colors as well as great patterns that can let the rugs be a focal point of the room.

Trends in residential products include warm neutrals, large and small patterns and soft luxurious yarns. With rooms having their own themes and identities, it’s easier to use multiple patterns and colors. Patterned carpets are becoming focal points and foundations for rooms that are dictating other design choices in the room. (these pictures are courtesy of Flooring the Consumer author C.B. Whittemore who is the Director, In-Store Innovation for Solutia’s Wear-Dated carpet fiber) For more information about carpet trends, see Christine Whittemore’s post on The Carpetology Blog called The Latest in Carpet Style Trends .

(Craftwork) (Shining Allure)

Surfaces - New Product Pavilion January 30, 2008

The new product pavilion at Surfaces featured exciting new hardwood, carpet, tile and more. Below are some examples of the new products that are taking center stage for 2008. The pictures you see here cannot do the actual products justice, so ask your flooring retailer for these products by name!

Above: Just one example of BR-111’s Exotic Hardwoods. This photo is Macciato Pecan. Others that are striking and unique are Malbec Walnut and Tiete Chestnut. Ask your flooring retailer to show you more products in BR-111’s exotic hardwood line.

Above: Handscraped painted hardwood from Harris Wood, one of the last US hardwood manufacturers. The exciting feature of this wood is the maple and walnut wood that show through the painted surfaces with a special sanding technique. It looks old, rustic and authentic. The beauty of it is that you get this authentic look with the durability of an aluminum oxide finish.

Above: Beaulieu’s Collection “It’s Hot” featuring “Spice It Up” and “Caliente”

Above: XFloor- Premium Cars Deserve Premium Flooring! This stunning garage floor is interlocking, real aluminum diamond plate and withstands 50,000 pounds of load capacity per tile.

New from Creating Your Space is a tool called Room Maker. This tool allows you to draw a room, choose your type of flooring and then calculate your flooring needs. You can save, share and print your results as well as get a general idea of your budget.

Green Build Expo 2007 - PacifiCrest Carpets December 10, 2007

PacifiCrest is a manufacturer of commercial carpets located in Irvine, California, a subsidiary of Royalty Carpet Mills. PacifiCrest has demonstrated outstanding environmental performance in carpet manufacturing for over 20 years.

HOW DO THEY CONTRIBUTE?

PacifiCrest carpets are sustainable, recyclable and available with a backing option called E-Lok BioBack. Their carpet face weight contains up to 90% post industrial recycled content and their backing compositions contain:

Green Build Expo 2007 - Shaw Gets A Green Thumbs Up! November 20, 2007

With over 22,800 in attendance and more than 850 exhibitors at this year’s Green Build Expo in Chicago it was clear that this green movement is here to stay and getting some serious attention.

It was no surprise that the expo was held downtown at McCormick Place, a building that is LEED certified. As you walked into the building there were a series of signs mounted to the wall explaining what it meant for the building to be a LEED certified building. Throughout the expo there were educational stations, recycling stations and many other efforts to educate on ways to become more “green” as well as ways to participate. It was also encouraging that throughout the city there were advertisements for new lofts and condos bragging that these new residences were “green” residences.

The expo kicked off differently than most trade shows. It began in the evening with a cocktail reception. Guests arriving the first day were allowed to spend a few hours getting a sneak peak of the show before the masses showed up to stand in the registration line the next day. Some people waited over 2 hours just to get into the show! I was fortunate enough to arrive the first day. It was helpful to be able to get an overview of the exhibit with less people before the aisles became crowded. It was exciting that some booths were so crowded that I had to come back a few hours later to try to get information!

Carpet Recycling Efforts and How You Can Do YOUR Part November 16, 2007

Each year, carpet accounts for 2% of U.S. landfill waste by volume and close to 1% by weight. That translates to 5 billion pounds of waste per year making it one of the largest single contributors to landfills!

What’s being done about it?

One group called CARE or Carpet America Recovery Effort is a non profit organization formed in 2002 by The Carpet and Rug Institute. Members of the carpet industry, government agencies and some non-government agencies are aiming to increase the amount of recycling and reuse of post consumer carpet and reduce the amount of carpet waste going into landfills. Since CARE was formed, 500 million pounds of carpet have been recovered.

The Remodeling Show Awards: Most Interesting Product October 25, 2007

 Hands down this goes to Green Glue.  Green Glue is the simple and easy answer to sound  proofing floors, wall and ceilings in new construction or remodeling. You simply apply the product with a caulk gun between two sheets of standard drywall or plywood. There is no exact measuring (other than 2 tubes per 4×8 sheet of plywood) or specific coverage pattern - you just apply it randomly all over the board.

This product is great for home theaters, recording studios, condos, apartments, impact noise (footstep noise) and squeaky floors.

Green Glue has been tested and found to:

• Be the most thoroughly of any sound isolation material available

• Be able to be inserted into any fire rated assembly according to the International Building Code

• Not form a vapor lock

• Be environmentally friendly with almost no V.O.C.’s

• Not contribute to mold growth

 Thank goodness for the FAQ on their website. Below are a few:

Products that make it easy to buy green September 20, 2007

Have you wondered how you can make a difference on the planet with your home decorating? Did you know you could do such a thing? Even though it’s the “in” thing to do, here are some green flooring options that are not only responsible, but also smart and stylish.