Carpet tiles vs. carpet for businesses

Carpets are a popular choice for floor covering for business premises in the Chester, Wrexham and North Wales area. There is a choice of installing carpet on a roll or carpet tiles, but which is best? This guide will help you decide between the two types.

The difference

Carpets come in wide rolls and have a backing, but may require an underlay. Carpet tiles are square 18” x 18”, 24” x 24”, or smaller one-foot square. Tiles come with their own padding on the back and are generally short pile,.

Patterns

If you want to use large-scale patterns, roll carpets are best. You can create patterns with carpet tiles by using different colour tiles or ones with varying patterns, but if you want a non-repeating large pattern, roll carpet is better

The pile

Carpet tiles are usually short pile, while carpets have a wider range of pile options from short to long. Long pile wool carpets are luxury carpets suitable for lounges or other rooms in which people relax. Short pile carpets are best for high footfall areas and offices.

Carpet tiles are available with cushioned backing and this can help reduce muscle fatigue for workers who work standing up.

Installation

Carpets come on large rolls and are cut to fit the room, but this can result in wastage between 5% and 25%. At room edges, carpet tiles need to be cut to fit, but expect less to be wasted.

Carpets are more difficult to fit than tiles and can take longer. Subfloors need to be clean, smooth and level, otherwise concrete scree or plywood sheets may be needed.

Some roll carpets come with backing, or you may need to purchase an underlay, whereas carpet tiles almost always have a backing. Carpets are loose-laid on the floor and required no adhesives, while carpet tiles can be loose laid or fixed with adhesive.

Carpet tiles are installed so that there is no gap between them, but the seams between tiles will be seen. If the width of roll carpet is wider than the room, when it is cut to fit there will be no visible seam.

Maintenance

Neither carpets nor tiles are high maintenance. They just need regular vacuuming to remove dirt and debris. Occasional use of a carpet cleaning machine is recommended for a deep clean.

Some rooms may have uneven wear to the floor. Worn carpet tiles can be replaced with new ones, whereas the only remedy for an unevenly worn carpet is to replace it.

Both carpets and carpet tiles can be treated with a stain resistant process that means most stains can easily be wiped up.

Durability

Quality carpet tiles are manufactured to last a long time. Carpets are also durable unless you buy very cheap ones. In a commercial building, carpet lifetime depends on the footfall level, so in busy areas, carpets or tiles will need replacing sooner than carpets in a home.

If deciding between carpets and carpet tiles, consider the above factors and make the choice which is best for your particular business location.

How are carpet tiles fitted?

Laying carpet tiles is a skilled job best left to professional carpet fitters.

How is the subfloor prepared?

The sub-floor needs to be level, clean, smooth and dry. If the floor is not level, cement scree can be used. Very rough and uneven floors may require plywood sheets under the carpet tiles.

If the floor is damp, the cause of this needs to be investigated first. A damp course may be needed if water is leaking through the brickwork of the building.

Several areas in the Chester, Wrexham and North Wales areas are at risk of flooding. If a room is flood damaged, any existing floor covering will probably need to be replaced. Carpet tiles should not be installed until the sub-floor has been thoroughly dried. A fan heater can speed up the drying time.

A building that is subject to damp could need a damp-proof membrane on the subfloor before the carpet tiles are laid.

The cost of installing carpet tiles, and the time it takes to lay them, will be affected by how much subfloor preparation is needed. A team of carpet fitters can lay tiles in a room in a few hours. To prevent disruption in the workplace, many fitters will work overnight to complete the job before workers and members of the public enter the area.

Do carpet tiles need to be glued?

Carpet tiles can be loose laid or fixed to the floor with adhesive. Time needs to be allowed for the adhesive to dry before walking on the floor. Some tiles come with adhesive on the back. A paper layer is peeled off to uncover the glue.

A skilled fitter will make sure that the carpet tiles butt tight together with no gaps between them. Perimeter tiles will need cutting to shape.

Loose laid carpet tiles can easily be moved. If some areas wear more than others, you can swap worn tiles with non-worn ones.

Do tiles need underlay?

Carpet tiles generally do not need an underlay ,as each tile will have some padding. This can range from a thin layer to much thicker padding that has a cushioning effect

The padding on the back of carpet tiles can be made from polyester, fibreglass or other materials. There are even tiles available that incorporate recycled materials in their padding.

The type of padding affects the durability of the carpet tiles. For high-traffic commercial areas, choose carpet tiles with high quality padding for longevity.

Can you replace worn or stained tiles?

Quality carpet tiles are as good as many roll carpets, but they have the advantage of easy replacement. It’s a good idea to buy spare ones so that if area of tiles is stained or worn, you can simply replace the tiles with new ones. This can be done with both losoe laid and stuck tiles.

Carpet tiles are a popular choice of floor covering in the Chester, Wrexham and North Wales areas because they look attractive, are hardwearing and can be fitted quickly.

Environmentally friendly carpets help homes be healthy and beautiful

The movement to live in healthy and sustainable homes is growing. Empire Homes in Canada has created a collection of luxury home designs that look stylish and contemporary, are environmentally friendly, and energy efficient.

Materials that produce gas, contain formaldehyde, and high VOC content are not used in its homes. In many homes, resins, glues, flooring, carpets, paints, and insulation materials can contain toxic substances. There are many natural and safer alternatives available.

People in the Chester, Wrexham and North Wales areas that move into a new house are often expected to arrange for their own carpets to be installed. There are many eco-friendly carpet choices available, including ones made from natural fibres such as organic wool, cotton, or jute. Backing can be made from environmentally friendly materials and glued on with non-toxic adhesives.

Thick natural carpets also have insulating properties to make homes more energy efficient.

According to Kevin Mullen of Canadian home builder, Empire Homes:

“As a society we have become very focused on wellness and fitness, eating organically, wanting to know where our food comes from, but we have never asked any of those questions about our homes and I think that is to our detriment.”

Mullen recommends that equal care should be taken about what goes into homes. He says that:

“Healthy and beautiful go hand in hand.”

Natural wood floors and eco-friendly carpets in the North Wales and Chester area look beautiful and make homes more healthy to live in.

Technology makes artificial grass more realistic

New developments in the manufacturing of artificial grass have made this grass substitute look even more like the real thing.

One way that artificial grass can look different to natural grass is the way that the fibres fall, which can be too uniform. New technology has developed a way to make artificial grass fibres position themselves in a random way like natural grass.

The Portuguese developer of this grass, Léon Geerkings says:

“It looks incredibly realistic. We get so many positive reactions from clients, who say that nobody notices that they have artificial turf. People often have to feel the turf to believe it’s artificial.”

This grass is made from polyethene and its colourfast fibres are soft and certified to EN71-3 standard, which is usually used as a guarantee for children’s toy safety.

The first artificial grass, known as AstroTurf, was patented in 1965. It was practical for creating all-weather sports pitches but looked unreal. Over 50 years later, there have been great improvements in making artificial grass look more like real grass. Sports grounds may not be too concerned about how their pitches look, but households want artificial grass in their gardens to look as realistic as possible.

Many homeowners, schools and commercial properties replace their lawns with artificial grass in the Wrexham, Chester and North Wales area. Often, the main reason for this is to save maintenance time and have a child and pet-friendly lawn that does not need watering on dry summer days.

New technology recycles old carpet tiles

Innovative technology has been developed that separates the yarn in old carpet tiles from their backing, so that all the materials can be used again.

When carpet tiles become worn out, many end up in landfills or are incinerated. Tarkett, a French company, has developed its EcoBase carpet tiles, which are 100% recyclable. The two main components of these tiles are the polyamide yarn and the backing.

Tarkett has developed the EcoBase tiles so that the backing and the yarn can be easily separated. The firm claims that 95% of the yarn quality is maintained, and has invested €15m (£12.8m) in the project.

The main innovation of this system us that the carpet tiles can be recycled without any significant loss of quality. The separated yarn is used to make new carpet tiles, and the backing is turned into new backing. It is estimated that this recycling process saves about 84% CO2 emissions compared to incinerating carpet tiles.

Fabrice Barthélemy, the CEO of Tarkett, says:

“This is a fundamental step forward in maximising the value of materials and preventing carpet tiles from being incinerated or sent to landfill.”

Many residential and commercial consumers in the Chester area prefer carpets to other types of floor coverings. There are initiatives such as carpetrecylinguk.com that are making the carpet industry more sustainable by reducing the number of going to landfills. Another scheme burns old carpets to provide heating.

Tarkett has demonstrated that carpets in Chester could one day be 100% recycled.