What is the best season to replace home flooring?

While buying high-quality floor coverings can ensure you enjoy carpets, engineered boards, luxury vinyl tile (LVT) and other flooring types for longer, there will likely come a time when your flooring choice requires replacing. Hiring professionals to install new flooring can have numerous benefits. Not only do professional fittings tend to last longer and look better, but they also usually include the added service of removing and disposing of your old carpet or tiles, which can be both convenient and cost-effective.

However, whether you’re tackling the task of an installation yourself or hiring expert floor fitters, you’ll still want to schedule the work for the optimum time of year. For the most part, homeowners find that spring and autumn are among the most suitable times for home floor replacement. In the following sections, we’ll examine the top three reasons why this is so often the case.

Having doors open causes less discomfort

Whether you’re putting LVT in the kitchen or carpeting your living room, the process of having floor coverings fitted will involve the doors to your home being open for extended periods. Old coverings are carried out, and then new flooring solutions are brought in. Furthermore, if you use a professional team for the installation, they may be in and out of your home getting equipment and tools periodically.

In the summer months, this can result in a home full of freshly hatched insects, while in winter, it means your house will get incredibly cold. Spring and autumn provide more even temperatures for the floors to be fitted in, so when doors are open, you won’t be quite so uncomfortable.

Easier to ventilate your home

Similarly, selecting spring or autumn is also ideal when you want to get fresh air into your home. Different types of flooring demand different kinds of installation materials, and some of them can give of unpleasant odours that you’ll want to remove from your property. Floor adhesives, wood stains, sealers, carpet tape and adhesive removers can all give off scents you’ll want to alleviate via ventilation as soon as you can, and keeping the windows open in spring and autumn will be more pleasant.

Moderate humidity and temperatures

Finally, most kinds of flooring, especially those that involve wood, will require acclimatisation to an indoor environment prior to installation. They must take on the temperature and humidity level found inside, or problems can occur.

Wood can absorb moisture in humid temperatures, and if it isn’t acclimatised properly, it will dry out after it’s been installed. In the winter months with the heating on, and over the summer when temperatures are higher, homes can get very dry, causing the wood to shrink, crack and pull apart.

Autumn and spring offer the quickest acclimation times with the lowest risk of issues as homes are unlikely to have extreme temperatures and humidity levels. So, for best results, it can be a wise move to schedule in your flooring installations for the most opportune times of the year.

What makes artificial grass ideal for autumn?

It’s not uncommon for property owners to neglect their gardens when autumn arrives. While spring and summer are ideal times to enjoy fresh air, warm sunshine and cool breezes, when the colder temperatures and rainy spells start to hit, many of us prefer pastimes indoors.

If left uncared for, homes with a real grass lawn can run into trouble when the seasons change. Littered with fallen leaves and debris blown by the wind, they can become unsightly, while rainfall can pool in patchy areas, creating muddy areas.

In the next sections, we’ll explore some of the advantages of choosing an artificial lawn when autumn arrives, and we’ll explore how it can allow you, your family and friends to enjoy your garden for more of the year.

Green and soft all year round

Synthetic grass has come a long way in the last 10 years. Designed to resemble the real deal, artificial lawns capture and keep the look of a vibrant spring or summer lawn and offer it to homeowners all year.

This authentic appearance is never impacted by the sun or rain, and if properly cared for, it continues to provide a perfect lawn you can always enjoy. Unlike real grass, which can be discoloured by sunlight, the latest artificial options are treated with UV protection.

Great with rain

If you have children or pets and real grass, you’ll know the chaos that comes in autumn, when your lawn gets waterlogged and muddy. From digging dogs to messy games, kids and animals will then drag the dirt indoors, trampling it into carpets and across clean floors, meaning you’ll then have to tackle baths and piles of laundry.

Artificial grass has a permeable membrane specifically engineered to filter water harmlessly away from the surface of your lawn, ensuring it can’t pool. With the earth below completely covered, pets and children never interact with mud, keeping the mess minimal and reducing your chores around the house.

Additionally, it’s ideal to be able to let your pets out to the garden if they need the toilet in any weather, avoiding the need for walks in the rain or litter trays indoors. Fortunately, pet mess is very easy to clean from artificial grass, which doesn’t see the same harm suffered by real grass.

An easy-care solution

While real lawns may require reseeding, mowing and weeding, synthetic grass is exceptionally low maintenance. Simple sweeping is all that’s required to remove any leaves and debris blown by autumn winds, and if you should happen to spill a drink or food on them, they can easily be hosed down.

Artificial grass – an answer to autumn

As you can see, there are numerous reasons that make artificial grass a much easier lawn to cope with when autumn rolls around. With a life expectancy of around 15 years, you’ll get a significant return on any investment you make, and every product offers you far more free time than you’ll receive if you opt for a natural lawn.

Bold staircase carpets create striking first impression

While neutral hallway and stair carpets are seen as a safe design option, there is a growing trend of choosing brighter, bolder carpet designs for entrance areas to create a striking first impression of a home.

Stripes, geometric and floral patterns add impact to a once-plain hallway. For example, brightly coloured stripes add colour to dark hallways. Fit them on stairs to draw the eye upwards and away from a dim hall. Geometric patterned carpets add interest to small halls and provide a sense of flow in the space. Floral patterns are not to everyone's taste, but a bright floral carpet in a hallway that otherwise has plain features can work.

Many believe that a dark hallway needs light colours to brighten it up. According to Livingetc, designer Abigail Ahern says the opposite can be true, and that dark colours can work well:

“White walls just make the lack of light even more obvious. Instead, embrace it, go with dark strong colours and you’ll immediately have oodles of intrigue, drama and glamour.”

Halls in period properties often have decorative tile floors, and homeowners feel that they should have a plain stair carpet. However, a contrasting pattern stair carpet can also work well.

Stairs and halls are high-traffic areas that require durable and hard wearing carpets. People walking on hall carpets in Chester and North Wales homes often come in from rainy weather, spreading mud and water. Durable and easy to clean hall and stair carpets are ideal.

European carpet market forecast to grow

A report based on research by Grand View Research Ltd has predicted that the European carpet market will be worth £46.22 billion by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 3%.

Despite competition from hard floorings such as laminate, wood and vinyl, carpets remain a popular flooring choice. There are rising concerns about climate change linked to carbon emissions, which have led to carpet manufacturers developing carpets that are 100% recyclable, and some have reduced the energy required to manufacture carpets by 95%.

Carpets can be made from sustainable natural fibres, like wool, or synthetic fibres. Sales of nylon carpets are expected to grow considerably, particularly for commercial buildings, as nylon is hard wearing, cost effective and has a lesser impact on the environmental than other synthetic flooring. In response to government pressure, the European carpet industry is recycling more and more carpets every year.

In 2018, 734.7 million square metres of carpets were fitted in Europe, and this is expected to rise to 889 million square metres by 2025.

Carpet sales are forecast to rise in both the residential and commercial markets. Carpet is a great way to insulate retail stores and offices.

Sales of carpets in the Chester and North Wales regions are buoyant. People have been spending more time at home due to the coronavirus pandemic. They have saved money by not socialising or going on holiday abroad, which means that many households can afford to renovate their homes, including decorating and buying new carpets.

Five reasons to buy a new carpet

There are many reasons why people replace carpets in their Wrexham, North Wales and Cheshire homes. While reasoning varies from household to household, here are five main reasons why people opt to change up their carpets:

1. Water damage

Water that is absorbed in carpets can cause mould and mildew, which is a health hazard. Water-damaged carpets should be replaced.

2. Stains

Stains come from many sources, such as spills, leaking pipes, pet accidents and dropped food. Deep cleaning with a carpet cleaning machine will remove most stains, but stubborn ones may remain.

3. Odour

Professional carpet cleaning will get rid of most lingering odours, but smells caused by dog and cat messes, or rotten food, cannot always be removed.

4. Allergies

Some carpets don’t trap allergens, allowing them to float freely in the air. If a member of your household suffers from allergies, first try an allergen vacuum cleaner. If that is not sufficient, buying a wool carpet is a suitable option, as this has hypoallergenic properties and can trap airborne particles.

5. Outdated pattern

Some people begin to dislike the pattern of their carpets, feeling that is in an outdated style. A new home with carpets already fitted may save money, but if the colour or pattern is not to your taste, replace it, rather than living with it.

Expect a high-quality carpet to last for many years, provided it is cleaned regularly, but if you have any of the above issues, it's time to replace your carpets.