Persian carpets get a modern makeover

The ancient art of weaving handmade wool Persian carpets in Iran is getting a modern makeover.

Persian carpet makers have been weaving rugs since 500 BC. They are now facing two major challenges – changing consumer tastes and increased competition from Indian and Chinese carpet weavers. To compete in the world handmade carpet market, Iranian carpet weavers are updating their designs. Ahad Azimzadeh, a Persian carpet exporter said:

"The patterns of Iranian carpets are ancient but today there is a strong demand for contemporary styles. They're more suitable for a modern house".

Persian carpets are expensive and, in the past, have been seen as more of an investment than a decorative floor covering. This is changing, with most buyers now wanting a carpet in a more modern style to match the decor of their home. The carpet is no longer a status symbol, it is a beautiful and practical floor covering.

Persian carpets often feature bright colours, but there is also a style known as “transitional carpets” which are once bright-coloured carpets that have been left outside in the sun so that the colours fade. These carpets appeal to those who like more subtle colour schemes.

Few residents have handmade carpets in Chester homes. This is mainly because they are expensive and not recommended for high footfall areas. There are a wide range of quality carpets available from local carpet retailers. For those who love the traditional floral intricate patterns of Persian carpets, premium quality wool carpets with similar patterns are available.

Top four commercial flooring options for high-traffic areas

Most commercial premises will have areas that attract a lot of traffic, but this is particularly true of ones where members of the public have regular daily access. This includes supermarkets and shops, as well as things such cafes, restaurants, pubs and cinemas.

The floors that are fitted in any area that experiences a lot of use will have to be able to cope with rough boots and shoes walking over them constantly, as well as trolleys and other items used by suppliers. Therefore, they need to be extremely hard-wearing, easy to keep clean and resistant to damage.

These are the best flooring choices that you can make for high-traffic areas of your commercial premises.

Engineered or solid wood flooring

This is among the oldest types of flooring in existence and there is a good reason for that longevity. Floors made out of hard wood are extremely durable and long-lasting without sacrificing anything in visual appeal.

That makes them an ideal choice for commercial areas that need to be able to cope with lots of shoes or boots walking over them each day, but that also need to retain an attractive and appealing look. An example of the sort of business for which either solid or engineered wood will make an excellent floor choice is a restaurant.

It can also be a fine and effective option for theatres and other performance venues where it is important for the floor to be resilient but also good to look at. In terms of maintenance, wood floors will need to be swept and polished regularly to stay at their best, but they can otherwise stand up to very high levels of daily traffic.

Concrete flooring

By its nature, concrete is an extremely tough and durable type of material. There is probably no flooring solution on the market that is quite as hard wearing as this.

Although it may not sound like an attractive solution from an aesthetic point of view, concrete floors of the best quality are coated and finished with an eye to how they will look as well as how they will perform.

Concrete is very resistant to damage from water and other liquids and does not easily stain. It is also a type of floor that does not become slippery underfoot when things are spilled on it.

That makes it a fine choice for commercial areas that are both high in traffic and liable to experience spillages. Examples of this may include shop and supermarket floors, as well as the kitchen areas of restaurants.

Luxury vinyl tile flooring

In the past, vinyl was often viewed as a cheap but less appealing option for commercial floors than concrete or wood, but that is no longer true. Luxury vinyl tile (LVT) floors can be designed to look exactly like a range of floor surfaces, from stone to porcelain tiles and wood, but at a mere fraction of the cost of any of them.

Luxury vinyl is also a much thicker and harder wearing form of this material than standard vinyl. It will stand up to everything from water to scratches, making it suitable for the public areas of restaurants or cinemas as well as for busy private areas of commercial premises like bathrooms and restaurant kitchens.

The superior thickness of it also makes it a type of floor that is very comfortable for people to walk on and it is often softer than the floor surfaces that it replicates the look of.

Other high traffic areas where you will often find luxury vinyl tile flooring are medical offices and hotels.

Carpet tile flooring

The look of carpets is very appealing and they undoubtedly add warmth to busy commercial areas such as hotel lobbies and office corridors, but carpets require a lot of maintenance and are not always that hard-wearing. Thus, many commercial enterprises in places prone to colder weather like Chester find carpet tiles to be an excellent substitute.

A major benefit of carpet tiles is that they help to dampen noise. That makes them a superb choice for hotel rooms, lobbies and landings, as well as for offices and libraries, where minimising the amount of noise that high footfall can cause is important.

Carpet tile floors are more durable than standard carpeting. As they are made up of tiles, should a section start to wear due to footfall, the individual tiles in question can be replaced rather than having to fit an entirely new carpet.

This also makes them much more cost-effective for high traffic commercial areas. Furthermore, the lower pile of carpet tiles makes it less likely that dirt from boots and shoes will become trapped in them, for easier cleaning.

These are the best floor choices for high traffic areas. Speaking to experienced flooring professionals will let you get more information.

Can luxury vinyl be installed on uneven floors?

When either homeowners or commercial enterprises are looking for flooring for their homes or premises, luxury vinyl tiling (LVT) is often at the top of the list. One reason for its immense popularity is that it is both extremely durable and also very easy to keep clean.

That makes it ideal both for a home or a business – even one with a lot of footfall. Aside from such practical considerations, luxury vinyl is also a frequent choice because of the way it looks.

It can be designed to accurately recreate the look of a stone or a wood floor, at a fraction of the cost of either of those. It is easy to see why people like it, but is it an option if your floor surfaces are uneven?

Can it be installed on an uneven floor?

When it comes to the basic question of whether luxury vinyl is suitable for uneven floors, it is really a matter of exactly how uneven they are. If any unevenness is relatively minor, then the installation should not present much of a problem.

In actual fact, the thickness and sturdiness of the tiles or sheets used for this type of floor can have the effect of concealing the problem. They will actually make the floor look and feel more level than it actually is.

On the other hand, if the floor surface is extremely uneven, luxury vinyl will not be the ideal flooring choice. It is possible to repair bumps, holes and other imperfections that create uneven floors, but if you do not have time to carry out that sort of pre-installation maintenance work, it may be better to opt for an alternative such as laminate flooring instead.

Should it be installed on uneven floors?

While it is technically possible to put luxury vinyl down on an uneven floor, is it not necessarily something that you should do. Luxury vinyl is a type of flooring that is available as both single sheets and tiles, and either can be installed pretty quickly and effectively as long as the unevenness is not too severe.

It will be very important to ensure that your subfloor is made smooth before the vinyl is laid though. There are simple steps that you can take to deal with roughness or other subfloor issues before installation.

Alternatively, if you hire an experienced flooring company to both provide the floors and install them for you, they will take care of any issues of that kind as part of the job. If you are not sure whether your floor surfaces are suitable for luxury vinyl, they can also advise you about that and suggest alternatives if necessary.

Hardwood, carpeting and linoleum are three options that can work well in concealing highly uneven floor surfaces.

How to install luxury vinyl on an uneven floor

Luxury vinyl is not one of the harder flooring materials to install, but there are a few steps that you will have to go through if your floor is not even.

1. Take care of any imperfections

If the subfloor that you are putting the vinyl on top of is made out of concrete, then any flaws in the surface need to be removed before the vinyl is laid. The best way to do that is through a combination of sanding and levelling

The former is quite hard work as it will involve sanding out any points in the subfloor that are higher than the rest by hand. Levelling is done using a cement compound that fills in imperfections like holes, and the compounds that are used for it can be bought in both real-world and online shops.

Pour it onto your subfloor and then smooth it out as necessary with a trowel. Once that has been done, you will need to leave the subfloor for roughly 24 hours before you actually put down the luxury vinyl.

This is so that the compound can be given time to dry. If it is still wet when you try to put the vinyl over it, there can be problems getting the material to stick in place properly on the subfloor.

2. Check for smoothness

You can check both the overall evenness and smoothness of the subfloor at this point by using a straight or level pipe. This will tell you if it is ready for the luxury vinyl to go down.

3. Clear away debris

Debris from the sanding and levelling process must be removed from the floor before you put down the vinyl. It can stop the vinyl from sticking to the subfloor and can also prevent tiles from joining together properly.

It is possible to put luxury vinyl on a slightly uneven floor. This can be done by professionals if you are unsure of how to go about it.

Pub patron has unusual carpet hobby

Kit Caless is a fan of the pub chain Wetherspoon, and this has led him to an unusual hobby. Kit writes a blog about Wetherspoon carpets which contains images of different carpets from Wetherspoon pubs.

No two carpets in Wetherspoons’ pubs are the same, each is unique. Wetherspoon’s head of property development Jon Randall explained:

“All of our new pub carpets are individually designed, some with details to reflect aspects of the building's history or local area.”

Kit says that his interest in pub carpets began when he read the novel The Way Inn by Will Wiles, which features a character who visits the same hotel chain whenever he travels. When Kit found out that every Wetherspoon carpet is different, he decided to become a dedicated fan of the carpets. He says:

“I got really interested, because, for a corporate chain to not repeat itself is a really rare thing. So, I started looking into it – and it just sort of snowballed."

Wetherspoon has over nine hundred pubs which require lots of carpets. Kit does not aim to visit every single one like the character in the novel, so he has asked visitors to his blog to submit photos of their local Wetherspoon pub carpet

Individually designed carpets for Chester or North Wales rooms can be commissioned, but they are expensive and beyond the budget of most households. As local carpet retailers have a wide range of carpet designs and colours available, you are bound to find one to match your individual taste.

Woman ruins carpet in dye disaster

A viral online video shows what happened when a woman attempted to change the colour of her hallway carpet with dye. Her escapades left the carpet ruined, and her walls were stained.

Melissa Ashleigh wanted to refresh the look of her hallway by changing the colour of her carpet to a trendy dark grey. She did not want to spend money on buying a new carpet, so tried using fabric dye. She made a mess of the carpet with patches of uneven colour. The dye was not applied carefully enough and splashed onto her walls, causing unsightly stains. She must now buy a new carpet and paint the walls.

Melissa shared her room renovation disaster in a video on TikTok. She commented:

“So, this is the carpet, and these are the walls that I've ruined because I didn't use anything [to protect] up the sides. So yeah, it's going to need ripping out."

Some were amused by the video, commenting that dyeing the carpet was a good example of an action that is “instantly regretted.”

If you are after different colour carpets in your Chester or North Wales home, this video shows that you should not attempt to dye them. Ultimately, there is no substitute for installing a new carpet. A decent quality carpet is not cheap but will last a long time and is a terrific way to update the look of a room. A deep pile carpet has good insulating properties which help keep a room warm, saving heating costs.