One of the best aspects of carpet tiles is that mostly they are renowned for being cheap, but unfortunately, at times, they look just that, cheap! Carpet tiles were invented around 50 years ago for use in commercial premises only, someone discovered years later that they could also be used in residential properties as a cheaper alternative to wall to wall carpet. A growing trend has seen the use of cheap carpet tiles in residential dwellings as some have preferred their easy and practical installation and their ‘sophisticated’ look. But there are several problems with carpet tiles, they are not as cheap as some might think and they don’t always hold their own when it comes to durability and practicality.
One of their main problems is that they don’t always appear to be a cohesive singular form of carpet (i.e. not look like wall to wall carpet). Cheap carpet tiles generally promote and provide for an untidy look with the edges of the carpets being brought to the surface meaning a disjointed looking carpet even after just a short period of time. The age of the carpet tiles determines the severity of this, but I’ve had problems with carpet tiles that I have laid correctly a week ago, and now appear disjointed already. Further to the fact that they appear disjointed, they can also be quite dangerous. Since the edges stick up, it’s fairly easy for someone to trip and fall.
Regardless of how well one has installed them and the quality of cheap carpet tiles purchased, they are not wall to wall carpet and do not appear as such! One can always tell that a carpet tile is a carpet tile, and everyone always knows that they're a choice for the budget conscious. Do you really want to create a cheap impression by buying cheap carpet tiles? I think not.
Installation is often marked as being simple and easy, but the skill of the workman is important in performing the task. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter whether they’ve been installed correctly as the seams will nearly always show. I realized after a workman installed my carpet tiles that they simply looked crappy because I could see the hundred or so seams in the room. And I thought he did a good job. The other thing to note is that the measurements have to be spot on in respect to the carpet tiles and the job at hand. A slight error will sometimes mean that a whole room will look misaligned.
Some say carpet tiles do not need any gluing or adhesive but from my experience over time the cheap carpet tiles will require some glue to put back down the peels on the corners. From what I’ve noticed though, if dust has stuck on the edges of the peels, they’re nearly impossible to stick back down again. This means that new carpet tiles are in order and what that means is that you’re more likely than not going to require another trip back down to the carpet tile manufacturer. More problems arise if they don’t stock that particular type of carpet tile anymore and further to that, the new carpet tile, if you can purchase it, will never look the same next to the old ones of your floor.
They say that carpet tiles are durable, but again from my experience, it doesn’t take long at all for them to fluff up over a small amount of traffic. They will simply look jaded after awhile and will lose quality. Be really careful in choosing whether you actually want to purchase cheap carpet tiles. Cheap carpet tiles are cheap, but they also generally look pretty cheap also.
Hi Paul, thanks for your great article. You raise some interesting points and some to debate. We agree that there are a lot of inferior carpet tiles hitting the carpet market - (which you would know after being steam cleaned they buckle- looking like a pimple on an arse). Our experience of being one of the largest recyclers in the Southern Hemisphere of carpet tiles and carpet, we have come across and had to replace many tiles for this reason. On the other hand, from my 20 years experience of purchasing out of high rise commercial office blocks, on many occasions I have had to literally put my pocket knife into a corner and pull up the carpet only to know it is carpet tiles (after much activity you really can't tell the difference). So carpet tiles do actually bed in to a consistent colour flow (very much chameleon lizard). Of course we are referring to the quality you mentioned from A grade manufacturers such as Interface. There have been over the years carpet tiles made from pig hair, which you refer to as the carpet tiles that are 50 years old. We still come across pig hair carpet tiles which we sell (christ knows how - crap colours, but they are popular). These are bitchumen back carpet tiles, or new terminology being graphlar. We in conjunction with the most environmentally determined, ambitious company in the world are stopping these products from going into landfill. If we were to put into balance your comments in relation to noticing a cheap floor covering we can oppose that with the effectivness of reusable second hand carpet tiles as an extremely important environmental saving. So for the colour variation, the distinction that it is a carpet tile opposed to the amount of C02 gas that it takes to make a carpet tile, we may fall into your category of some company of recognition for a cheaper floor covering. One last thing, we believe that tiles are incredibly durable, practicle and a great do it yourself floor covering. Check us out at McMats Recycled N' New Carpet http://www.mcmatsrecycledcarpet.com
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