Carpet Selection Questions Checklist

Ask what the fibre actually is, whether it is blended with anything else, and in what proportion the supplier describes that blend.

Wool, synthetic and blended carpets wear, mark and clean in quite different ways, and the blend is rarely written on the front of a swatch.

Run your fingers against the pile and note whether it springs back or stays flattened, then do the same on a display piece that has been walked on.

Recovery is one of the few things an owner can judge directly, and a trodden display tells you more than a pristine swatch ever will.

Ask whether the pile is cut, looped or a combination, and ask what each one does about showing footmarks in a room you look into from a doorway.

Loops and cut piles show traffic in completely different ways, and the view from the door is how you will usually see the floor.

Ask the supplier to explain what they mean by density, then press a thumb into the sample and feel how quickly the backing comes through.

Density claims are hard to compare between ranges, while the feel of the backing under a thumb is immediate and honest.

Note how tightly the yarn is twisted on a cut pile sample and ask what happens to that twist in the busiest part of a room.

Untwisting is what makes a cut pile look shabby in a walking line while the rest of the room still looks new.

Ask what the backing is made of and whether the carpet can be lifted and refitted later if a floorboard beneath ever has to come up.

Access to what lies under a floor is easy to forget when choosing a covering and awkward to arrange afterwards.

Whether a particular carpet can be lifted and relaid is for a qualified fitter to establish for that product, so ask before assuming access will be simple.

Walk the route from the front door through to the kitchen and note where everyone turns, because the pivot points wear long before the open middle of a room does.

Owners describe rooms while suppliers think in traffic lines, and the turning points are what decide how soon a carpet looks tired.

Note where a chair is pushed back from a desk or a dining table, and ask what that repeated movement does to this particular pile.

The arc behind a chair is one of the smallest and hardest worked areas of carpet in any home.

Write down which rooms are used with outdoor shoes on and which are not, and say so plainly when you describe the job.

A shoes-off household and a shoes-on household are effectively buying two different products, and suppliers cannot guess which you are.

Note whether any furniture with small hard castors stands on the carpet, and ask what marks those leave in this construction.

Castor damage is concentrated, permanent and usually discovered under a piece of furniture nobody wanted to move.

Say whether a pet sleeps, scratches or is fed on the carpet, and ask how these loops or tufts respond to claws.

A pulled loop behaves quite differently from a snagged cut pile, and this is a question suppliers can answer well if it is asked.

Note where sunlight lands on the floor through the afternoon and ask the supplier what they say about colour change in that position.

Fading appears as a band in the shape of a window and is most obvious when furniture is eventually moved.

Claims about fading come from the manufacturer for a specific colour, so ask for their written statement rather than a general reassurance.

Ask what underlay is included in what you have been told, and ask to handle the actual product rather than accepting a description of it.

Underlay is where an order is quietly trimmed, and it affects comfort, warmth and how long the pile lasts.

Ask what the underlay is meant to do here, whether that is comfort, warmth, sound or protecting the pile, and write the answer down.

Naming the purpose makes it possible to tell whether a substituted alternative offered later is genuinely equivalent.

Say what is under the existing covering if you know, and lift a corner in an out-of-the-way spot to look rather than guessing.

What is under an old carpet decides much of the conversation, and a corner in a wardrobe is easy to lift back down.

If lifting a corner reveals anything unexpected such as damp, loose boards or unfamiliar old material, stop and ask a qualified professional before going any further.

Ask how the carpet is held at its edges and what that means if you ever want to change the floor covering in that room.

Edge fixings stay behind long after a carpet has gone and can dictate what the next covering has to deal with.

Ask what the combined depth of carpet and underlay does at each doorway, and note which doors currently sit close to the existing floor.

Doors that already brush the floor are the ones that get taken away for trimming, which is much easier to plan than to discover.

Ask whether the floor beneath needs anything doing to it before carpet goes down, and who is responsible for that work.

Preparation of the base is the item most often assumed to be included by the owner and excluded by everyone else.

Whether a base is sound, dry and even enough to receive a floor covering is established by a qualified professional rather than from what can be seen.

Ask what width the roll comes in and ask the fitter to show you on a rough plan where any join would fall in each room.

A join under a window or across an open doorway is far more visible than one tucked behind a sofa, and its position is negotiable beforehand.

Ask which direction the pile will run in each room, and whether adjoining rooms will be laid running the same way.

Pile direction changes how a colour reads from a doorway, and two rooms laid at different angles can look like two different carpets.

Ask how the carpet edge is finished at each doorway, whether by a strip, a bar or a bound edge, and ask to see an example of the one proposed.

Whether an edge is bound, barred or stripped changes both how the doorway reads and how the carpet wears where feet cross it every day.

If the carpet carries a repeat, ask how much extra material is being allowed to match it, and note what happens to the offcuts.

Patterned carpet uses more material than plain, and offcuts are valuable later for a stair repair if somebody thinks to keep them.

Note any room where furniture is too heavy or too fragile to move, and ask how the fitter proposes to work around it.

A piano, a fitted wardrobe or a full bookcase changes how a room is measured and sometimes where a join has to go.

Ask whether the carpet is stretched over grippers or stuck down in each area, and what that means if a ripple ever appears.

The two methods behave differently over time, and the remedy for a ripple depends entirely on which was used.

Which fixing method suits a particular room and base is for a qualified fitter to establish against the manufacturer instructions.

Ask how the carpet turns the corner on any winding step, and ask to see that same detail on a finished stair somewhere before agreeing to it.

Winders are where craft shows, and the difference between a neat one and an awkward one is visible from the hall for the life of the carpet.

Ask whether the stair carpet is to be fitted as one continuous piece or in separate pieces, and what happens if a single tread wears through.

How the stair was fitted decides whether one worn step can be dealt with on its own or the whole flight has to come up.

Ask whether the carpet can be shifted slightly later so the wear falls in a different place on the nosing, and what that would involve.

Some fitting methods allow this and some rule it out, and it is a useful thing to know before the nosings start to show.

If a runner with exposed treads is being considered, ask how the side edges are finished and how the runner is held in place.

The edge finish on a runner is both the thing you see from the hall and the thing that fails first if it is done casually.

How a runner is secured on a stair is a fitting matter for a qualified fitter, so ask them rather than assuming a method from photographs.

Write down where the carpet stops on the landing and whether it carries on into any bedroom or ends at the threshold.

This is decided fast on site if it has not been decided beforehand, and it is difficult to change once the carpet is cut.

Ask what happens at the bottom step where the stair carpet meets the hall floor, since that step takes more traffic than any other.

The bottom step is walked on by everyone entering and leaving and is usually the first area to look worn.

Ask the supplier directly whether this carpet can develop permanent shaded patches, and ask them to describe what that looks like in a real room.

Shading in some cut piles is a known characteristic rather than a fault, and it is much easier to live with when it was mentioned first.

Whether a change in appearance is a characteristic or a fault is for the supplier and manufacturer to state in writing, not for a shop conversation.

Take the sample home and leave it on the floor of the room for a while, looking at it as you pass rather than deciding in front of a display.

Showroom lighting is chosen to flatter, and a colour you can live with is one you have already walked past a hundred times without noticing.

Look at the sample lying flat on the floor rather than held up, since a carpet held vertically reads several shades different.

Light strikes an upright swatch along the pile and a laid carpet across it, which is enough to change the apparent colour.

Ask whether vacuum marks and footprints stay visible in this pile, and decide whether that would bother you in the room you look into most.

Some households like the striped look of a freshly vacuumed floor and some find it a permanent reminder of housework.

Ask whether the colour goes through the fibre or sits on the outside of it, and what shows once the pile has been worn down.

How colour is applied decides whether worn areas simply flatten or start to look pale in the walking line.

Note the colour of the dust and grit that gathers in your home and consider how it would read against this carpet.

Light carpets show dark grit and dark carpets show light lint, and neither problem is visible in a showroom.

Ask whether this carpet can be wet cleaned at all, and what the manufacturer says happens if it is.

Some fibres and backings respond badly to water, and households usually find this out at the moment of a spill.

Cleaning limits for a specific carpet and its backing come from the manufacturer, and some methods can undo what you are relying on, so ask for their document.

Ask whether any stain treatment has been applied, what it is said to do, and whether it needs anything from you to keep working.

Treatments that wear off or lapse are a common source of disappointment when a spill finally happens.

Ask what happens when a spill is not noticed straight away and dries into the pile, and decide whether that risk suits how your household lives.

Nobody catches every spill at the moment it lands, so it is more honest to ask what the realistic outcome is than to plan for perfect vigilance.

If wool is involved, ask what the supplier says about moths, and note which parts of the room sit permanently under furniture.

Moth damage tends to begin exactly where a carpet is never walked on or vacuumed, such as under a wardrobe.

Note whether anyone in the household has a dust or fibre sensitivity and raise it early, without expecting a flooring supplier to advise on health.

Raising it early narrows the options sensibly instead of unpicking a choice after somebody reacts to a new floor.

Health questions about materials in the home belong with a qualified medical professional rather than with a flooring supplier.

Ask what routine care the manufacturer expects for this carpet, then be honest with yourself about whether the household will keep to it.

Warranty conditions and appearance both tend to depend on routine care that nobody committed to at the point of ordering.