Carpet Over Hardwood Floors | On Stairs & Wooden Floor?

Carpet gets a bad rap, especially in today’s modern homes.

While there are benefits to having solid surface flooring, nothing creates a cozy, inviting atmosphere than a home with floors covered in luxurious carpeting.

Keep reading to learn why installing carpet over hardwood flooring may be the best choice for you.

Reasons to Choose Carpet Over Hardwood Flooring

Let’s look deeper at the benefits of installing carpeting in your home.

1. Cost

The initial cost of carpeting and installation is typically less expensive than solid hardwood flooring.

For those on a budget, carpeting is a cost-effective way to update the look of your home. When cared for properly, most carpets should last five to fifteen years before needing replacement.

High-quality carpeting is easier to keep clean and can better withstand wear and tear, so look for 100-percent wool fibers or a wool fiber blend when possible. Nylon is another choice that is more durable than lower-cost polyester or olefin blends.

Another cost consideration if you choose hardwood flooring is the additional expense of area rugs and a runner on stairways.

How many homes do you see area rugs covering a large portion of their wooden floors in main living areas? The reason behind this is that carpeting is much more comfortable to walk on and prevents damage like scratches.

Large area rugs and a stairwell runner can cost $200 to $1,000 or more each. Add this to the cost of oak wood flooring, and the final total can be astronomical.

Carpet on the floor

2. Comfort

As noted above, a rug is much more comfortable to walk over during daily life.

Sitting on the floor to play with your kids or pets is softer on your body since carpets have thick padding, which provides cushioning not found with wood flooring.

Walking across carpeting is gentler on your feet, knees, and hips. Babies and small children can crawl over a rug much more comfortably vs a hard-surface floor.

Pets have a much better grip on carpeting, especially on stairways, so slips or falling is less of a concern. Pets also love to nap on carpeting, which is much warmer than hardwood.

3. Sound control

Carpet provides a buffer that absorbs sound that can reverberate off oak flooring. Any carpeted room is much quieter, as noise echoes less off of the walls, furniture, and floors.

For homes with second stories, carpeting practically eliminates hearing footsteps and other noises from above.

Hard-soled shoes and the toenails of pets landing on carpeting makes no noise but can create quite a racket on hardwood flooring.

Trying to hear music or the TV in a room without carpet is also more difficult since the sounds vibrate off hard surfaces and cause distortion. Carpet helps dissipate noise pollution, so your home feels more peaceful.

4. Energy savings

Carpeting and padding trap heat. For multi-level homes in colder regions of the country, carpeting helps insulate the floor and reduces energy loss vs wooden floors that let heat pass through.

Not only does carpet lower your utility bill, but it also doesn’t absorb the cold like hardwood floors. Floors with carpeting retain more heat in the winter, so your feet feel warm even without thick socks or slippers.

5. Controls allergens

Many people with allergies automatically dismiss carpet as an option in their home, since they believe carpet makes the problem worse.

In reality, carpeting “traps” allergens landing in the fibers and keep them there until you vacuum. When you combine carpeting with a Hepa-filter vacuum cleaner and yearly carpet cleaning, you can control allergens quite effectively.

Hardwood flooring doesn’t contain allergens. Any particles that collect upon the surface daily are quickly projected back into the air by walking, fans, or when the central heating or cooling system kicks in.

Is Carpet Hard to Install?

Changing out wood floors to wall-to-wall rugs is not difficult, but does require the right tools and hours of labor.

The best part about carpeting is the ability to cover wood flooring with little damage, so you can opt in the future to return to the original floors if you like.

A tack strip installs around the perimeter of the floor you wish to cover, and padding lays down within the tack strips. The carpeting stretches over the pad and “grabs” onto the tack strips, which hold it in place.

Many people choose DIY carpet installation, but changing your flooring may best be left to professionals who have the tools and experience to get the job done right.

A DIY Video for Carpeting Stairs

Stairs are usually the first place to show wear on carpeting. A great way to refresh your home is by replacing only the stairway carpet.

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More Information

In this video, you can see how to remove and replace worn carpeting on a stairway. The informative clip helps you know if it’s a project you can tackle yourself or one you should consider hiring out.

Conclusion

Choosing the best floor material for your home can be confusing.

Now that you understand what benefits carpeting has over hardwood floors, you can select the perfect flooring for your needs.

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