- In this video we talk about carpet flooring, what's the most durable, what
are the best types, and how do you maintain it. That's starting right now.
- Welcome to Homebuyer's School
brought to you by Brookfield Residential.
- Hi everyone I'm Karl Yeh. Welcome to another Homebuyer's School video, a
channel where you get the latest strategies tactics and tips
from home buying experts, and remember
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notification bell so you don't miss anything. So today I'm joined by Deborah
Armstrong, senior interior designer with Brookfield Residential, and today we're
gonna talk about types of carpets. And so I guess the first one is what is the
most durable type of carpet?
- Most durable types of carpets I would say would be
your nylon carpet and then your wool carpet. They have very-very strong fibers
and can stand up to you know, a higher traffic.
Yeah and I've always wanted to
know about carpets—like does the I guess, the length of the carpet matter?
- No not really.
It's how many fibers you know, per square inch. That's what's the
most important. You can have a really long fiber and very little material per
square inch and it's gonna just lay over, flop, it's gonna show its wear and tear,
it's not gonna feel good underfoot.
- And so, what are the—what are the types of carpets for homes I guess?
- So there's nylon, there's a polyester—
they're the most commonly used ones.
There's a polypropylene type of carpet,
usually not used that often, it doesn't
wear very well at all but it's a quick fix
for a basement, playroom or something
like that. And then of course your wool
carpet, it's very luxurious, very expensive—
- And which one's—
—very hard-wearing.
- For me, which one's the the easiest ones to clean?
- Your polyester carpet itself in itself is more stain resistant than a nylon
carpet, however the carpet manufacturers today have got great stain guards that
are warrantied very-very well. So you know, between a nylon and a polyester I'd
say they're your two best carpets. Nylon is going to be twice the price of
a polyester carpet just because of its wear-and-tear
ability, it's just stronger.
- And so my— dog has had many accidents on our
carpets so if you have pets, what carpet would you recommend?
- I would probably go with a nylon carpet that's got a really good warranty and a
good stain protection on it. To make sure that you don't void that warranty you're
gonna want to make sure that you clean— and have professionally clean not—don't
use those ones you rent at the—
- From Safeway?
- No, they are not good for your
carpet and they do not clean. In fact they probably put more dirt down. Your
carpet will get dirtier quicker because it can't extract that soap and the soap
then acts as a agent to actually attract more dust 'cause it's sticky.
- Really?
- Yes. Don't use those— worst thing you can do.
- Worst thing you can do is—okay so let's
talk about that more because I know I do that every like six months and I think
I'm doing a great job because like—
- Your carpet getting dirty—seem to get dirty quicker ?
- It actually kind of does.
- So you want it professionally cleaned because they can extract all that
cleaning agent—the soaps.
- Oh, so when you're using the ones from
the stores, you just go over but all the soaps there just attracts—
- Well you do rinse it, it does have a rinse cycle but it doesn't—it's not strong
enough to get all of that residue out of there.
- So let's say for example—because
we've had to do this, we've had to clean up our pet's mess, we cleaned it up and
then we usually you know, go to the grocery store and get the carpet cleaner
right, what would be a better solution to doing that?
- Well when you—have an accident,
whether it be your pet, or a glass of wine,
or coffee—whatever it is,
you want to first blot up right away,
don't let it dry—that mess.
Just blot it, get it out of there, and then
put hot water. No soaps, just hot-hot
water onto that carpet keep applying and
blotting. Blot it all out, if you still see it
apply more and just keep blotting.
Today's carpets—most of them have great stain resistance in them, you shouldn't
have a problem getting those out. And then you want to make sure if you do
have an accident where you don't—you can't get it out, your carpet's gonna be
warrantied. They're warrantied for like 20 years, 25 years depending on the product
you buy but you have to be able to show them that you've had your carpet
professionally cleaned every 12 to 18 months. You want to make sure that you
keep those receipts in a safe place. If you don't have those then your carpet or
that warranty may not be valid. It's very important.
- Is there anything you can do without
going to professional to keep your carpets clean?
- Vacuum. You want to vacuum those carpets weekly and remove any stains—
small stains, right away. Don't let them dry.
- And that's another thing, so
what if you spill either ketchup or red wine, like you know very staining agents,
is it—is what you said in terms of just putting hot water, does that—?
- Yes because a lot of the carpets have a stain protection on the carpet that's
going to—so it's not going to absorb like some of the old carpets did. So
if you get at it right away you probably won't have a problem.
- Okay another key for that is especially if you do have pets, there are underlays
nowadays that have a barrier to protect the moisture going all the way through
to your subfloor. That's very important.
- And remember, if you want to
know more about carpet underlay, watch our video above. So let's say you have a
stain in one section of the carpet and unfortunately you can't remove it, is that
something that you need to remove the entire carpet? Or can you actually spot
remove the carpet?
- You can. You actually can if you've got that exact same carpet,
if your carpet's not so old and you're putting in this brand new piece of
carpet that looks like a patch, but you know it's always advisable to have a
little bit of carpet for those areas that you can do that, you know.
- So when you buy brand new carpet, you probably want some extra—?
- Yeah, and they usually leave a little bit behind for you for those areas—and yes,
as long as the carpets not too old. Otherwise you are definitely going to see
that patch.
- Perfect. Do you have anything else to add in terms of carpets?
- Just vacuum, keep them clean, keep your warranties.
- Awesome. Question for you is,
what type of carpet do you have and have you had any accidents on those carpets,
and how did you deal with them? Let us know in the comments section below.
Thank you very much for joining us and we'll catch you next time.
That's another edition of
Homebuyer's School. Tune in next time
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