As one of the most popular flooring choices, rugs have many benefits to make your home more welcoming and comfortable. But if the advantages of the area rugs are numerous, it is not without its drawbacks.
With a range of styles, textures, and designs, the rug offers homeowners versatility in installing their floors. It can install stairs, bedrooms, living rooms, family rooms: carpet almost anywhere in the house.
This does not mean that the carpet is without drawbacks. Concerns such as maintenance and sensitivity to stains and moisture could dramatically reduce the life of the floor. This is why it is essential to conduct diligent research before making a purchasing decision.
On that note, we take a look at the pros and cons of the area rugs.
Pros of area rugs:
1. Soundproofing:
If you’ve ever visited a band’s rehearsal room, you must have seen a rug on the floor. Indeed, this coating perfectly absorbs loud sounds and improves our relations with neighbours. This is not just about musicians, but everyone who lives in apartment buildings.
2. Thermal insulation:
Area rugs retain heat and can keep you warm on those cold winter evenings. That is perhaps one of the most common reasons for having rugs on the floor.
3. Disguise:
Carpets hide dirt much better than linoleum, parquet, or laminate – you can even lay a piece of pizza or pasta on a rug and forget about it for a few days. So, a less popular option is to use rugs to hide wall imperfections – your child’s creativity, holes, peeling wallpaper, or unwashable stains.
4. Privacy:
Even if your room is cluttered and you already forgot the last time you cleaned the window, a cute little rug on the floor would bring a touch of honey cosiness to the interior.
5. Sensitivity:
Carpet is a sensitive flooring material, thanks to its ability to easily attract dirt and stains.
6. Allergies:
The carpet is susceptible to allergens such as mould, dust mites, and pet dander. If you or a family member has an allergy or respiratory issues, hardwood or tile are other suitable flooring options.
7. Longevity:
Most rugs are produced synthetically, which tends to have a shorter lifespan than other flooring choices. Unlike rugs, floors like hardwood can last for generations.
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8. Style and trends:
Although carpet remains a popular flooring choice, hard surface floors continue to gain in popularity, adding more value to homes.
9. Heat:
The mat offers thermal resistance, which means that it will keep the air warm longer than other types of flooring during colder seasons.
10. Comfort:
The area rugs provide a cosy and comfortable place to sit, play and work, an advantage over most wood materials.
11. Security:
You can choose from thousands of styles and colours of rugs so that they can customize your living space to your liking.
Cons of area rugs:
1. Dust:
Remember the clouds of gray dust that came out of your carpet when you were cleaning the dust? It’s hard to believe, but a rug can accumulate up to 2-3 kilograms of dust per year. Therefore, this is the main disadvantage of this flooring and the most common cause of allergies, breathing problems, and sleep disturbances.
2. Waste:
On average, carpets are four times dirtier than toilet seats and seven times more polluted than most pedestrian streets. Why? Due to the keratinized skin particles falling from our body – around 600,000 to 1,500,000 pieces per hour!
3. Parasites:
It is better not to know how many small insects and microorganisms live in the carpets. It can find almost anything in a rug from bacteria that cause pneumonia. On the other hand, the chemicals that are sometimes used to treat carpets can be so toxic that even mice die.
4. Danger of fire:
The rug’s pile is one of the first things that catches fire and turns into a large fireplace. And a synthetic carpet can poison its owner with highly toxic gases.
5. Smells
Carpets absorb odors: food, cigarette smoke, and whatever gets on them. In addition, there’s a chance that neither regular cleaning nor air fresheners can combat this cocktail of odors.
6. Sensitivity:
Carpet is a sensitive flooring material, thanks to its ability to easily attract dirt and stains.
Conclusion:
Area rugs have been popular floor coverings for centuries and can still be found in many apartments and houses of different styles. And that’s hardly surprising – they bring a lot of positive things to our homes. However, many people are fond of contemporary rugs and would never put them on the floor. So, I decided to find out the whole truth about this furniture and name its pros and cons wholly and honestly.