Many Types Of Floor Coverings

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28529, 7 March 1958, Page 19

Many Types Of Floor Coverings

Anyone contemplating buying floor coverings at present is faced with a large and impressive range of materials. And even as the days pass while he trys to decide between one material and another he may find that three or four more varieties have come on the market.

For most persons the first choice will be a carpet. Even so the choice may be hard to make. The first question to be answered is whether a whole carpet, -or square, or wall-to-wall carpet is to be bought. Carpet squares can be bought in sizes ranging from 9 feet by 7J feet to 12 feet by 15 feet.

The great advantage of carpet squares is that they can be moved from room to room and can be fitted in another house. A disadvantage is that the floor around a carpet square has to be polished. WalKto-wall carpet is easy to keep clean with a vacuum cleaner —probably the easiest of all floor coverings to clean —but it may be hard to fit into a room in a new house. Persons who shift house frequently find that after a few moves they have a sort of patchwork border around their carpet. Woollen carpets have until now been most widely used. They are all hard-wearing, springy, warm, uncrush able, hard to soil, easy, to clean, and expensive. Prices vary'according to quality, as well as from shop to shop. Carpet is graded, in ascending order of quality, as A. 3, A.2, A.l, A.O. and Wilton. The usual width is 27 inches, blit occasionally 42inch carpet is to be found. There are also nine-foot and 12-foot broadlooms.

A.l Axminster 27 inches wide costs from 45s to 47s 6d a yard, and 36-inch from 59s 6d to £3 3s. Nine-foot broadloom in the same quality is £9 15s, and 12-foot is* £l3 10s. Wiltons, which are difficult to get, range from £4 15s for the 27-inch width to £l6 10s for 12-foot broadloom.

Many persons nowadays prefer plain carpets. For them the range of colours available is large. Patterned carpet, for those who prefer it or need it to add richness to a room furnished in solid colours, also comes in wide variety.

Most of the patterned carpet sold in New Zealand nowadays bears contemporary designs British carpet manufacturers were surprised about three years ago when orders for contemporary carpet began to from New Zealand—a country which they had previously thought of as firmly resisting the new simple, clean designs and buying only floral or oriental patterned carpet. Underlay is important. Manufacturers stipulate its use as the minimum requirement for long wearing and no manufacturer will consider a complaint unless underlay has been used. Three kinds are available. A felt underlay, six feet wide, adds 3s 3d a yard to the cost of carpet 27 inches wide. A foam plastic underlay—a new product manufactured in New Zealand—adds 7s 6d a yard to the cost. The most expensive is a foam rubber underlay which makes a yard of carpet 12s 6d dearer.

The quality of a carpet can be judged by its feel and its appearance. A carpet’s wearing qualities depend on the amount of wool it contains. This can be measured accurately by counting the number of tufts to the inch and the number of fibres in each tuft. The length of the fibres is also important. The cost of laying wall-to-wall carpet includes, of course, more than the price of the carpet. There is the cost of planning, cutting, sewing and laying—which must be done by tradesmen—and the underlay. A good springy underlay can give a luxurious, expensive feel to a medium quality carpet. Rubber-backed tufted carpet comes in 52-inch, six-foot, and 12foot widths. It costs about £3 ss, £4 9s, and £8 19s a yard, depending on Width. Apart from those made from wool, there is a range of felt and cotton carpets, all of which are cheaper than wool. Haircord, which is made of goat, cow and horse hair, is not as warm or springy as woollen carpet but it is hard-wearing. It can, however, be fairly expensive. There is an English carpet, very similar to haircord in appearance but made of wool and synthetics, which sells as low as 32s 6d a yard. Flax matting of average quality costs about Ils a yard. Another inexpensive floor covering, of similar appearance to flax but slightly finer in quality, is sisal matting, which costs about Ils 6d a yard. For rooms where a harder .surface is required, there is an equally large variety of substances. Linoleum, which once attempted with little success to masquerade as carpet in poor designs and a limited range of colours, is again in favour. Nowadays linoleum, especially the inlaid variety, comes in simple well-designed patterns and many clean, bright colours. Now that attempts to disguise its nature are no longer made, the surface appearance of linoleum has become more pleasant and offers possibilities of textural relief amid the hard, shiny surfaces of the kitchen. Six feet wide, linoleum costs from 27s 6d to £2 a yard, according to quality. Linoleum tiles, eight inches square, cost from 8d to Is each.

Cork tiles, 12 inches square and half an inch thick, cost 2s 6d each. Asphalt tiles cost about 22s 6d a square yard. A square yard of vinyl tiles costs 355,

P.V.C. plastic flooring costs from 22s 6d a square yard. A square Sponge rubber flooring with a smooth surface costs £2 15s a square yard. It is very silent. Hard rubber is about 35s a square yard.