As a premier South Florida commercial flooring installer, we’ve talked to many organizations about office carpet installation and other business flooring improvements. A visual problem with how a business presents itself can make attracting clients and renters a near-impossible feat. Unsightly flooring can also sour existing relationships. After all, if a company doesn’t take care of its own space, how well do you expect the company to take care of its customers and tenants? The potential for this type of negative perception makes new office carpet installation critical.
How can you recognize that your office needs a carpet upgrade?
1. You suspect it does. We’ll go through more particular signs that you need new office carpet installation, but the biggest one is that you’re wondering in the first place. If you’re seeing some flaws or feeling some outdated vibes, then someone coming in and seeing it for the first time is definitely getting the same type of impression.
You’ve seen the carpet wear over time, so you’re used to it. You probably haven’t noticed half that wear developing. By the time it’s making you uncomfortable, it’s already made others uncomfortable. That can cost you business. It can also cost you new hires who may see the visible lack of care as a warning for how they’ll be taken care of as employees.
2. There are stains. Stains should be removable. If they’re not, you’ve hit a point where the carpet just can’t be effectively cleaned any longer. You can disguise it by rearranging the furniture, but that’s both ineffective and inefficient.
Why are stains a mark of carpet aging? Carpets are treated with a finish that’s stain-resistant. It doesn’t last forever, though. Carpets can be re-treated, but re-treated carpets are not as effectively as they are out of the manufacturer.
Staining can also represent fiber wear. For example, nylon, polyester and olefin are more stain-resistant than wool and acrylic, but regardless of type, the more the fiber is worn, the more opportunities a stain has to soak in.
3. You see discoloration or wear. Carpet isn’t like wood. You can’t just sand it down and refinish it. While it provides a number of advantages, carpet will inevitably wear in highly trafficked areas.
Wear will start with fraying; threads in some areas of the carpet look looser or less even than others. From here, depending on the carpet, it may get matted down and be hard to pull up with cleaning, leaving a “short” spot in the carpet. Or it may continue fraying – either ripping or developing a bald spot.
By the time you’re taping anything together, you’ve really let it get too far. Some fraying after time is usual, but if it’s all in one area, you probably need new office carpet installation in that area.
4. It has a smell. This is one of the less pleasant conditions we’ll talk about here. Carpet can retain the smells of a thousand shoes walking over it. It can hold the odor of drips and drops that were spilled on it. It can develop mold or mildew if the humidity isn’t controlled well enough.
Over enough time, all the shoes and spills and humidity can contribute to a strange brew of odors. Good cleaning and maintenance will certainly keep a carpet smelling fresh for a long time, but even well-cleaned older carpets can begin to emit an unpleasant aroma. When it has a smell, it’s definitely got to go.
5. The padding is worn. Padding enables carpet to last longer. Padding provides structural support and helps prevent rips and tears over time. It’s also more comfortable for you, your employees and your clients to walk on.
In addition, padding is insulating. It can help you save money on energy costs as well as muffle the sound of footsteps that distract employees and tenants. When padding is wearing down in certain areas, your carpet will start to feel less even. You may even see wrinkles in it. When this happens, the carpet padding is too worn. This results in the carpet becoming stretched – and looking its age.
6. There are more allergies in your office. Carpets – especially older carpets – often trap allergens. Because of all the nooks and crannies in a carpet, allergens burrow in and create a problem. This may mean tougher working conditions for employees and other stakeholders with allergies.
Many new carpets are manufactured to be hypoallergenic. You may want to look into a replacement that uses material and manufacture to reject allergens and bacteria more efficiently.
7. The style is old. If you’re magically transported to the 70’s every time you step into your office…that’s not a good thing. Carpet that looks like it is from another era communicates to clients that you’re behind the times.
Even if the carpet was part of the beige trend of the 90’s, or it’s another lighter color that still doesn’t look modern, it may be time to change. Darker and deeper colors will be trendier for a long time to come. They seem more interesting and less neutral. Neutral colors don’t play as well as they once did.
Whatever you’re noticing in your carpet, it’s enough for you to read this far. As a commercial flooring installer, we’ve done office carpet installation for a wide variety of businesses. Sometimes a business needs something very practical; sometimes a business needs something that makes a statement.
Whichever it is, don’t delay on replacing your flooring. Every day that it’s sitting there looking worn out, it risks making your office look tired, dated and grungy. Whether for better or for worse, the visual is the first way we judge anything. That holds doubly true for businesses. Contact the flooring experts at East Coast Flooring & Installation now for help.