It can be a real pleasure to spend a relaxing evening at home sitting by the fireplace with the love of your life… until you realize that somebody accidentally knocked over a bottle of wine.
You could spend the rest of the night with a can of carpet spray-foam cleaner scrubbing away the stain and arguing over which one of you spilled the bottle. However, if you’ve ever tried to clean a stain from carpet, you know that often times the spot you are cleaning creates a dirty ring larger than the original spill. So, then you bring in the harsh chemical cleaners, and after exposing yourself to cancer causing carcinogens that don’t work, you face the prospect of replacing the entire carpet. At this point, somebody is probably sleeping on the couch.
If this all sounds like a bad dream, then it’s time you wake up to the amazing world of carpet tiles! Introducing (or perhaps I should say re-introducing)… carpet tiles in a box! Carpet in a box? Yes. Now you can replace stained or worn tiles of carpet without tearing up the entire floor and throwing it into a landfill somewhere.
Carpet tiles come in something that looks like a pizza box, but don’t let the similarity fool you. They are not edible! They are, however, much more portable than a huge carpet roll. If you’ve ever tried to lift, transport, manage, and install large rolls of carpet, working with carpet tiles will seem like a dream, but go ahead, pinch yourself. You aren’t dreaming now! Carpet tiles make carpet installation fun again!
Environmentally minded companies like Capri Carpet Mills, Burmatex, Flor, Milliken Carpet, and Tessera Carpet Tiles, offer some excellent tile carpet and flooring options. In addition to taking a look at these manufacturers’ websites, here are some helpful sites for information on environmentally responsible carpeting:
- “Greening Your Purchase of Carpet” by the Environmental Protection Agency
- The Carpet Rug Institute
- Tricycle – enables sustainable design in the creative product life cycle of the interiors industry
One of the main advantages of carpet tiles is that they are relatively easy to replace if they become stained or worn down. Carpet covering a large area of floor space will eventually be severely worn down in high traffic areas, yet it will remain practically like-new in other areas near walls and under furniture. In conventional carpet installations, a renovation could result in high costs and significant non-biodegradable waste. Unless you can find an exact duplicate and have it professionally sized and cut to fit in, you’re stuck pulling out the entire carpet.
Remember, life’s like a carpet. So, make yours interesting. ~ Gregory
P.S. Know of more sites for environmentally responsible carpeting options? Post your comments here and I’ll try to update this blog entry to make it more comprehensive. Thanks!
