Ten tips to ensure that you choose the right carpet for your home or office.

Buying a new carpet for your home or business is a decision that should not be taken lightly. The right choices will ensure that your chosen carpet not only looks great but also proves to be a wise investment. The wrong choices however can be costly in terms of money and time wasted. The following ten tips should give you a head start when it comes to buying the best carpet for your home or office. Top Ten Buying Tips 1) Suitability - Ensure that your carpet supplier understands how the carpet will be used in terms of location and potential for wear and tear. Carpeting for your stairs for example may well need to be different from that used for your bedroom. Ensure that you discuss how your chosen flooring will cope with the demands placed upon it with your carpet retailer. 2) Decoration - Your carpet should be a fundamental element of any interior decorating scheme and as such chose your carpet before you start decorating and install it after all the decorating has finished! 3) Style and Design - Carpet offers great versatility in terms of styling, colours and design. Ensure that you have really exhausted all options in terms of colour, style and design before finally picking your chosen carpet. 4) Longevity - What are your expectations of how long your carpet is expected to last? Different carpets will have differing levels of resilience to wear and tear so ensure that you have fully explored all of the options if your carpet is to match your expectations. 5) Budget - Budget is key. Buying a carpet involves additional costs such as getting it fitted, laying underlay and perhaps paying for furniture and other items to be moved or stored. Don't forget to factor all of these elements into your financial plans. 6) Professionally Measurement - Buying a new carpet is a big investment and as such having your home or office professionally measured will ensure that firstly you buy the correct amount of carpet and secondly that the carpet purchased is suited to the role that it is being asked to perform. Good carpet retailers will offer this service for free! 7) Get a Sample - Samples allow you to judge how your carpet will fit into your home or office and should be viewed in natural and artificial light at differing times of the day. Again good carpet retailers will offer samples for free and ensure that you have the sample to hand when the carpet arrives and is being fitted to ensure that it is exactly what you have ordered! 8) Buy New Underlay - New underlay will extend the life of your carpet by up to 40%. For any size project, fitting new underlay will return the cost invested into it, many times over. 9) Employ a Professional Carpet Fitter - Fitting carpets is a skilled craft and offers of "free fitting" may well come back to haunt you. A well fitted carpet should be seamless and tightly stretched and only professional carpet fitters will achieve the maximum potential from your carpeting investment. 10) You Get What You Pay For - As with most things in life you really do get what you pay for with regard to carpets. Whilst cheap carpeting with recycled underlay and a non professional fitting may save you money initially, the rapid degeneration that you see with regard to your carpeting will soon ensure that more time and money is wasted on rectifying earlier mistakes. Buy wisely, buy well, seek out professional retailers and fitters and your new carpet will return the investments that you have made into it many times over.