Is Carpeting Dead Yet?

Wood, wood, wood! That was the quick answer I gave a client several months ago when she was quizzing me on flooring replacement. Tile? wood? carpet? laminate? The choices are many, with even more variations on each type. How wide, what shade/color, 2nd or 3rd upgrade, pre- or job-finished, engineered, resilient, porcelain/stone???

There has been a huge shift the last 10 years away from carpet to hard-surface flooring, with no signs of stopping. Styles always change, and flooring is no exception with folks tired of cleaning, sneezing, staining, wearing, and replacing their carpeting. It will return at some point, but for now hard-surface is king! In St Louis, hardwood is the most popular choice today for home flooring. Tile and laminates are still popular, if not gaining as well. Clearly, though, wall-to-wall carpeting is losing big time. 20 years ago, it was a nice upgrade to have wood in the foyer and kitchen. 10 to 15 years ago it gradually spread (either solid or engineered with real wood on the surface, or laminated wood with hard, synthetic surface) to the public areas like living, family, dining, powder, hallway and adjacent closets. Wood has now moved upstairs, downstairs, and into the bedrooms. I have more clients asking for all-wood homes.

I noticed 3-5 years ago when marketing homes that advertising “no carpeting” was a winner. There can be a variety of hard surface flooring installed, with or without area rugs to soften them up, whether it be 3/4″ solid wood, 3/8″ engineered wood, laminated, ceramic or stone tile, all of which are common. Tile, stone and laminate have the benefit of not scratching, which is a drawback to real wood. Stained concrete is popular in downtown lofts and some finished basements, while vinyl has been disappearing almost as fast as carpeting. Laminate quality has come a long way from 15 years ago, and is quite common over concrete floors. Wider planks of 3 to 6 inches are popular, although solid wood rarely goes over 3.25″, while engineered does and can be less expensive. Some newer products are plank ceramic tile that is 6-7 inches wide and 20-24 inches long with linear design or even wood-like; and plank vinyl with similar dimensions and wood-look good for basements.

When preparing your home for market, does it make sense to replace carpeting? Not if in good condition and marketable color. But if it needs replacing anyway, I say look into replacing with wood or wood-look materials, as that is a strong trend today, and it is obvious in the photos when potential buyers first screen your home.  If your home is over 50 years old, you may be surprised when you lift up the carpeting, as hardwood flooring was commonly used in homes for many years til the 70s, when carpeting became the rage — shagalicious!