Carpet makes a home more comfortable in ways you feel every day. It's soft underfoot, warm to bare feet, quiet for the room and the room below, and more forgiving when someone falls. Much of that comes from a layer you never see, the pad or carpet cushion, so choose the pad as carefully as the carpet.
For softness, the pad matters as much as the pile. A dense cut pile on a firm pad of the right thickness feels better underfoot, for longer, than a tall, loose pile on the thickest pad you can find.
Bare feet stay warmest on carpet, because it pulls far less heat from your skin than wood, vinyl or tile. It won't replace the insulation a floor over a crawlspace or garage needs, though.
Upstairs is where carpet does its biggest work, soaking up footsteps before they reach the room below and taking the echo out of the room itself.
A fall on carpet over a wood subfloor is less likely to break a bone. The hazards to watch are loose stair carpet and ripples, and both can be fixed.
Indoor air depends on who lives with you. Kept vacuumed, carpet suits most homes, but if someone has a dust-mite allergy or asthma, allergy and lung groups advise hard floors, starting with that person's bedroom.
Of the floors we sell, carpet on a pad is the softest, warmest and quietest.
| Floor | Underfoot | Bare feet in winter | Footsteps in the room below |
|---|---|---|---|
| Carpet on a pad | Soft, gives with each step | Warmest | Quietest by a wide margin |
| Hardwood | Firm | Cool | Carry through without rugs or underlayment |
| Luxury vinyl | Firm, with a little give | Cool | Depend on the underlayment |
| Tile | Hard | Coldest | Carry through without rugs |
What makes carpet feel soft underfoot
Soft carpet comes from three choices: the fiber, the way the pile is built, and the pad underneath. The fiber and pile decide how carpet feels to your hand and your bare feet. The pad decides how it feels when you walk, stand or kneel on it, and the right one makes even a firmer carpet feel softer.
Carpet fibers and how they feel
Every carpet fiber can be made soft, and each is known for something different. Polyester feels soft to the touch and takes clear, bright color, and it suits bedrooms and other rooms with light to moderate traffic. Triexta, which we carry from Mohawk, stays soft for years and has stain protection built into the fiber.
Nylon springs back well after it's crushed, which makes it the long-standing choice for busy halls and family rooms, and many newer nylon yarns feel soft too. Wool is the natural fiber and the premium one. Polypropylene, also called olefin, doesn't absorb water and shows up mostly in loop styles. Our page on the types of carpet fiber and style goes through each one.
If softness comes first, as it usually does in a bedroom, start by feeling polyester, triexta and a soft nylon side by side in a dense cut pile, and let your hand decide.
Pile style, density and height
For the softest feel, choose a dense cut pile. For a firmer, flatter surface that shrugs off traffic, choose a loop. Plush, sometimes called velvet, is the densest and most luxurious, but it shows footprints and vacuum stripes easily. Textured plush and frieze, with its curly, twisted yarn, feel soft and hide those marks, which makes them the everyday choice for bedrooms and family rooms. Loop and Berber styles feel firmer and flatter.
Tall pile isn't the same as quality. Face weight, the ounces of yarn in a square yard, can be high simply because the pile is tall, and a tall, loosely packed pile crushes flat in a traffic lane. Tightly packed tufts and tightly twisted yarn hold their shape longer. At the sample rack, bend a sample back on itself; if the backing shows easily between the tufts, the pile is loosely packed.
Softness is personal, and the fairest test is your own bare feet. Our Shop at Home service brings carpet samples to your house, so you can try the finalists on your own floors and in your own light.
How thick should a carpet pad be?
For most carpet, the pad should be firm and between 1/4 and 7/16 inch thick. That's the rule of thumb from the Carpet and Rug Institute, the carpet industry's trade group, which also asks for a density of at least 6 pounds per cubic foot. Berber and other low-profile carpet need a pad no thicker than 3/8 inch at 8 pounds.
A thicker, squishier pad isn't more comfortable for long. It lets the carpet flex with every step, and that loosens the carpet into ripples, strains the seams and breaks down the backing. Within the range, bedrooms and dens can take the thicker, softer end, while halls, stairs and family rooms need the thinner, firmer end.
| Where it goes | Pad thickness | Pad density |
|---|---|---|
| Bedrooms and dens, cut pile | Up to 7/16 inch | At least 6 lb |
| Halls, stairs, family rooms, cut pile | Toward 1/4 inch | 6 lb or firmer |
| Berber and low-profile loop | Up to 3/8 inch | 8 lb |
Each carpet maker also sets its own pad requirements, and the wrong pad can put the carpet's warranty at risk. We match the pad to the carpet you choose. Our guide to carpet pad types compares foam, rebond, rubber and fiber pads.
Is carpet warmer than hardwood, tile or vinyl?
Yes. Carpet on a fiber pad is rated about R-2 for heat flow, roughly three times the rating of three-quarter-inch hardwood, and tile and vinyl rate lower still. The carpet holds warmth at its surface and pulls far less heat from bare feet. On a January morning, that's the difference between crossing the bedroom barefoot and reaching for slippers.
Why carpet feels warm when the room is the same temperature
Carpet feels warmer than tile in the same room because tile carries heat away from your skin faster. Both floors sit at the room's temperature. Carpet's fibers, and the air trapped between them, slow the flow of heat out of your feet, so your skin stays warm.
Thickness matters more than the fiber. A carpet's insulating value tracks its total thickness far more than what the yarn is made of, and the values of the carpet and the pad simply add up. A thick carpet on a 7/16-inch pad is warmer underfoot than a thin loop on a thin pad, whether the yarn is wool or nylon.
Does carpet lower your heating bill?
Yes, but only a little, and mostly over cold floors such as a slab, a crawlspace or a room over the garage. ENERGY STAR's retrofit guide calls for about R-30 of insulation under a floor over an unheated space in our climate, and carpet with its pad adds only a small fraction of that. Carpet makes the floor feel warm, and insulation keeps the heat in the room. If a bedroom over the garage stays cold all winter, insulate under the floor first, then let the carpet take care of the chill at your feet.
How much quieter does carpet make a house?
Carpet makes a big difference to footsteps heard in the room below and a noticeable one to echo in the room itself. In lab tests the carpet industry published, a bare wood-framed floor, like the ones under most upstairs rooms, scored 32 on the impact insulation class. That rating measures how much footstep noise gets through to the room below, and higher is quieter.
With carpet and pad on top, it scored between 54 and 68. On the same carpet, the pad made up to seven points of difference, and the rubber pads scored highest.
That matters most in two-story homes with bedrooms or a loft over the living room, in condos and apartments, and on stairs, where carpet takes the clatter out of every step. In the room itself, carpet on a pad soaks up about half the sound that hits it. A carpeted family room sounds calmer than the same room with a hard floor, with less echo from the TV and the dog's nails.
Is carpet safer than hard floors in a fall?
Yes for the injury, when the carpet sits on a pad over a wood subfloor. A two-year study of 6,641 falls in 34 British care homes found that carpeted wooden floors led to the fewest fractures per hundred falls and the lowest impact force of any floor type. Carpet with no pad over concrete gives much less of that protection. When a rehabilitation hospital swapped thin carpet tiles on concrete for vinyl, its falls and fractures didn't change.
For a toddler learning to walk or a grandparent who's a little unsteady, that padded give softens everyday tumbles. Carpet doesn't stop the fall itself, though, so it has to be installed tight with secure edges. Loose throw rugs on any floor are the other everyday hazard; take them up, or hold them down with double-sided tape or a non-slip backing.
Carpet on stairs
Stair carpet has to be tight on every step, because loose or torn carpet there is a fall hazard. The CDC's home fall-prevention checklist for older adults asks you to make sure the carpet is firmly attached to every step, or to take it up and put down non-slip treads. Kept tight, carpet on stairs also quiets every trip up and down.
Ripples and loose carpet
A ripple in wall-to-wall carpet is a trip hazard, and it won't flatten on its own. Ripples start when carpet wasn't acclimated or power-stretched when it went in, or when the pad is too thick and soft. Swings in temperature and humidity, like ours between furnace season and muggy summers, make them worse. The fix is to power-stretch the carpet tight again, which is what our carpet re-stretch service does, and the sooner it's done, the less the ripple wears the pile.
Carpet for walkers and wheelchairs
If someone in your home uses a walker or wheelchair, choose a low, level carpet on a firm, thin pad. The federal accessibility standard for public buildings asks for carpet that's securely attached, with a firm pad or none, a level loop or level cut pile, and a pile no taller than half an inch. The firmer the carpet and backing, the easier wheels roll. It isn't a rule for houses, but it's the right guide when you're planning for someone to age in place.
Is carpet good or bad for allergies and indoor air?
It depends on who's in the house, and the health groups and the carpet industry disagree. Carpet holds settled dust and allergen down until the vacuum takes them away, and a chamber study the carpet industry publicizes found less cat and dust-mite allergen in the air over carpet than over hardwood. The American Lung Association still recommends hard floors over carpet. The Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America advises solid-surface floors where possible for anyone with a dust-mite allergy, because mites live deep in fibers a vacuum can't fully reach.
If someone in your home has a dust-mite allergy or asthma, give that person's bedroom a hard floor with a washable rug, and follow their doctor's advice. Carpet elsewhere in the house is fine with a good routine. Vacuum weekly with a HEPA-filter vacuum, and keep indoor humidity between 30 and 50 percent. Dust mites thrive above 50 percent, and our summers push past that unless the air conditioner or a dehumidifier is running.
For pollen and outdoor dust, take shoes off at the door and put a sturdy mat outside it, so less reaches any floor. Shag, high pile and carpet more than ten years old hold the most dust and allergen, so they're the first to reconsider. Our post on flooring for allergy and asthma relief covers the rest of the house.
New carpet and indoor air
New carpet, pad and adhesive can give off odors at first, and two choices keep that short. Look for the Green Label Plus mark, the carpet industry's low-emission certification, on the carpet, the pad and any adhesive; an independent lab tests every product that carries it. After installation, open windows and run fans for about three days.
Which rooms benefit most from carpet?
Bedrooms benefit most from carpet, followed by the rooms where softness, warmth and quiet pay off every day. Keep carpet out of kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and entries, which get wet too often. In our winters the entry also takes slush and road salt from every pair of boots.
- Bedrooms, where bare feet land first thing in the morning and a plush or textured cut pile on the thicker pad pays off.
- Upstairs bedrooms, lofts and hallways over the living room, where carpet keeps footsteps from carrying downstairs.
- Family rooms and playrooms, where people sit and lie on the floor.
- Stairs, for quiet and a softer step.
- Finished basements over a slab that stays dry, where carpet is the warmest thing you can put over concrete.
Our room-by-room carpet guide goes further on style and stain resistance for each space.
How to keep carpet comfortable for years
Carpet stays comfortable as long as the pile stands up and the pad keeps its spring, and three habits protect both.
- Vacuum at least once a week, and daily in traffic lanes and pet areas. Grit left in the pile wears the fibers and flattens the path you walk most.
- Have the carpet deep-cleaned with hot water extraction every 12 to 18 months, and make sure it dries within a day or two so nothing starts growing in the pad.
- Replace the pad whenever you replace the carpet. An old pad is crushed from years of traffic and holds whatever has soaked through, and new carpet laid over it feels like the old carpet.
When traffic lanes stay flat after vacuuming and the hallway feels hard underfoot, the pile or the pad is worn out. When it's time to replace it, carpet disposal and furniture removal are both on our services list, so the old carpet and pad leave with us.
Carpet at Full Circle Flooring
At Full Circle Flooring, we carry carpet from Mohawk Flooring, Masland, Fabrica, Shaw Floors, DH Floors, Stanton, Anderson Tuftex, Tarkett Home, Milliken, Karastan and Godfrey Hirst, among others. It comes in nylon, polyester, triexta, wool and polypropylene, and you can browse our carpet catalog by fiber, style and face weight before you visit.
You can see our carpet at our Westfield and Noblesville showrooms. Our installers work only for us, and installation, underlayment, carpet disposal and furniture removal are all services we provide. Carpet binding can turn a leftover piece from your install into a finished rug.
More questions about carpet and comfort
Can you put carpet over radiant floor heat?
Yes, as long as the carpet and pad together are thin enough for the heat to come through. Keep their combined insulating value at R-4 or below, or lower if your heating system's maker asks for it. Pair a lower-pile carpet with a thin, dense pad, and choose a carpet whose backing is rated for steady low heat.
The tack strip around the room gets glued rather than nailed, so nothing pierces the tubing or cables. You can filter our catalog to carpet approved for radiant heat.
Is carpet a good idea in a finished basement?
Yes, if the slab is dry and stays dry, and then carpet is the warmest floor you can put over concrete. Building scientists caution against wall-to-wall carpet on a slab that's damp or cold, because moisture coming up through the concrete can grow mold unseen on the underside of the pad. Test before you decide: tape a square of plastic sheeting to the bare slab for at least 16 hours, and if the underside is damp, deal with the moisture or choose a hard floor made for basements.
In a dry basement, run a dehumidifier through the summer to keep the humidity at or below 60 percent. A fiber that doesn't absorb water, such as polypropylene, is a sensible choice down there. If the carpet ever gets wet, dry it within 24 to 48 hours so mold doesn't start.
Is carpet cheaper than hardwood flooring?
Yes, usually. Going by national averages, installed carpet with its pad costs less per square foot than installed hardwood. A premium wool carpet can cost as much as a wood floor, though. Your price depends on the carpet, the pad and the rooms, and we price it at a free estimate.
Is wall-to-wall carpet or an area rug more comfortable?
Wall-to-wall carpet is more comfortable across a whole room. It's stretched tight over a pad from wall to wall, so there are no edges to catch a toe and no cold gaps. An area rug on a non-slip pad suits a hard floor where you want softness in one spot, such as beside the bed or under the sofa.
Comfort underfoot is easier to feel than to describe, so the best next step is to stand on a few samples in the room you're carpeting. Request a free estimate, and we'll price the carpet and the pad for your rooms together.
