Can a carpet be too thick?

[ThickPile]

We moved recently and desperately need to replace carpets in bedroom, hall, staircase and playroom. It seems previous owners were not ones for cleaning much (generally) and they had a dog. The carpets are bald and stink.

Anyway, I have never had to buy carpet before and am looking for some advice. We went to CarpetRight to have a look and thought none of the carpets felt/ looked very nice and were expensive. The guy there told us that you need a different type of underlay on the stairs (rubber?).

We then went to a local company who have amazing reviews. They have some lovely, thick ‘premium’ carpets for less than the crappy feeling ones at CarpetRight.

I really liked the feel of the deep/ thick pile carpets. However I’m unsure if this is really a good idea. I don’t want it to feel like I’m walking on sponge for one. Also am worried it would be too thick for the stairs and maybe be slippery. The guy in the shop said it would be ok for stairs though. Also wonder if a thicker pile gets flattened/ matted more quickly? I think the ones we liked were either 24mm or 27mm.

Thoughts or advice welcome!

Also to say that we have been recommended to get a 100% synthetic carpet because we have small kids (so it’s bleachable). I like the wool loop ones but DH very keen to get some cats…

I can’t comment on thickness, but we had a similar experience recently with Carpetright vs a local shop. The local shop was a chunk cheaper (despite not having the advertised massive discounts that Carpetright had) and just gave SO much better service, in terms of the quality of advice / range of options. We ended up going for a bleachable synthetic carpet in the hall but an 80/20 elsewhere, and I’m so glad we didn’t go all synthetic - yes the synthetic is incredibly practical but it doesn’t look or feel the same (I think because I grew up with 80/20 it just makes me feel homely!).

Thick carpets will flatten in high tread areas. Loop piles are a bad idea with cats.

Thanks, yes I grew up abroad and we have hard flooring in the bedrooms so feel slightly clueless about carpet. I would actually quite like to put LVT in our bedrooms here but everyone keeps telling me it will be loud and cold and possibly make the house harder to sell?! But my DH family home has 80/20 carpet and it still looks good and feels nice despite being down a long time… can I ask what you paid per square metre for the 80/20?

Thanks @eurochick I’m wondering we should at least get something with shorter pile for the stairs and hallway. I am also unsure about carpet in the (downstairs) playroom.. I feel like hard flooring would be better for a playroom but there is already carpet in there and I want to re-do all the downstairs flooring next year when we plan to do an extension. But I don’t think I can live with what’s there now for very long, it is gross and I can feel the floorboards underneath 😫

We had a high pile synthetic carpet throughout. It has flattened massively, but it was a problem on the stairs where it became slippy when lying flat.

We replaced it with a shorter pile wool twist which is doing far better.

It's also better with cats - they loved the long pile on the stairs but leave the short one. Definitely not loop with cats, once they pull a bit enough you get a ladder run which looks awful.

Thick pile does flatten, our lovely bedroom carpet did this sadly, no matter how much I vacuum and brush the trodden areas. We went for a much cheaper and thinner pile on the stairs/landing and it still looks OK. Our most long lasting though has been wool/wool blend with a sort of twisted loop rather than pile (don't know the technical terms). Our living room has this and it still looks good after 20 years. It has been professionally cleaned a couple of times.

Thanks @StatisticallyChallenged I wonder if we should look at the 80/20 wool ones in that case. Although DH has a habit of sloshing tea around and my kids are… well, quite messy! So worries it would get stained quickly.

Hi OP, I've just been immersed in the world of carpet. I went to Carpetright, like an amateur, and quickly worked out they are expensive, don't have the knowledge of independents and worse still contract put the fitting to whatever local fitters are free. Those fitters have no allegiance to CR, as my friend found out with a total bodge job. I've ordered through a local family business, fitters are part of the team, all fantastic so far.

I'm doing stairsand bedrooms in 100% wool loop, for environmental, safety (fire) and aesthetics. All wool moth-proof, but if moths are a worry, check out these 100% safe parasitic wasps that destroy wool moths. I found this on another MN thread, and it's for real! www.dragonfli.co.uk/collections/clothes-moths/products/clothes-moth-egg-sachets?src=GAds&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9t68pcWP_QIVGr_tCh04HgwyEAAYASAAEgJmTfD_BwE

Polypropylene carpets have improved a lot over the years and as you said OP practically bomb proof. We have thick -ish ones in our bedrooms. They hoover up great. I know it sounds silly but if you have really thin carpets already check your under door gaps. Really thick carpets might mean you have to take a bit off each door for easy opening. We had to do do this when we put hard floor downstairs.

defo no to wool loops. My cats have really gone to town on mine 😣

@SilentHedges thanks, I would like wool but we (well, DH and DD) want to get cats so not a good option as they pull up the loops.

@mintbiscuit thanks, yes to be fair both CarpetRight and the local company recommended polypropylene because of kids and cats. We are actually about to have all of our upstairs doors replaced and the fitter insisted that he has to do the doors before the carpets go in. Something to do with the line of the door? But yes I suspect we might have to get him back in to shave some bits off after the carpet is fitted. Or maybe if we choose a carpet soon we’ll be able to figure out the mum difference to what is there now.

Btw the local company only charges £5 per square metre for fitting! My jaw actually dropped when he said that!

We are an adult household with 2 dogs and I have 100% wool carpet on my stairs absolutely lovely and has a very good underlay so nice underfoot.
In the bedrooms we have Cormar carpets primo ultra, again really good no flattening and easy to clean if needs be. I would certainly get more of it again.
On all the carpets I went for the best underlay. The carpet fitter didn't mind me supplying and it saved a bit of money.
I also knew what wool carpet I wanted and colour and got an remnant from EBay for about a 1/3 of the cost.

We're getting 80/20 carpet from a local independent shop - the prices were a lot cheaper (in some cases we could directly compare the brand) and they were very helpful. We have one child and have never needed to bleach a carpet?!

We can't have deep pile as we've got under floor heating. Most of the house will be LVT but we'll have carpet in bedrooms, living room and on stairs. I know someone with deep pile and the doors had to be adjusted for it, plus it marks easily with wear and is hard work to hoover!

When we carpeted hall, stairs, landing and bedrooms we found that service, range and price from a local independent were vastly better than any of the big shops like Carpetright and John Lewis. So much so that when we had another (albeit smaller) area to carpet, we didn't even bother getting a range of quotes, just went straight back to the same local independent.

Carpets are rated for use. Look at the back of the samples. We chose 80/20 for all our carpets, including the hall and stairs. The pile depth is the same in all our carpets, and all are equally comfortable to sit on. Where I notice a difference is walking barefoot upstairs and downstairs. Downstairs we have a concrete for, and upstairs we have floorboards on joists, so upstairs feels springier, even though the piles and ratings are identical.

Underlay is very important. No point getting a lovely thick carpet and scrimping on the underlay. Especially as the price difference was really quite a small percentage of the whole job. I don't remember them using a different underlay on the stairs.

The hall and stairs are carpeted in a richer colour that does not show every spot of dirt (until we got a white cat ), whereas bedrooms and landing are a pale, neutral colour.

We bought out bedroom carpet from a local independent shop, and when the man came to measure up be told us we didn't need new underlay as the one we had previously fitted was good quality!!!

I doubt the big carpet shops would do that!

Thank you all. Yes I will get the thickest underlay, I think at the local company it was 10mm and £8 a square metre so not outrageous.

I have never bleached a carpet either, but in our last house we ended up with a (rather large) stain from some vomit, and red marks from when my kids decided to play with my lipstick 😬

@Shunkleisshiny wow that was good! Yes definitely going with the local independent shop. It’s nice to support them anyway but they are also much better value, I can’t get over the price difference with CarpetRight.

We have a very think pile in the bedroom. It does flatten, but make sure you have enough clearance under the door. After we had ours fitted we realised we couldn't close the door, had to sand a few mm off the bottom of the door! 😬

Personally i would do had flooring with area rugs. So much more sanitary.

BTW it's the cat's fur that shows on the hall carpet. I've cleaned up sick, poo, mud from both cats and children, and none have ever left a mark. There is one mark in ds1's bedroom, where he spilled a drink and left it to dry.

The playroom is also carpeted in a darker colour, and the dc are allowed to eat in there. Again, no stains because I clean up spills immediately. But messy play happens in the kitchen or outdoors.

Heathered colours show the dirt much less than solid colours.

The underlay is more important than the carpet. Get a good underlay and you don't need so much of a thick pile carpet.

Yes agree to best underlay and not thick pile.

We had thick pile and it looked awful after just a month. I was desperate to replace it. I had to wait 4 years to feel justified to replace it. We now have a much shorter pile and it looks so much better.

We used a local independent. If you are in the Southwest I can recommend.

@HolibobsinApril we are in southwest so yes please!

Ok so I am thinking now we’ll look at a slightly shorter pile rather than the super thick ones and look again at the 80/20 ones. @WashAsDelicates I suspect I am just crap at keeping the house clean to be honest!! I’m not the best housekeeper 😬

@ZeldaWillTellYourFortune I am very tempted to get LVT instead of carpet. But so many people look at me like I have two heads when I say this I am worried about re-sale as not sure if this is our forever house. Also worries about noise of kids jumping around upstairs.

If you can afford LVT and large rugs, it's a more elegant look and certainly much more clean. And easy to change the decor.

I have hard flooring throughout and will never, ever live with carpet again.

@ZeldaWillTellYourFortune ah you’re making me re-think this!! We had karndean downstairs in our old house and I loved it. Can I ask how much it cost you for installation? I think Karndean is around £50 per square metre?