Why do most American apartments have carpet?

Roparadise

Roparadise

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Every single modern apartment I've seen for rent in the United Stats has carpet instead of wood or faux wood flooring. And I have yet to see a carpet floor apartment for rent,when I was looking overseas. I really do not understand why here,they use carpet when you have to change the carpet out every so many years and its such a pain to clean compared to wood/faux wood floors.

The only places I've seen hardwood floors in the u.s. was in older buildings.
 
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Interesting question. The answer is because carpet sucks and stains, which allows landlords to hold security deposits when tenants move out. That, of course, is just an opinion.
 
QualityContentWriter said:
Interesting question. The answer is because carpet sucks and stains, which allows landlords to hold security deposits when tenants move out. That, of course, is just an opinion.
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But its going to cost more then the security deposit to replace the carpet.
 
good question carpet not nice to clean at all, i prefer wood floor last longer and clean faster
 
Answer: In the "old days", most houses had dirt floors. Then came wood floors. The rare upscale hotel or other building would have marble floors. When the marble got wet or muddy, it became extremely slippery, especially for the old leather soled shoes. So, they would put down carpets to prevent the upscale people from falling.

Carpets became synonymous with luxury and wealth. When the U.S. began to see a larger middle class, who wanted all the luxuries of the upper class, carpets became vogue. EVERYONE had to have carpet. And... it's still that way today for the most part.

However, in the last decade or so, hardwood floors have made a return - with uncarpetted floors actually becoming a selling point.

Now... the OTHER reason is... Americans are lazy. Having hardwood floor requires that you re-finish it every few years. That means, scrapping/sanding the entire floor, then restain it, finishing it, etc.

That's ALOT of work... hard, smelly work. It's easier to rip up carpet and lay down more.

Of course, within the last decade the newer synthetic flooring makes that step unnecessary. They look like wood and some are even textured like wood, but they are scuff, stain and water resistant.
 
My little dinky apartment has nice wood flooring. Carpet is gross.
 
Isn't it to do with noise? I'm not 100% sure what apartment means in the US, but in the UK I'm sure there's some shitty bylaw that states than anyone who lives in an upstairs flat should have carpet to dampen the noise for the person that lives underneath. Ok, maybe not a law, maybe a friendly suggestion. But if I lived in an apartment under another person then I'd much rather they had carpets than hear every single footstep they make at any hour of the day.

My last flat was a nightmare. Mine was privately owned, but the one above was a council flat with a 30'ish year old couple with 5 kids who'd stomp around at 5 in the morning in their kitchen which was right above my bedroom. Looking for scraps or leftover baked beans, as from the look of their clothes that's all they ate.
 
Because it's cheaper than installing or redoing wood floors. I use to do wood floors when I was younger and it does get expensive for the owners. Carpet is cheap and faster to install.
 
Tile and stone (granite, limestone, sleight) are all we use here in the sw US on mid and upper homes. You may see carpet in the living room, tv room and bedrooms but mostly just throw rugs. Since most have floor heating you don't get cold feet anymore either. Dogs and cats love heated floors too.

The reasons for carpet are pretty much all of the reasons mentioned above. Sound and durability being the strongest. While carpet can look horrible and like you need to tear it out after a renter, good carpet cleaning companies can use their truck mounted cleaners and make it look like new again for very cheap.
 
Here in Houston, carpets are in apartments and institutions, but floors with ceramic tile and hardwoods are very prominent in single family homes. Upper scale homes tend to have carpet in the bedrooms but have more decorative flooring in the main living areas.

The floor tile business in Houston is HUGE, so is hardwoods. I recently sold a hardwood floor repair site.
 
I prefer carpet over tile/lino/hardwood/laminate/etc because it's warm. Here in Canada, we have cold winters, and if you put your feet on a cold floor when you get out of bed, well, who the hell wants to step on something cold? We turn our furnaces off at night to save gas/money, so yes, it's a cold sleep (I love sleeping in the cold), thus resulting in cold floors. Carpet it is for the bedrooms.

Other rooms, well carpet in the kitchen is retarded for obvious reasons. In the living room, hardwood is nice, but still need a throwdown. I think in the end, the look and feel of carpet provides comfort. Softness = comfort, even if it only hangs on the wall.

Also, it's way cheaper to lay some carpet down on a set of stairs and hallway than it is to do the woodwork of hardwood.

I would bet it's more a climate thing than we would think. In florida, all (most) houses are tile. And I think that helps keep it cool somehow.
 
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carpet isnt bad if you know how to clean it! lol plus who likes waking up in the morning and walking on cold floors? Not to mention most people then buy throw rugs anyways? lol fading
 
Roparadise said:
Every single modern apartment I've seen for rent in the United Stats has carpet instead of wood or faux wood flooring. And I have yet to see a carpet floor apartment for rent,when I was looking overseas. I really do not understand why here,they use carpet when you have to change the carpet out every so many years and its such a pain to clean compared to wood/faux wood floors.

The only places I've seen hardwood floors in the u.s. was in older buildings.
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simple answer is that carpet is cheaper,,, u can get about 3-4 years on a carpet. Now for wood floors and laminate, theres a upcost to install these, they last for years, however in the usa carpets were actually prefered and installed over woodfloors as this was what was in fashion or desired.
 
pooinmyloo said:
Isn't it to do with noise? I'm not 100% sure what apartment means in the US, but in the UK I'm sure there's some shitty bylaw that states than anyone who lives in an upstairs flat should have carpet to dampen the noise for the person that lives underneath. Ok, maybe not a law, maybe a friendly suggestion. But if I lived in an apartment under another person then I'd much rather they had carpets than hear every single footstep they make at any hour of the day.

My last flat was a nightmare. Mine was privately owned, but the one above was a council flat with a 30'ish year old couple with 5 kids who'd stomp around at 5 in the morning in their kitchen which was right above my bedroom. Looking for scraps or leftover baked beans, as from the look of their clothes that's all they ate.
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It's a rule in certain areas (bearing in mind England and Wales laws are different to Scotland we're fancy north of the border, not!) that if you have laminated flooring it must have the proper underlay so as to not cause too much noise. A not so fun story when I lived with my parents the people upstairs let their 8 year old run riot. This girl would run around the house all day even on the sunny days, which are a rarity in Scotland and should be cherished, in her SHOES. What's worse is she would use her skipping ropes indoors above my bedroom for hours on end. And we couldn't do anything about it. Whereas I believe in England the landlord/owner may be forced to fix the flooring as it wasn't fitted correctly.

I personally prefer carpet mostly because I like walking around in my bare feet. I have sensory and muscular issues in my legs which mean slippers can be awkward or just pointless and can cause more issues and the cold from the flooring can also be quite painful sometimes. That said in my flat I've got laminate in my living room 'cause I can't afford to replace it.
 
Living in Canada myself, I agree with Sniper, above. In the winter, carpet adds an insulating quality which is nice. I have carpet in my house upstairs (except for the bathroom... can't understand people who do that), but hardwood floor downstairs. In the winter though, having an "area rug" on the hardwood is nice as well.

Hardwood floors are great though, for cleaning - just need to give them a sweep, and bring out the vacuum every so often to get into the corners and stuff. Every so often, a good cleaning with Murphy's Oil too.

I got a puppy last year... house training was a pain - have to rent a carpet cleaner for the upstairs. Wish I didn't have to...
 
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