Thread Number: 40641  /  Tag: Recent Vacuum Cleaners from past 20 years
Carpet out of fashion?
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Post# 431777   9/14/2020 at 11:41 (1,291 days old) by MATTINLA (Burbank)        

My question is if carpet installation has declined massively and is out of style, who is even using vacuum cleaners? I now understand why there are gazillions of Kirbys for sale; these huge monsters and similar, were made for the age of endless carpeted living rooms and hallways before the open floor plan revolution brought on tile and linoleum. I tell you though, I live in an apartment and I dig my low nap generic WTW carpeting, it requires some maintenance and steam cleaning 3-4X a year, but I can lie on it, meditate on it, makes it comfy and nice, makes a huge, huge difference I hate cold wooden floors that echo, bring it on. I do see the annoyance of WTW carpeting in some 5000 SF home, vacuuming / steam cleaning is a big, big job - but for smaller apartments, it really works........

Post# 431779 , Reply# 1   9/14/2020 at 12:54 (1,291 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640)        
I , personally, love Oriental rugs

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They are all over the house. The entire house has oak flooring, except for the bathrooms, which are ceramic tile. The only thing 'carpeted', is my room, with White Karastan, and red Karastan going through the hall and down the stairs.
I have Hoovers everywhere, including attachments. Yes, Pergo, etc has invaded the home scene recently, rendering a regular vacuum cleaner almost obsolete.


Post# 431794 , Reply# 2   9/14/2020 at 14:49 (1,291 days old) by Lesinutah (Utah)        
Carpet

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You can't see what lies beneath. In the housing market a wood floor or stone tile/flooring creates more value than carpet. Usually under carpet is plywood planks. In older homes wood flooring was underneath carpet. I like carpet in my bedroom and walk areas.
I did mention carpet used to be put on top of solid wood flooring. This to me could mean that carpet had more value than wood flooring.
Wood flooring is in right now. They could come out with engineered carpet.


Post# 431798 , Reply# 3   9/14/2020 at 15:17 (1,291 days old) by gottahaveahoove (Pittston, Pennsylvania, 18640)        
Real wood floors are also easier to care for now .

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They're sealed, coated with polyurethane, etc. Gone are the days for hand waxing, buffing, etc like before. I use to go on my hands and knees past waxing, using the Hoover buffer, etc. I refinished all of the wood in the house.
It's a lot easier. But, some do love a soft carpet when they get our of bed. It kills me when I KNOW there is hardwood UNDER wall to wall. But, they are not my floors.


Post# 431799 , Reply# 4   9/14/2020 at 15:53 (1,290 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)        

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Yes, the trend since maybe the 1990s, even in apartments and modest, spec built houses, has been away from wall-to-wall carpet and toward hard floor surfaces like wood or tile. Vinyl flooring has also fallen out of favor since then. Both carpet and vinyl peaked in popularity in the 1970s and '80s and as others have mentioned, it became popular in that era to lay carpet directly on top of plywood sub-flooring. What was the point of putting down wood if it was just going to be covered up with carpet? My house, built in 1970, has only two rooms with wall-to-wall carpet—the living room and my master bedroom. The other two bedrooms have wood parquet floors that look to be original to the house and I put vinyl in the kitchen and bathrooms. I've got Persian rugs in several rooms on top of carpet or wood flooring. The hallway and dining room have some sort of cheap laminate wood flooring that was put in before I bought the house. I'm not sure what was there originally but the laminate in the hallway was ruined by my old HVAC system, which sprang a leak, presumably from a condensation line. The system was replaced two weeks ago and I was hoping the flooring would relax back into place as it dried out but most of the planks remain curled up at the edges. I'm thinking the most cost effective fix will be to put down carpeting but that will have to wait a good while until my bank account recovers. The square footage is fairly small so a nice size remnant would probably do the job. I've had two many unexpected major expenses lately to do anything at all about it right now.

Post# 431800 , Reply# 5   9/14/2020 at 16:51 (1,290 days old) by eurekaprince (Montreal, Canada)        

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I guess I'm dating myself, but I have always preferred lots of carpeting - preferably wall to wall plush - in all the rental apartments I've lived in. In the cold of a Canadian winter, I find that the carpeting also provides an extra layer of insulation between me and the apartment below, especially since I lay down a nice deep rubber underpadding under the carpet. I've always liked to sit on the carpet and read or even sort papers and it's always more comfortable to assemble a piece of Ikea furniture on a nice soft carpet. It's also easier on my bare feet and it's much more comfortable to do my morning exercises on something soft and plush. Besides this, it also provides a good sound barrier so the neighbour below me does not get too disturbed.

Post# 431801 , Reply# 6   9/14/2020 at 17:34 (1,290 days old) by Blackheart (North Dakota)        
It may be out of fashion

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I'm sticking to carpet! I helped a family member re-do their wood floors it took us about two days to finish sanding it then another two to stain and apply polyurethane. I'm not about to do that process again anytime soon! If i move into a house with wood I will carpet the **** out of the place!

Besides my hatred of the refinishing process without carpet so many of my vacs would feel useless.


Post# 431803 , Reply# 7   9/14/2020 at 18:11 (1,290 days old) by huskyvacs (Gnaw Bone, Indiana)        

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If I had a choice in the matter I would still have wall to wall carpet but when you have a bad cat that decided to go on every corner of the house until the smell was unbearable, that put an end to my carpeting. There was the original 1950s hardwood floor underneath so I kept it, and just added one large area rug to the living room, and a medium size area rug in each of the bedrooms, a runner in the hallway, and that's all.

My basement still has commercial grade low pile carpet, but it desperately needs a full cleaning and refresh.

The HGTV and home renovation era of 2002+ really is what killed off carpeting in homes and still is today with germophobes and other people that think carpet is gross.

When you have high-shed dogs, flooring is best because it just collects itself into tumbleweeds in corners and under furniture, easier to get at.

Also the Kirby does have a hard floor nozzle attachment, and the myriad of tools for furniture and wall vacuuming, so the fact of having no carpet doesn't mean a Kirby is useless either.


Post# 431804 , Reply# 8   9/14/2020 at 18:46 (1,290 days old) by bagintheback (Flagstaff, Arizona)        
Carpet is Out!

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Wood floors (Pergo, authentic, faux, ect) are in! I have a few family members that follow current interior design closely and everyone (at least with enough money to spare) is putting in wood. My parents are very slowly ripping out the carpet and installing wood when it's affordable. Here in Arizona, especially in the Phoenix and Tucson metro areas, there's also has a lot of tile. I imagine some people like it, but it might be because housing is getting so expensive that a good amount of homes are now investment properties/rentals, and it's easier for landlords to not have to rip out carpeting with a bad tenant. Model homes in new developments often have berber carpet in bedrooms, but of course "builder's grade" carpet, usually tan medium-pile, is entry level.

I think it's a good choice. It's easier to pick up liquid messes to just mop instead of getting out a carpet cleaner. I'll always love some carpeting since it's nicer to vacuum, but if that wasn't an interest of mine, the ease of maintenance of quality hard floors wins almost every time.


Post# 431805 , Reply# 9   9/14/2020 at 19:26 (1,290 days old) by cbimmer (USA)        

Ive designed a couple of homes and prefer carpet in bedrooms, media rooms, and informal living rooms. I like porcelain tile everywhere else. I can't imagine having tile or other hard flooring in a sophisticated home theater though. Bad for acoustics. The next home I design I'll combine a home theater with music studio. With 12 ft ceilings if I put tile in there it would be an echo chamber!

Post# 431806 , Reply# 10   9/14/2020 at 19:27 (1,290 days old) by Thevacomaticiec (Bathurst New Brunswick Canada )        

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Now a days not many vacuum can clean carpets well its all abg less battery powered crap ......

Back in the 50 60 70 80s all vacuum brand had a power head electric hose and upright would groom well
Now a days carpet is out the window people dont want to deal whit it or clean or anything thats my take on it .


Post# 431808 , Reply# 11   9/14/2020 at 19:59 (1,290 days old) by Marks_here (_._)        
In this house here

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There is carpet, real wood floor and laminate. Most of the older homes here have all white plush carpet, white berber and rolled linoleum flooring. Now the newer homes have manufactured wood flooring and interesting thing they used to offer CV's but not anymore. I've been in many older homes here every CV @ that time were installed there wasn't one particular brand. As stated I prefer carpet as it adds a layer of warmth in the winter especially when we had the ice storm here w/no power for 2-3 weeks. Generac made a killing on home generators after that!!

Post# 431812 , Reply# 12   9/14/2020 at 20:35 (1,290 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)        

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Blackheart's description of his wood floor refinishing nightmare brings to mind a wood floor nightmare of my own. About 25 yeas ago, my dad gave me a bunch of self-sticking oak parquet floor tiles that he had bought and never used and I got the bright idea that it would make a good DIY project to put it down in place of the worn carpeting in my dining room. The adhesive backing was old and wouldn't stick to the concrete slab so I decided get a can of adhesive and stick it down the old fashioned way. Ugh! I felt like I was in hell! It took an entire weekend to put the stuff down but the mess I made was unreal. I only used about half the tiles I had and I although I had originally thought of putting it in the back hallway as well, I quickly abandoned the idea and when I put the townhouse on the market, I stacked the remaining boxes of tile in a creative manner to cover the mastik on the one of the dining room walls. I have never had any desire to put that stuff down again, which is yet another reason to carpet my damaged hallway.

Post# 431815 , Reply# 13   9/14/2020 at 21:21 (1,290 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)        

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Contrary to popular current opinion, vacuum cleaners aren't ONLY for carpeting, or even floors, and there is a such thing as canister vacuums, although you won't likely find them at Walmart...

Post# 431821 , Reply# 14   9/15/2020 at 02:21 (1,290 days old) by MadMan (Chicago, IL, USA)        

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Well, wall to wall carpeting might be 'out' but that doesn't mean by any stretch that carpet is 'out.' Area rugs are kindof the thing now. Have wood or tile floor, and use are rugs as interior design accent pieces. Besides, I think it's still common to do wall to wall in bedrooms. More cozy that way, and less often do bedrooms need to have attractive interior designs.

Post# 431826 , Reply# 15   9/15/2020 at 06:43 (1,290 days old) by Tseg (World Traveller)        

We have a 1930's house with wood flooring, except for the finished basement and back of house bump-out with wall-to-wall carpet... but within next year will be putting wood or tile in bump-out. Lots of Persian or area rugs in all the other rooms. Makes things super easy to update the look of the room every so many years. My Miele C3 with Parquet Twister is amazing for wood floors.

Post# 431832 , Reply# 16   9/15/2020 at 08:00 (1,290 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)        

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I still have the 1946 Red/white oak floors that sadly need redoing, so I am doing the paste wax on my knees still!! Pretty but slippery for a week or two and yes the cat hair can travel even with daily cleaning. The kids just did over their large home,many cracks in their concrete floors and somekind of quiet bamboo laminate?? They had pretty wall to wall, but their big kitchen / dining area had bit spanish tiles that hid dirt really well and needed cleaning more so that tracked to the carpet,shampooing every couple months, 3 pets not helping. Begged them not to do it, not just the thousands of dollars but noisy and cold. Well now you can see the floor rise and fall too! Home sound system sounds bad now, not sure he can adjust that out, only one set of drapes and a couch for soft surfaces. I said you will have to dust mop or something daily, well they don't.....,

Post# 431838 , Reply# 17   9/15/2020 at 09:02 (1,290 days old) by Brando_husky (Las Vegas Nevada)        

I just want to find a house here in Vegas that has carpet. Every home ive ever looked at or been in has no carpet at all. They are entirely tile throughout the house. 


Post# 431881 , Reply# 18   9/15/2020 at 20:39 (1,289 days old) by Lesinutah (Utah)        
Dave

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Im going to offer a test you should try. Get a gallon or two of distilled water. It has to be distilled. Heat up the distilled water but don't burn yourself.
Mop a small portion of your floor not heavy on the water. If you use enough that the water will dry up after a minute. Try doing a small area.
The reason I mention this is I believe it's a better way to do your floors. We sealed our oak floor the first 8 years here. We did pine or orange sealer. We used our bissell symphony and steam mopped our oak floors and it cleaned up the wood. It brings out original color and the wood seems to be healthy. The sealers darken the wood.
It's much easier and faster than dealing the floors.
If you don't want to that's okay id just mention it.


Post# 431888 , Reply# 19   9/15/2020 at 23:42 (1,289 days old) by suckolux (Yuba City, CA)        

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No moisture at all Les, last refinished in 1955, some spots are bare wood,of course the finish has oranged? Over the years. Colored paste wax on the raw spots. Looks amazing for a while.

Post# 431892 , Reply# 20   9/16/2020 at 03:27 (1,289 days old) by MadMan (Chicago, IL, USA)        

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Sound is one of the problems with hard floors. Tile floors are the worst. It has to be offset with lots of fluffy soft furniture and area rugs. Tapestries if you're desperate. I hate the sound of an empty house.

My entire first floor is mostly one big open space, kitchen, living, dining, entry. All hardwood. Big Persian rug in the living area, lots of soft couches, none of that empty home echo. Some of that, I think, is due to the old fashioned plaster lath walls. They're about an inch thick and really hard. Seems to deaden sound a lot better than drywall, which I guess being thinner and lighter, can vibrate with the sounds easier. idk.


Post# 431901 , Reply# 21   9/16/2020 at 08:55 (1,289 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY)        
Still need a vacuum tho

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Just not neccessarily a PN or upright, etc.

My house is from 2004. it's wall to wall berber in all areas except for the bathrooms/kitchen, which are tile/linoleum

If had to do over, I'd want hard floors all over. But I do love berber. That's my favorite carpeting. I've always hated carpet that's thick and leaves vacuum lines or footprints, etc.


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Post# 431905 , Reply# 22   9/16/2020 at 11:06 (1,289 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)        

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My favorite carpet I ever had was a sculptured pile in variegated shades of brown that was in the first townhouse I bought in the mid '90s. The carpet was probably original to the place, which was built in the late '70s, but was in really good shape, except where the sun had faded it in the dining room, next to the sliding glass door. I ended up replacing that with oak parquet tiles, which is a horror story I have already related. The real beauty of that carpet was if you spilled something on it, the stain was effectively camouflaged. Sculptured pile was in vogue all too briefly in the late '70s and into the '80s as shag was fading from fashion.

Post# 431908 , Reply# 23   9/16/2020 at 12:16 (1,289 days old) by kloveland (Tulsa)        

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My entire house is carpeted with the exception of the bathrooms. My uprights and PN canisters love the carpet! I know some collectors who barely have any carpet or rugs but yet have over 100 uprights. I don't get it.

Post# 431909 , Reply# 24   9/16/2020 at 12:49 (1,289 days old) by Electroluxxxx (……)        

I have wall to wall carpet in the upstairs portion of my house and oak flooring downstairs with area rugs in my main room of the house and the living room. I’m more of a wall to wall carpet person with the exception of dining rooms, kitchens and bathrooms. When it comes to the type of carpeting, usually anything thick and soft I like.

Post# 431910 , Reply# 25   9/16/2020 at 13:10 (1,289 days old) by mark40511 (Lexington, KY)        
Carpeting in Kitchen

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When I was young, and my mom and dad were getting a divorce, we stayed with my mom's friend and her kids, and she was also in the process of getting a divorce. Anyway, their house was 1970s and had carpet in the kitchen and I remember that was the grossest carpet EVER! It was like an indoor outdoor low pile type carpet but it felt like it had bacon grease all over it. So nasty! There is no way I would ever have carpet in a kitchen.

Post# 431913 , Reply# 26   9/16/2020 at 13:53 (1,289 days old) by Jo (Dallas,TX)        
It’s a cycle

When I was a kid, older homes had hardwoods and area rugs, then wall to wall carpeting became the rage...then once people discovered it would have wear patterns and matted areas and also stain and smell from pet accidents it became a gross thing to have and also it had been out a long, long time, changing color and style in popularity of decorating trends. Then, after so many years someone decided that hardwoods would look great with a variety of new finishes, such as hand scraping, etc. It was a totally new take on wood flooring and also went well with the new “Tuscan look” that became the rage. As decorating trends have evolved, so has hard flooring and people who mostly grew up in homes with carpet, now tired of it and don’t really know anything else so the hardwood is “new” to them and unlike anything they ever lived with. And in this day of more and more people having pets and allergies they are realizing hard floors are a jiffy to keep clean in comparison to carpet. And for softness one can add an inexpensive area rug and if it gets soiled badly they can just replace it for minimal cost.

I can’t believe people actually live in hard floor homes with no vacuum cleaners. Crazy...there is so much more a vacuum cleaner can clean than just carpet..upholstered furniture, baseboards, windowsills, under appliances, etc. I would never live without a vacuum cleaner. I primarily have An Aerus/Electrolux canister which adapts to ALL surfaces and I vacuum my hard floors to suck up all the dust and not have it churned back up in the air by a broom. Those swifter pads are a joke and have a continual cost too..they just don’t get up everything thoroughly. But it really depends on how thoroughly one wishes to clean, some people are more fussy about cleaning than others.

Once you have children crawling on floors and you have to get down on the floor with them you suddenly realize how dirty and dusty the floors get just after a few days. After swiffering the floors still look and feel dirty to me as they drag a lot around and don’t pick EVERYTHING up but after vacuuming with a canister with a floor brush attachment, the floors are really crumb, sand, mud, dust and dirt free and thoroughly clean.

For our area rugs I just change to the power nozzle attachment which cleans them thoroughly.

Some homes nowadays I have found have a mix of hard floors in living areas and some area rugs and perhaps wall to wall carpeting in the bedrooms because people like carpet in the bedrooms to insulate from cold floors and deaden sound. They also limit pets from the bedrooms and food from the bedrooms so that can prevent those type issues with carpet. A canister like the Aerus/Electrolux works for all of these surfaces with ease on all and even gets under furniture without moving it and can clean under couch cushions, carpeted stairs and mattresses easily too.

I notice a lot of young people do t have vacuums but buy small area rugs and then those get to be gross because the dust and dirt on the hard floor gets stuck to the bottom of ones shoes or feet then get wiped off on the small area rug and they have no way to clean the area rug besides maybe taking it outside and shaking it or “bearing it with a stick” ....really...so people will reinvent the Canister vacuum cleaner because they will get tired of beating carpet with a stick and go to Walmart and realize the only option for a vacuum is an upright which isn’t designed for all purpose or ease of use under furniture, stairs and the like.

I don’t know...I grew up with Electrolux canisters and we had a mix of wall to wall carpet, hardwoods with large carpets in them, and other rooms with no carpet and just hard surfaces and we never had an issue cleaning any of it including vacuuming out the cars and a multitude of other cleaning needs such as furniture, blinds, drapes, spider webs in corners and ceilings, cleaning dust behind furniture and on baseboard ledges. It seemed to be the most versatile vacuum cleaner. It’s no wonder it became an overnight sensation when it was first brought to America...it just made sense as at that time...hard wood floors were the standard with area rugs and upholstered furniture and drapes that collect dust too were all in. While some prefer uprights for their ease in not having anything dragging behind you, people who Who preferred uprights for carpet but were also really clean people, often had a canister too for all the other needs because using or converting an upright For tools just was too cumbersome to do or use. A Kirby may clean carpet wonderfully and be a well built machine, and have convertibility, the fact still remains, it is not as easy to convert between carpet and attachment cleaning and back again quickly.

For me often I’ll be making my way around the room cleaning the floors but suddenly see a cob web in a corner on the baseboard, or need to vacuum off crumbs from the couch and I can just stop doing the floor and pull the hose handle or floor attachment or power nozzle off and get that spot in seconds and convert right back and that pls what makes using the versatility of a canister so great.

I do like the new stick vacs too like the Shark rocket that have the motor and dirt canister by the handle and then a wand and power nozzle and or floor brush at the bottom, they make for very versatile vacuum cleaners that even convert to hand held vacuums so they can clean everything with ease WITHOUT having a canister dragging behind...so they seem to satisfy both upright and canister lovers with one main complaint...they don’t stand up on their own but some do fold to stand on their own, but they can easily lean against a wall or Piece of furniture. Some of these even come with mini power nozzles as an added option and a multitude of tools that can be used wither right on the motor head or at the end of the main wand which make for a very versatile product. I know people with small to medium sized homes and apartment dwellers who have converted to this type of vacuum due to limited storage space and not necessarily the need for a larger heavier duty vacuum cleaner.

Jon


Post# 432009 , Reply# 27   9/17/2020 at 23:14 (1,287 days old) by Lesinutah (Utah)        
Clean

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Their is an orange citrus cleaner/sealer.


Post# 432068 , Reply# 28   9/18/2020 at 23:18 (1,286 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)        

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Hard floors to me are nice as far as knowing they are clean. Nowhere for dirt or stains to hide like on carpeting. If I had a house though, I'd have to at least have carpet in the bedrooms. I'd need something to use a brushroll on, so I could use my collection to the fullest.


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