Cheap Carpet Tiles – A Negative Review!
One of the best aspects of carpet tiles is that mostly they are renowned for being cheap, but unfortunately, at times, they look just that, cheap! Carpet tiles were invented around 50 years ago for use in commercial premises only, someone discovered years later that they could also be used in residential properties as a cheaper alternative to wall to wall carpet. A growing trend has seen the use of cheap carpet tiles in residential dwellings as some have preferred their easy and practical installation and their ‘sophisticated’ look. But there are several problems with carpet tiles, they are not as cheap as some might think and they don’t always hold their own when it comes to durability and practicality.
One of their main problems is that they don’t always appear to be a cohesive singular form of carpet (i.e. not look like wall to wall carpet). Cheap carpet tiles generally promote and provide for an untidy look with the edges of the carpets being brought to the surface meaning a disjointed looking carpet even after just a short period of time. The age of the carpet tiles determines the severity of this, but I’ve had problems with carpet tiles that I have laid correctly a week ago, and now appear disjointed already. Further to the fact that they appear disjointed, they can also be quite dangerous. Since the edges stick up, it’s fairly easy for someone to trip and fall.
Regardless of how well one has installed them and the quality of cheap carpet tiles purchased, they are not wall to wall carpet and do not appear as such! One can always tell that a carpet tile is a carpet tile, and everyone always knows that they’re a choice for the budget conscious. Do you really want to create a cheap impression by buying cheap carpet tiles? I think not.
Installation is often marked as being simple and easy, but the skill of the workman is important in performing the task. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter whether they’ve been installed correctly as the seams will nearly always show. I realized after a workman installed my carpet tiles that they simply looked crappy because I could see the hundred or so seams in the room. And I thought he did a good job. The other thing to note is that the measurements have to be spot on in respect to the carpet tiles and the job at hand. A slight error will sometimes mean that a whole room will look misaligned.
Some say carpet tiles do not need any gluing or adhesive but from my experience over time the cheap carpet tiles will require some glue to put back down the peels on the corners. From what I’ve noticed though, if dust has stuck on the edges of the peels, they’re nearly impossible to stick back down again. This means that new carpet tiles are in order and what that means is that you’re more likely than not going to require another trip back down to the carpet tile manufacturer. More problems arise if they don’t stock that particular type of carpet tile anymore and further to that, the new carpet tile, if you can purchase it, will never look the same next to the old ones of your floor.
They say that carpet tiles are durable, but again from my experience, it doesn’t take long at all for them to fluff up over a small amount of traffic. They will simply look jaded after awhile and will lose quality. Be really careful in choosing whether you actually want to purchase cheap carpet tiles. Cheap carpet tiles are cheap, but they also generally look pretty cheap also.