Do carpets make a room warmer or are they just decorating and soft to walk on? Here’s what you need to know.
Yes, absolutely, carpets do make a room warmer due to insulating properties that are known to retain heat. This is incredibly helpful during the cold seasons and in the right room, it can assist to insulate the floor from drafts, thus regulating the temperature. Paired with a heater or your HVAC, you can make it incredibly comfortable and warm for you to walk on floors even in cold weather.
This is one of the main benefits of carpeting floors instead of using porcelain or ceramic tiles. Carpeting is well known for being inviting, warm, and comfortable to walk on. It’s also a way to minimize the risk of slipping and falling on floors. In the event that you have kids or elderly, this can prevent them from falling and injuring themselves.
What you’ll also learn about carpeting is that it has acoustic insulating properties. This means that carpets can help to absorb sounds and/or minimize noise levels in a room. As much as this won’t directly affect the overall temperature of a room, it’s certainly something that can affect the comfort levels of a room.
So, generally speaking, carpets do make a room warmer but the extent of that quality is dependent on the quality of material, the extent of the carpeting, the thickness of the material, and the condition of the subflooring.
If you have too many areas of entry for air, it can drastically affect the temperature of the room and floors, irrespective of whether you have carpets or not. This is why it’s important to ensure that your doors and windows are properly installed to maximize insulation when closed.
But, even then, one could argue that carpets never feel as cold as certain types of tiles. In other words, it may not feel warm in certain conditions but it certainly may not feel cold either.
Also, carpets tend to warm up much faster than other types of flooring due to it’s structure. Most material catches alight and burns faster than wood. I could be wrong but from my experience, that has been the case.
So, it just naturally follows that the absorption of heat and the retention of it is better with carpets than most types of flooring.
What Type Of Carpets Are The Warmest?
When answering this question, I first have to provide you with an explanation of a metric used to measure this quality in material.
In the carpeting or material industry, we refer to this as a tog rating. Tog stands for thermal overall grade which essentially measures the insulation and warmth of material based items.
If a carpet has a high tog rating, it means that the carpet is thicker in nature and offers more padding and/or insulation. If the rating is lower, it means that the carpet consists of material that is lighter and less insulating.
Tog ratings are measured on a scale of <1 to 3.5. Personally, I’ve noticed that carpets with a tog rating of about 2 tend to provide significant amount of insulation and warmth. They also happen to be more resilient which can be attributed to the thickness of the carpet.
Between natural and synthetic material, there are two types that are considered the warmest for carpets, which is wool and nylon.
1. Wool
Wool is a natural type of material making it quite expensive, especially for carpets. But, it is renowned for being warm and extremely comfortable.
It looks absolutely beautiful and is an excellent choice in general.
In this list, I don’t think there’s a better type of carpet for overall comfort and warmth.
2. Nylon
Nylon is a synthetic type of material that also offers insulating properties. It’s not as expensive as wool and isn’t quite as renouned for being the most plush option on the market.
But, it is considered very resilient and ideal for most homes, especially if you’re looking for an affordable option.
Additional Option: Polyester
There is a growing demand for polyester carpets so I feel like it’s only fair for me to include this type of material.
It is far cheaper than wool and offers some nifty benefits like water resistance in some cases.
Furthermore, it’s relatively warm and comfortable to walk on. It may not be the best option on the market but it’s certainly a reasonable and good option.
Tips For Making A Room Warmer
Since you’re looking for way to warm up a room, I figured that I could offer a short but highly effective list of tips that work extremely well in most homes.
1. Invest in a thermostat – this facility will allow you to change the temperature to the desired level, irrespective of the weather.
2. Get some draft stoppers – by blocking cold air from window frames and the bottom of doors, draft stoppers can help you to minimize external air flow from making the room colder.
3. Close doors and windows early on – during winter, it’s advisable to close up your home much earlier than in summer as the temperature drops significantly in the early afternoon.
4. Install window coverings – Any form of layering placed infront of windows can help to retain heat and prevent drafts from entering unrestrictidly. As such, thicker curtains and blinds are a great way to improve the temperature in a room.
5. Get high quality carpets and rugs – as we discussed, they have the tendency to add insulation to rooms and to retain heat.
6. Buy space heaters or electric blankets – these affordable tools provide extra warmth to a room and bed. Electric blankets are especially effective for warming up a bed, even if the rest of the room remains cold.
7. Add greenery – indoor plants are known to improve humidity levels in a home. It’s a great way to improve air quality and temperature.
Final Thoughts
Well, that brings us to the end of this article on do carpets make a room warmer. Undoubtedly, carpets do make a room warmer in general. More specifically, they make the floors warmer and easier to walk on.
Depending on the tog rating and the quality of the carpet, the level of insulation will vary.
It’s best to invest in carpets that are thicker with a higher tog rating to maximize the warming effect in your room or home.
With that being said, I hope you enjoyed reading this article. If you’d like to learn more about carpets, I strongly recommend checking out some of the other useful articles I’ve linked below.
Related Posts:
How often should you use a carpet cleaner?