Flooring
When you add up the facts about carpet and its application in today's educational environment, the advantages are obvious. Carpet is a positive investment for our students, providing proven benefits for the learning environment. Carpet creates a warm and friendly environment that enhances how students perform in the classroom.
Benefits
Carpet offers inherent benefits for schools.
1. Safety - Carpet helps prevent falls, reduces injuries with softer landings when there is a fall, and has a non-glare surface that reduces reflection and eye-strain.
2. Reduction of noise - Less acoustic protection is needed on ceiling and elsewhere. This provides a better learning atmosphere with fewer distractions.
3. Comfort -Carpet offers a cushioned walking and standing surface for less leg fatigue for teachers and other staff.
4. Insulation - It is warmer to sit on or work on, extending learning areas to space on the floor. Thermal comfort exists because carpet retains inside ambient temperatures longer.
5. A welcoming, friendlier, less institutional environment -Carpet produces pride in the facility that can boost a child's (and teacher's) morale and attitude about attending school.
6. Lower life-cycle costs -It is more economical to use carpet when product, installation, and maintenance supplies and labor costs are considered over 15 to 20 years.
7. Easy, scheduled maintenance -Easy upkeep preserves a carpet's appearance, extends its useful life and enhances indoor air quality.
Carpet is a positive indoor air quality influence. Allergies are usually affected by airborne particles. Carpet holds contaminants/particles/allergen out of the air and out of the breathing zone:
- Does not release them into the air, even with the activity of children (dander, dust mite, or cock roach allergen are not released into the air above carpet)
- Easily cleaned from carpet by vacuuming and periodic extraction cleaning
- Lower fungi/biological levels in the air above carpet
- Is not a "source" for any biological growth
- Has lower chemical emissions than most indoor furnishings and may be the lowest of all floor covering choices. The slight odor from new carpet is harmless and dissipates quickly.
- No link between carpet emissions and any health effects
- Fewer maintenance chemicals needed for cleaning, impacting the air quality much less.
Selecting the Right Carpet
It is important to assure that the appropriate carpet is selected for the heavy traffic in a school. The longer carpet lasts, the less its cost over time, making it imperative to select a product with adequate performance characteristics. Compromising any specification recommendation can dramatically affect how carpet looks over time.
Carpet performance depends on many factors: construction, fiber type, color choice, design and application. To ensure proper choices, administrators should work closely with carpet representatives to choose products designed to meet performance expectations.
Experience has taught that a low-profile, densely tufted, tight-loop construction works best in a school. A density rating of 4500 or above is advised. Nylon, which is about two-thirds of the carpet produced, is a resilient, hardwearing fiber. Solution-dyed nylon will be colorfast and easier to clean.
The color of the carpet is also a significant factor. While it's true that lighter colors make rooms and hallways look brighter, they make successful maintenance difficult at best. Tweeds or patterns in carpet are a good choice; they add interest to the floor and hide soiling.
Life-Cycle Costing
Life-cycle costing helps determine the true cost of an expenditure over time. The basic premise of the formula is that a product's cost encompasses more than the initial expense. Maintenance, equipment, cleaning compounds, repairs, and labor are factors that affect a floor covering cost over its lifetime.
Here is the formula for life-cycle costing: initial cost plus removal costs in renovation plus cost of maintenance divided by years of use equals life-cycle cost.
Assign values to the formula:
- The price of carpet for a new building includes the initial carpet cost and the installation costs.
- In a renovation, removing existing carpet should be included.
- Maintenance costs include an estimate for time, labor, materials and equipment repairs a school district incurs while performing its routine program.
- "Years of use" is calculated by determining how many years the carpet will be on the floor.
Carpet Maintenance Guidelines
A consistent and thorough carpet maintenance plan, plus a plan to address unusual spills, is absolutely necessary. Carpet maintenance is critical to ensure it wears well, and to extend the good appearance and life of the carpet.
Get maintenance guidelines from the carpet supplier during specification planning and state them in the carpet specifications. The success of the maintenance plan hinges on the quality and frequency of vacuuming and deep cleaning.
Essential to an effective program are:
- Preventive measures
- Regular vacuuming and prompt spot cleaning
- Scheduled extraction cleanings
Source: Carpet and Rug Institute, www.carpet-rug.org .
Fast Facts
Benefits of Carpet
- Carpet is an investment in schools, our children and the learning environment.
- Carpet is one of the best elements of controlling acoustics.
- Carpet is safer, meaning few slips and falls and less chance for injury.
- Carpet provides insulation and actual thermal resistance or R-value.
- Carpet means added comfort for walking and sitting.
- Carpet chosen with proper specifications will last longer, saving more money over time.
- Carpet is easier to maintain than hard-surface flooring, according to recent studies.
Product Roundup
KidCarpet.com
Styles from KidCarpet.com include Circletime Noah, Bible Blocks, Bee-Attitudes and more. KidCarpet.com has a wide selection of carpet and rugs for today's Christian schools. The company offers high-quality broadloom carpet and area rugs for everything from playrooms to classrooms. The fun flooring is stain resistant for easy cleaning and anti-bacterially treated to protect kids. Dense nylon fibers make the flooring tough and durable. www.kidcarpet.com
Classroom Carpets
Classroom Carpets provides classroom flooring to create the right classroom environment. Many styles are interactive, with games and skill building exercises incorporated into the design. The company offers an extensive online store, making the shopping experience quick and easy. A majority of schools believe classroom design is important for creating a good learning environment, and teachers and parents know a comfortable setting is one of the keys to academic success.
www.classroomcarpets.com
Carpets for Kids
Carpets for Kids is a leading manufacturer of area rugs for the early childhood education market. Their carpets are proven to be excellent teaching tools. Check out their new line of Faith Based Rugs. Their "Bible Basics" rug displays letters of the alphabet that combine with Bible stories to create a positive learning experience for children of all ages. See their "Jesus Love the Little Children" ad in this issue.
www.carpetsforkids.com
J&J Invision
J&J Invision manufactures carpeting for schools, universities, libraries and other educational facilities, offering a wide range of commercial broadloom and modular products engineered to resist soiling and to clean easily. Customers can match fiber and backing to meet the general, special or advanced performance criteria of a particular project. Selections are available in a variety of texture and colors, in various price ranges.
www.jj-invision.com
