Carpet Scores Good Marks in Schools: A Smart, Sustainable Solution in Floor Coverings

Attractive, Cost-effective Products Create Learning-friendly Classrooms
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Sponsored by The Carpet and Rug Institute

Benefits of Carpets

Carpet is a foundation for the look and feel of a room. It can provide a casual simplicity to reinforce a soft, livable ambiance or it can lend vibrancy to a room through strong colors and heavier textures. One of the easiest methods of personalizing an environment, carpet also offers a host of health and safety benefits.

Improved Safety. Because it affords more traction, carpet helps prevent falls. According to the above-mentioned Schapiro study, 77 percent of teachers agree that carpet helps prevent falls and injuries and makes a classroom safer. Not only do fewer slips and falls occur with carpeting, but when they do happen the chances of injury are greatly diminished on a soft floorcovering. Further, carpet provides a non-glare surface that reduces reflection and eyestrain.

Reduced Noise. With carpet, less acoustic protection is needed on the ceiling and elsewhere. This provides a better learning atmosphere with fewer distractions. According to the Technical Committee on Architectural Acoustics of the Acoustical Society of America, the speech intelligibility rating is 75 percent or even less in many classrooms, meaning that those with normal hearing can understand only 75 percent of the words read from a list. Research shows that background noise from inside and outside the classroom negatively affects learning. Excessive noise and reverberation interfere with speech audibility, leading to diminished understanding, learning and ability to focus on the lessons at hand. Flooring is a major component of comprehensive noise management. Based on a study by the American Society of Interior Designers, carpet is deemed to be 10 times more efficient in reducing noise compared to other flooring options. When a cushioned backing made with polyurethane technology is added, noise levels can be further reduced.

Increased Comfort. For teachers and other staff, a cushioned walking and standing surface reduces leg fatigue. Several studies have investigated the influence of floor surfaces on the body during long-term standing, and results show that softer floor materials usually result in less postural discomfort than standing on hard floor surfaces (Redfern & Cham, 2000). According to Rys and Konz (1988), heart rate was higher after two hours of standing on a concrete floor compared to carpet, and perceived comfort was higher when standing on carpet. Similarly, In 1997, Madeleine et al. found that after two hours of standing, the comfort level was greater for a soft surface. Standing on a hard surface increased parameters, such as shank swelling and muscle fatigue. It also detrimentally changed subjects' standing posture.

Better Insulation. Carpet is warmer to sit on or work on, extending the learning areas to space on the floor. Thermal comfort exists because carpet retains inside ambient temperatures for longer periods. Because of its fibrous construction, carpet traps a layer of air close to the floor. Air is an excellent thermal insulator and consequently carpet acts to increase the thermal insulation of a surface. Additionally, a pad beneath carpet can further increase this thermal insulation effect.

Research conducted at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Textile Engineering tested the thermal insulation values (R-Values) of carpet and cushion and found that the total R-value was more dependent on the total thickness of the carpet than the type of fiber content. The research indicated that a carpet system comprising carpet and pad can increase the R-value of the floor to somewhere in the range of 2 to 4.

Lower Life-cycle Costs. Carpet that is properly selected, installed and maintained lasts up to 10 years or longer. When product, installation and maintenance supplies and labor costs are considered over a 15- to 20-year period, carpet showed lower life cycle costs than other flooring options. A 2002 report, "Life-cycle Cost Analysis for Floor Covering in School Facilities," prepared by the Institute of Inspection, Cleaning and Restoration Certification (IICRC), found that carpet could be 65 percent less expensive to maintain than hard surface flooring. In the study, buying and installing the hard surface flooring was less expensive than carpet. But when labor, supplies and equipment costs were calculated over a 22-year life cycle, carpet proved to be more cost effective. The life expectancy of the hard surface flooring was 22 years. The cost of replacing carpet after 11 years was factored into the analysis. The study also found that hard surface floors require two and onehalf times more cleaning than carpet and that hard surface cleaning supplies are about seven times more expensive than supplies for carpeted floors.

The carpet industry is working to make carpet even longer lasting in schools by creating more durable fibers and fabrication methods, improving primary and secondary backings and increasing the number of different design and performance options. Modular carpets, the fastest growing segment of the industry, provide the option of replacing parts of a carpeted surface, instead of the entire carpet.

Improved Indoor Air Quality. Allergies are usually affected by airborne particles. Carpet traps allergens in its fiber and does not allow them to circulate in the air, even with the activity of children. The allergens trapped in the carpet then can be easily removed by adhering to a regular cleaning and maintenance schedule that includes vacuuming and periodic extraction cleaning using Seal of Approval-certified products. Studies have compared the distribution of airborne dust associated with normal activities on hard and soft flooring surfaces. In 2002, research by G. Asbury titled, "Cleaning and Foot Traffic Emissions Analysis," for the Professional Testing Laboratory, Inc., in Dalton, Georgia, showed that walking on hard surfaces disturbed more particles. These particles became airborne and entered the breathing zone. In contrast, carpeted surfaces trapped more particles so that walking disturbed fewer particles. The result was less dust in the breathing zone over carpeted floors.

 

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Originally published in Schools of the 21st Century
Originally published in January 2009

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