Carpet Tiles Vs Broadloom: Which Commercial Carpet is Best for You?

Carpeting a commercial space requires a completely different thought process and product to carpeting your home. While colour and comfort might be top of mind when picking a carpet for your bedrooms and living spaces, durability is the most important factor in carpet choice for high-traffic areas like offices and retail spaces.

There are two main durable carpeting options available for commercial spaces – the more traditional broadloom carpet (also known as wall-to-wall carpet), or modular-style carpet tiles.

So, which one is the best option for your space?

Pros and cons of broadloom carpet

Traditional broadloom carpet is still one of the most popular choices for corporate flooring, with an almost endless number of patterns and colours to choose from. Generally speaking, broadloom carpet is a bit cheaper than carpet tiles too, which only adds to its popularity. It’s a fairly forgiving carpet option too.

Broadloom carpet is usually directly stuck to the subfloor. Because of this you do not have an underlay underneath as you would in a domestic situation. However, if you still want some extra comfort you may opt for a dual bond underlay which is glued between the carpet and the subfloor.

But, there are some slight disadvantages in opting for broadloom carpet.

The carpet comes on a large, 3.66m wide roll which then needs to be laid out and cut down to fit your space. Working to fit larger pieces of carpet can be tricky and it means more offcuts and more waste is created. Not only is this waste not good for the environment, but the cost of unused materials can hurt your back pocket too.

On top of this, repairing any damaged broadloom can be a tricky and expensive process. If even just one small part of the carpet is damaged, the entire carpet will have to be pulled up and replaced.

Pros and cons of carpet tiles

Carpet tiles are a newer and more customisable corporate flooring option. Unlike broadloom carpet, carpet tiles come in pre-cut sections with their own inbuilt backing and base. With no additional layers to be laid prior to installing the carpet tiles, they can be put directly down onto your subfloor, making for a much simpler installation process. It also means that any maintenance and repairs needed are much easier as you can remove, clean, and replace just the affected tiles.

Just like broadloom carpeting, carpet tiles offer plenty of variety. There is a carpet colour, pattern, budget, quality, and durability to suit almost any space and use.

While the tiles come in a large range of colours and patterns that you can mix and match, there are some aesthetic limitations. The tiles allow for unique checkerboard or texture patterns to be created but, unfortunately, they don’t handle larger and more complex patterns (like a mosaic pattern) too well. The seams between each tile can also be more visible in certain carpet colours and designs.

For more information on the commercial carpeting options available to you, see our handy guide here.

---

Read More Blogs