Carpets and Rugs

Queenstreet Furnishings is renowned for all types of flooring. We have over 40 years of expertise in the provision of carpets, wooden flooring, vinyl, carpet tiles, luxury vinyl tiles, natural and commercial flooring for your home or work place. Queenstreet Furnishings is the number one choice for many in the south west.

Visit our showrooms in Exeter, Devon, for the full Queenstreet service including free estimates, the widest selection of quality carpets amongst other flooring products and professional advice at every stage of the process with our experts. Your flooring is then fitted by probably the most experienced fitters in the south west, who have worked with us for many years.

Alternatively, visit our specialist website Queenstreet Carpets Online which is purely devoted to flooring products including carpets, woods, laminates, rugs & vinyls. Here you can browse for ideas and even request samples to be sent to your home, free of charge. If you are looking for a DIY service where we supply the flooring only (without fitting or accessories) then why not buy at our Online Store and have it delivered free of charge within days.

For further peace of mind, we are registered specialists of the Carpet Foundation which have a code of practice approved by the Office of Fair Trading.

Our showrooms, on the fringes of Marsh Barton in Exeter, boast a huge range of stock rolls of carpet and vinyl as well as a considerable choice from our carpet collections.

Click on our Useful Links feature to learn more about our famous brands of carpets, rugs and contract flooring including, amongst others, Axminster, Armstrong, Abingdon, Alternative Flooring, Associated Weavers, Brintons, Cavalier Carpets, Crucial Trading, Cormar, Heuga, Ryalux, Victoria Capets.

Buying a Carpet – Top Tips

While it is fair to say that carpet hardly ever completely wears out, appearance retention does vary according to the quality. It is essential to buy the best you can afford and the most suitable for the use to which it will be subjected. Factors to consider include:

1. The room it is for and how much wear it will receive. A hall, stairs and landing, for example, will need a heavier wearing carpet than a bedroom.

2. Are there any particular fabrics or existing décor to be matched? What are your future decorating plans? Remember to choose the carpet first and install it last!

3. Do you want a plain carpet, patterned carpet, one with texture or a border? You have a large choice so experiment with colour and design.

4. How long do you reasonably expect your new carpet to last? Is it a ‘quick fix’ or a long term purchase?

5. How much do you want to spend? Don’t forget to include the cost of fitting and underlay and other materials.

Having answered these questions, you are ready to for the next step:

6. Contact us to organise our free no obligation professional measuring service. Doing it yourself, could cause over or under ordering.

7. Choose from samples in the comfort of your own home or borrow samples after visiting our showrooms in Exeter. It is always preferable to see the sample in your own environment and in your own natural light.

8. Buy new underlay. It will prolong the life of your new carpet by up to 40 per cent as well as giving added comfort.

9. Use our professional fitting teams to lay your carpet. Usually we can lay your flooring within 2 weeks of ordering, subject to stock availability.

Buying a Carpet – Plain or patterned carpet

Plain carpet is safe, timeless and ageless. It will suit any room or decorating style. It gives you greater flexibility with wallpaper and fabrics and is easier to build schemes around - both now and in the future. It also opens up a room and using the same colour throughout, either upstairs or downstairs, does give a feeling of space and link rooms. If you want a surface texture, such as the popular 'natural look' that replicates coir and sisal, then it has to be plain carpet.

Patterned carpet does not mean swirly 1970's style! There are some beautiful ornate patterned carpets from traditional designs to smart motifs and colourful stripes that will look at ease in any home. Patterned carpet can be the basis of a subtle contemporary look that has lasting appeal.

Remember to choose carefully to ensure the design will fit in with your scheme and not date too soon. Classic florals and motifs work well in a smaller space whereas a smart stripe, for example, will hold its own in a hallway.

Manufacturers like Brintons and Axminster actively encourage and promote the co-ordination of plain and patterned carpet.

As for colour, the same basic rules apply to carpet as to soft furnishings; light carpets will make spaces look bigger but equally if they are too pale they will show the dirt. Dark colours could make a room look smaller but they don't show up the dirt so much.

Buying a Carpet – Types of carpet

Most carpet sold in the UK is either Tufted or Woven. Tufted carpet is made by punching the pile yarn on top of a pre-formed woven primary backing fabric using needles and then applying a secondary backing fabric with latex. Put simply, a Tufting machine is like a very big sewing machine!

Its advantages include: It is a quick method of manufacture; produces a range of pile textures and patterns and is suitable for all yarn types.

There are two types of Woven carpet – Axminster and Wilton. Woven carpet is made the traditional way by weaving the front and back of the carpet simultaneously and is consequently more labour intensive. Axminster carpet is predominantly patterned with unlimited colour potential. It offers extremely good pattern definition and dimensional stability. Wilton tends to be used for plain carpet and textures but it can use up to 5 colours.

The advantages of woven carpet include: Pattern potential in Axminster; very high tuft definition and excellent appearance retention.

Buying a Carpet – Types of fibres

How carpets look and function depends largely on the fibres they are made of. Wool is still recognised as the best fibre for use in carpet. It is used on its own in a pure 100% form or in blends with nylon and polypropylene to improve its wear properties.

A blend of at least 50% wool is recommended in a carpet. 95% of all the carpets manufactured by Carpet Foundation manufacturers are wool rich - and it is recognised that we make the best carpet in the world.

The advantages of wool include:

It is naturally flame retardant; has a low propensity to soil and so has good appearance retention; very good wear properties; easy to clean and maintain; environmentally friendly and sustainable fibre.

Nylon is commonly used primarily as a blend fibre with wool but sometimes on its own.

The advantages of nylon include:

It is extremely hard wearing; easy to clean; very high abrasion resistance; excellent stain and soil resistance; multiple colour choices.

Polypropylene is highly stain resistant (very good in childrens' rooms) and is used in very good value for money budget products or in a blend with wool.

The advantages of polypropylene include:

It is hard wearing; stain resistant; easy to clean with very good colour fastness.

Polyester is very popular in America. Commonly used in saxonies which have a long deep pile it is also used in small quantities as a bonding agent in wool/synthetic blends to provide good tuft definition and reduce fibre shedding.

The advantages of polyester include:

Light and bulky with good wear properties; it has a lustrous appearance; good stain resistance.

Buying a Carpet – Underlay

We recommend that new underlay is bought with every new carpet. The reasons for this are:

Underlay is vital for a new carpet to sit properly and wear evenly.

It improves the feel of the carpet underfoot and helps with that 'luxury' feel.

It increases heat and sound insulation and can reduce energy costs.

It reduces pile compression and so enables a carpet to retain its appearance for longer.

Noise insulation. Acoustics are considerably improved with carpet and underlay while impact noise is reduced.

New underlay can increase the life of your carpet by up to 40%.

Remember that just as carpet may wear more in certain areas, so does the underlay. You wouldn’t buy a new car with old tyres! What is more, manufacturers may not accept a complaint if old underlay has been used or worse still, no underlay has been used at all.

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