Schools Find Carpet Hard to Keep Clean

Dalton, GA, May 7--Carpet and rugs are at the head of the class for commercial architects and designers but get low marks in schools, according to an article published in the Chattanooga Times/Free Press, which was based on results of a Carpet and Rug Institute survey. Of 100 commercial architects and designers surveyed in February by Washington, D.C.-based Charlton Research Co. for CRI, 75 said carpet meets their needs well. Four said carpet meets their needs poorly, with the remaining 21 neutral, according to the newspaper. "That's pretty strong," Werner Braun, president of the Dalton based institute, said Friday. At the other end of the scale, though, 39 of 100 school administrators surveyed said carpet meets their needs well. Forty five were neutral and 16 said carpet meets their needs poorly. General maintenance was the top concern cited by 35 of the school administrators. Gary Waters, assistant superintendent in charge of auxiliary services for Hamilton County Schools, said upkeep is also his main consideration. "Schools, due to the nature of custodial programs, don't do as good a job maintaining carpet as tile floors," he said. The system uses carpet, he said, mostly in kindergarten rooms, where children spend time on the floor, media centers and in administrative offices. Mr. Waters said the school system spends about $30,000 per year on routine carpet upkeep and replacement. He said he sees little chance that the school system will carpet classrooms anytime soon. "It's nothing against the product," he said. "Carpet has a valuable place for acoustics and when you want the level of finish to be a little higher. "It's just easier to clean up a spill on tile," he said. Mr. Braun said he and other institute officials determined last year what they thought were the principal "barriers to profitability and growth of the carpet and rug industry." This year, he said, institute officials decided to find out what those who buy carpet think of the product. He said the survey yielded "lots and lots of great data," and the school administrators' responses were particularly helpful. Mr. Braun said the institute was in the process of producing a video for school facility managers and had to stop "in midstream" when the survey results came back "because we missed their No. 1 issue -- the cost of maintenance and the ability to sanitize carpet." Citing a separate study he said was done neither by or for the institute, Mr. Braun said the cost per square foot of maintaining carpet is less than that of vinyl composite tile. With the new information in hand, he said, the institute's challenge is to change minds about carpet. "Once you understand what the issues are, you can tailor your message specifically to those people to address those concerns," he said. "We're going to set goals. "We know that only 46 percent of (50 health-care facility managers surveyed) have a good feeling about carpet. When we do this next year, we want that number to be 65 percent," he said.