Carpet tiles have, until recently, been largely used in commercial applications, and have remained a bit of a mystery to the average homeowner. We recently told you about the many reasons you should consider carpet tile flooring for your home, but now we'd like to talk a little about the origins of this versatile flooring material.
Putting aside the obvious evolution of hard tiles to soft tiles, a story spanning thousands of years of history, we'll just jump straight to the creation of the first "true" carpet tiles. It all began with a little Dutch company back in the mid-nineteenth century that made seat covers for bikes out of animal hides.
This company was interested in utilizing all of the byproducts of the local slaughterhouses, and purchased a needle punch machine which they used to manufacture yarn from hog and horse hair. They began using the cloth produced from this yarn for their bike seats, but were still trying to minimize their waste, and maximize the amount of mileage they got out of their resources. This wider-width yarn would prove crucial to the next step of carpet tile flooring's evolution.
At some point, they got the bright idea to affix asphalt to the backing of this new fabric. This process gave the fabric a new level of durability, and they began to cut it into 10-inch tiles. They started to package these tiles neatly in boxes, and the ease of transport this gave the new tiles made a big splash in Europe. Pretty soon, everyone was using this crazy new flooring material.
That was a long time ago, and carpet tile flooring has evolved a lot since then. New advances in materials science throughout the intervening years, have seen the backing and fiber of these tiles take great steps forward in both form and function. Nowadays, a whole spectrum of colors, patterns, and styles are available to be mixed and matched to create bold new design statements.
Now that you know about how carpet tile flooring began, why not come see for yourself what it has become? If you'd like to have a look at our stunning array of carpet tile flooring choices, we'd love to hear from you! Simply contact our Arrowhead Carpet & Tile showroom in Glendale, AZ, to arrange for your free, no-obligation flooring consultation. We've been providing superior flooring and flooring service to Glendale and Phoenix, AZ for over 25 years, and would love nothing more than to put that expertise to work for you! Why wait? Contact us today to get started!
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