[derek west]

sat reading the joe polish and altec fast track today before i sell it on ebay later.

anyhoo, can't help wondering whether there scaremainering tactics back fired and thats why most houses now have laminates and tiled floors, all this flea, bugs, pollen, dirt grime, big nasty pictures of hairy dustmites. think it would scare anyone into ditching there carpets, unless of course they read the last part of the letter explaining the benefits. but why would joe public be interested in finishing a letter about boring carpet care. i think carpets started to see a decline around the time joe polish came onto the scene. coincidence? maybe! like i said, can't help wondering.

maybe our eagerness to get customers has back fired.

just thinking out loud.

discuss.

[Fintan_Coll]

You do have a point Derek.

[PaulKing]

don't think it was joe polish alone, just retailers wanting to shift large amounts of laminate floors as they became fashionable.

[wayne zabel]

Im leading the fight back.Just ripped up a through lounge worth of laminate flooring and getting a new carpet next week.

Since CC I cant believe how much nicer a good quality carpet looks in comparison to laminate.

Anyone else think that laminate has reached its peak?

[wynne jones]

The asthma society still tell people to rip up carpet even though the carpet is actually filtering out allergens. People like the idea (like leather) that they can clean up easily unlike carpet.

Of course the biggest reason is simply trends in interior design and the tide has already turned to some extend toward fitted carpet again.

I'm sure the carpet cleaner websites with giant dust mites on them has certainly helped B&Qs laminate sales though. 

[Shaun_Ashmore]

It's easier to sell the benefits of hard floor than carpets, nobody believes that carpets are warmer and absorb noise and that when you have hard floor down you then put a rug down which IMO defeats the object of the exercise.

Shaun

[MAX Carpets]

I said the exact same thing a few years ago on here.......I was so badly savaged, I'm lucky to be alive! Maybe some cc where brain washed as well, but can now see the light?

[garry22]

The scaremainering also included a £ 100,000 grant from a hard floor lobby to a well known university to do some "research" into the dangerous effects of carpets on peoples' health.

Not surprisingly, the study was later found to be deeply flawed but by that time the publicity meant that some mud stuck (pardon the many puns).

[colin thomas]

i've never pushed cleaning carpets to get rid of things that might be 'in there', as you say, i think that is a sure way to put people off having carpets,

colin

[AshWhite]

I'm sure I'm not alone in approaching it in a similar way to an air filter on a car, except that instead of replacing it, you clean it. So carpets are fantastic in that they trap all these pollutants, but there does come a time when it needs to be cleaned.

Ash

[jim mca]

Ash

There is a video I seen somewere think it was richard and judy some prof explaining the filtering

[robert meldrum]

I don't believe the J P approach had anything to do with lami' sales it's more to do with TV programmes / interior designers and as mentioned false information about allergy control.

Having said that I REALLY believe it's madness to introduce ANY negative into marketing no matter how subtle it seems, if you plant the seeds about " bugs " or " allergies " or whatever you could be chasing prospects away.

I thought laminate had peaked about 5 years ago but it's being replaced by more expensive real wood and tiles.

There's still a huge potential market for carpets which the retail and manufacturing industry has to exploit along with interior designers and specifiers.

Trying to defend is a poor strategy......................attacking will reap much greater rewards.

[peter maybury]

It is a fact that in a commercial location is the cheapest and easiest floor covering  to maintain (wet areas excluded). The time taken to vacuum carpets is far quicker than the cleaning of hard floor. Vinyl strippers and seals are also expensive products. In the past carpets did contributeto things like sick building syndrome because of the use of formaldehyde and other nastys for rot proofing, a practice that was discontinued a long time ago. A lot of so called carpet cleaners are untrained and unable to educate customers with sound advice. All this adds to the confusion in customers minds.
Carpets trap dust and debris that are airborne on hard floors making hard floors an aggravation for asthmatic  and bronchial complaimts.

Peter
www.carpetcleanercardiff.com

[Terry_Burrows]

since I do cc aswell or more so now,asthma is a problem in my home since we moved into a home with flooring
every where apart hall stairs landing upper only,my wife has hardly suffered and it is much better,our other home carpet all over,so it does have pros on that side,I do prefer carpet in home! back at our other place she would have more problems through the year,so it is a dust issuse, having said that you have to clean the bloody floor more often,you can see everything!

[Helen]

since I do cc aswell or more so now,asthma is a problem in my home since we moved into a home with flooring
every where apart hall stairs landing upper only,my wife has hardly suffered and it is much better,our other home carpet all over,so it does have pros on that side,I do prefer carpet in home! back at our other place she would have more problems through the year,so it is a dust issuse, having said that you have to clean the bloody floor more often,you can see everything!

Just how did all the asthma and allergy sufferers cope before hard/lam flooring................ by keeping their houses cleaner that's how

[derek west]

also as a follow on from my original post

since laminates and hard floors took off at around the same time the scaremainering started, have you noticed that allergies seem to be getting more and more common.

is this also coincidence?

discuss further.

[benny d]

I would be surprised if more than  0.00000000000000000000000001% of people had ever heard of Joe Polish

[AshWhite]

Benny, they might not know about joe polish, but they might have seen the marketing principles in effect.
I've seen the cillit bang adverts but I have no idea who came up with it (and no, I don't believe it was barry scott!)

[Helen]

also as a follow on from my original post

since laminates and hard floors took off at around the same time the scaremainering started, have you noticed that allergies seem to be getting more and more common.

is this also coincidence?

discuss further.

Yes they are, could it be that because there is no natural filter in homes (such as carpets) therefore the dust has to find something else to hide in, soft furnishings such as upholstery and curtains or stay airborn for longer. If left on a hard floor and you open a window off it goes into the air again.
I am sure we have all been to properties and been shocked at the way some people live, (this is lack of normal day to day housework).

Alternatively and this is my opinion, people seem to think in this modern age a sneezing fit or a small rash is "oh shock horror" I've got an allergy to something........when in fact it can be something quite innocent, such as an insect bite or just dust caused by a vehicle going by!
I feel for the people who have genuine allergies such as "peanut,hayfever or asthma/eczma types of conditions, but for the ones who sneeze twice and take themselves off to the DR..........

[clinton]

Think some types of laminate is really cheap now..

As a few have said in the above posts and id also say it was them tv make over programmes to blame too.