Carpet has been around for so long that many people think of it as a stable, non-trendy floor covering. In reality, it is subject to trends in floor covering just as much as hardwood and other options. Its many options for texture, fiber length, color, and pattern make it a perfect canvas for home design ideas. Here are some of the trends currently making the rounds:

Texture

Textures are moving to the softer side this year, and are including woven and cut-in patterns more and more. These patterns are found in all carpet types, but Saxony carpeting offers the biggest selection. Woven-in patterns add visual interest, and when combined with different colors, can help the carpet stay looking clean longer.

Advances in carpet-making machinery has brought a plethora of new patterns to the residential flooring market. Patterns once seen only in hotels, such as fleurs-de-lis, swirls, and bow ties, are now available at reasonable prices. These are sometimes combined with colors to set them off from the background even more – another feature that used to only be available to the wealthy.

Colors

Carpeting has moved from its status as a mere backdrop to sometimes being the focal point of the room. Bold or bright colors accomplish this goal easily. Alternatively, boldly colorful patterns can spice up the room. Either way, a strongly-colored carpet has a huge visual impact.

Colors are also being used to make carpeting a more essential part of the room than before. Floral and other patterns are often chosen to complement the patterns on furniture upholstery. This makes all of the room’s elements look carefully chosen.

Despite these trends, neutral colors aren’t obsolete. When a design truly calls for a neutral backdrop, beige or light gray carpet is the perfect solution.

Materials

Thanks to continuing interest in eco-friendly versions of almost everything, carpeting made of renewable or recycled materials is gaining in popularity. Bamboo fibers are a favorite for those who want all-new carpets. People who like recycling buy carpets made from everything from old soda bottles to old tires. Recycled soda bottles are turned into nylon, which can be dyed in any color. Old tires and other strongly-colored materials are usually used for utility carpets and mats, which are often sold in black or dark brown shades.

It is important to note that consumers are becoming more savvy when it comes to carpeting and environmental friendliness. Carpets that boast of containing eco-friendly materials are now scrutinized to find out the actual percentage of such fibers. Those that have high percentages will be accepted as being truly eco-friendly.

Another trend in materials is a desire for non-toxic construction. Carpet made in the old-fashioned way will often offgas toxins for quite some time after installation. Health-conscious buyers are now actively seeking versions that do not produce toxic fumes or odd odors. This extends to the adhesives used to install the carpeting, so installers catering to this market must be sure to choose those that are also non-toxic.

No matter what kind of carpeting is chosen, it must be cut to the appropriate size before it can be installed. Years ago, this would have been done with a carpet knife – a short, curved blade that requires quite a bit of effort to operate. Now, installers and retailers can use a specialized machine to get the job done within minutes. This machine makes the long, straight cuts that take the longest time to do by hand, so the amount of labor involved in an installation job is greatly reduced.

Accu-Cut

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www.accu-cut.com

Does Green or Sustainable Floor Covering Exist?

An absolute frenzy of remodeling is happening across the country. Homeowners are tallying up their accounts and finding that adding value to their homes is essential. One of the first things homeowners upgrade is their flooring. When homeowners consider anything to do with floor covering, most opt for green or sustainable flooring. Dealers are aware of this trend, stocking and recommending green flooring options. What we want to do is educate the general public to the advantages and virtues of using green and sustainable materials in their homes.
Virtues of Sustainable Flooring
It’s hard to avoid the avalanche of information that is the Internet. As a result, most everyone is aware of the off-gassing, toxic chemicals used in manufacturing and the piling up of trash dumps when remodeling time comes regarding flooring. It will be to the relief of many to know that sustainable flooring has two virtues. The first is the tax incentives make owning sustainable flooring a more affordable venture. The second is that it is secured using water-based adhesives instead of adhesives containing volatile organic compounds or VOCs. Many floors are laid using the “floating” method, in which the material is not secured but allowed to expand and contract according to the humidity in the room. Homeowners may be secure in the knowledge the baby and the puppy can play on the same floor without adverse health consequences from off-gassing.
Advantages of Green Flooring
They’re green, host bird nests, give us branches for tire swings and shade the house in the hottest parts of the day. They also contain a root system that keeps the soil stable. They process oxygen for us to breathe, releasing the resulting carbon dioxide in which the dioxide part helps lessen the greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. They are trees. Unfortunately for the human race and the green spaces, they are being used at an unconscionable rate for hardwood flooring. The cutting of trees provides farmers with land to plant, loggers and paper mills with jobs, plus the food industry needs the land for raising meat and dairy herds. It’s a terrible, terrible Catch-22 when such necessary things like jobs and life mean the loss of the very things that give us that job and life.
One: One of the major advantages of green flooring is that sustainable forests have been planned for and growing for a long time now. They are being responsibly harvested and sustainably grown all over the world.
Two: Reusing and recycling flooring materials means that no new manufacturing processes, transportation or installation methods are fouling the atmosphere. Reused and recycled materials are now being manufactured using less traditional or entirely green power sources and installed in such a way as lessens the carbon footprint.
Three: Many materials used in sustainable flooring such as the burlap backing on linoleum, the fibers in bamboo flooring and other natural materials have the inherent ability to repel moisture, be fireproof, are anti-bacterial and anti-static.
Four: It is a statistically proven fact that allergy sufferers, asthmatics and those suffering other illnesses are much less distressed when living with green flooring.
Five: Hard floors like stone and tile accept small feet stomping in frustration, running feet and chasing paws as well as the odd aerobic workout with aplomb. Dust, dirt and pet hair have to work harder to upset homeowners with hard floors.
Examples of Sustainable Flooring
Yes, green flooring does exist. The Internet has probably informed homeowners that bamboo, vinyl and cork are types of green flooring. Did you know, though, that linoleum is made of sawdust, tree resins and burlap backing? It is hard and comes in dozens of pretty colors and patterns. Did you also know that rubber flooring is forever sustainable and not only to be found in gyms? Want it to look like hardwood for the formal living and dining rooms? Not a problem. Would you rather it look like linoleum tiles for the kitchen? We gotcha covered, please pardon the pun. It can even look like textured stone. Homeowners’ only problem will be choosing between so many exciting possibilities.

Technology and Business: For Entrepreneurs Support is Key

The relationship between technology and business is only as strong as the support business owners have in maintaining and operating that technology. Across disparate industries, businesses large and small are seeking technology as the answer to nearly every problem that presents itself, and frequently therein an answer is found. For large businesses the story may end happily every after right there. After all, with the time and resources to handle the maintenance and troubleshooting that naturally accompany introducing technology into the workplace, the benefits outweigh the risks. Businesses with fewer than 500 employees, referred to as small businesses, however, are often ill-equipped in terms of human, financial and time resources to handle maintaining and servicing technology internally. Without the support of those resources technology becomes the problem as well as the solution for many companies, and it is a problem high on the minds of those affected.

A recent survey by the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce and the Quinlan School of Business< http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/small-business-owners-say-they-need-technology-support-survey/ >, for example, found support for technology to be the third most pressing concern of nearly 600 small business owners in, below only marketing and business planning and of greater import than legal advice, access to capital, hiring skilled workers, dealing with local government and filing a patent. A signage company owner despairs feeling underwater trying to keep up with the newest options offered among the professional printers he purchases to take the place of hand-lettered products. A small retailer is frustrated by the difficulty she encounters trying to update inventory software that purchased to save her time. The answer? Below are three possibilities.

1. Develop an Internal Technology Support Department:

Businesses that foresee a regular need for maintenance of, updates to and other support services for the technology that they purchase may do well to develop an internal support department. The convenience of being able to call upon help at the exact moment that it is needed is a siren call, but one that does not come without its own set of limitations. Small businesses that do not have a true daily need for such a department may end up paying more in salary and professional development of this internal person or team than would be spent engaging someone on the outside. Further, it can be difficult to determine the exact size necessary for such a department internally, as too few staff may still leave a void unfilled and too large a department may be fiscally draining.

2. Contract an Outside Company Business Technology Company:

Contracting an outside company to handle technological support concerns for eliminates the expense and internal training concerns that come with having an in-house support department. Unfortunately, without paying a salary there is no guarantee that an outside contractor will be available on demand at the exact time that an issue arises. Waiting days for the repair of the only professional printer in a small print shop, for example, would mean lost revenue and, even worse, the potential for lost customers. Add to that the fact that it is highly unlikely that one contractor will be familiar with all of the technology that a particular business uses and the problem of support still falls far short of a perfect solution.

3. Purchase or Rent Equipment from Companies that Provide Support Directly:

Herein lies the ideal solution. When possible, businesses of every size should aim to invest only in technology that comes with its own Maintenance and other support for its products directly is a great solution. Rather then making the choice between the convenience that technology can offer and the resources that go along with maintaining it, this provides the best of both worlds, and producers of technology are getting the message loud and clear. Companies like Accu-cut, the Tavares, Florida based producer of carpet-cutting machines that offers servicing and maintenance of the machines they sell through an in-house service department, stand out from the crowd by heeding that message. By providing not only the technology that businesses need to excel, but also the support needed to maintain that technology, such companies are truly selling peace of mind.

Present day, we all enjoy our beautiful hard wood floors, sparkling tiles, or our comfy carpeting. But, have you ever wondered what the world of flooring was like, let’s say 500 years ago, even 2,000 or 5,000 years ago? Today, let’s take a look into the past and check out a brief overview of the flooring developments throughout history.

Nowadays we spend our days making sure that not a trace of dirt or any part of the ground makes its way into our home. However, in the earliest of homes people were making sure that all the ground they could get would make its way into their home, including animal droppings…yes you read correctly, animal droppings! Reason being, that the most common flooring was literally a piece of ground. At the time many people mixed dirt, hay and animal droppings, especially cow droppings. Once stepped on many times, this mixture actually turns into a very hard surface, almost as hard as cement, making it a very stable floor. As a result, due to the lack of technology and resources at the time this was a very common flooring style before medieval times. Present day, this type of flooring is still used in several countries in extreme poverty.

In the medieval times, dirt floors were also very common within households, especially among peasants. Many peasants shared a house with farm animals, though they were kept in a separate area of the house. Because of this, a dirt floor was the most suitable option for their dwelling place as the animals would often start wandering into other areas of the house.

In places where colored sand formed such as India, many people often used colored sand to decorate over their dirt floor. These decorations and patterns were often made to mark a celebration or to provide a warm welcome for guests into a home.

Approximately 5,000 years ago, Egyptians discovered the art of construction by stone, followed by the Greeks with pebble mosaics, and finally superseded by Rome also making mosaics with incredible geometric designs and tile making.

During what was known as the Middle Ages, flooring within castles varied in material. It was common to see stone in the first floor and usually wood in the second floor. Soon thereafter, wood floors began to be used in many homes till today. At the time, people often painted little designs and patterns on the wood floors, making them very detailed and delicate. I can imagine these little special touches looked very beautiful in many Victorian homes.

It is unsure of when exactly rugs started to be used as it varies by country. But, what is known is that rugs and floor cloths were often used in wealthy homes, such as royalty, to decorate; a trend that can still be seen today in many Victorian style homes. Many Victorian styles homes of today use dark wood floors and will often place a detailed floor cloth over the wooden floor, adding a splash of color and elegance to the home.

Present day, thanks to technology and the great scientific and designers minds, we are able to enjoy a variety of different flooring options and a myriad of colors and details on each one. Without the individuals who are willing to think outside the box and take the risks that lead to great discoveries we might still find ourselves using a piece of ground as flooring.

We at Accu-cut understand how important it is to continuously think outside the box and continuously make great strides in keeping with innovation and excellence. This is why we have many different options for all of your carpet cutting machine needs. Whatever the job, wherever the job, we have just the right machine for you!

The carpet world has had a major makeover and it’s time to become a part of it! Though for many decades our eyes have been used to seeing the very quaint, ‘Pleasantville,’ beige and neutral colored carpeting all around us, that doesn’t have to be the case any longer! As choices in carpet, within color, quality and texture, have dramatically changed throughout the years, a good choice of carpet can take your entire home or a small living area from ‘What a drag…to Oh! How chic!’

Although the neutral colors are still very much in style and used very often, things have definitely gotten interesting! The industry is changing the meaning of “neutral” and is incorporating a lot more choices in texture, pattern and color. It’s about time! I mean, don’t get me wrong here, everyone loves their charming beige and tan colored carpets, I do too. But, while carpet still comes in these colors, designers are now adding small designs and flecks of color to shake things up a bit. No harm in that!

These contrasts are actually a great help, especially if you don’t have much time or money to be cleaning or buying new things all the time. How so, you ask? Well, these contrasts help to create the “feel” of each room and can even minimize the appearance of dirt trails left behind by your little ones. Love it now, don’t you? Shades of pale blues, greens and yellows have also become quite popular for their ability to transform a room while creating a very pleasant ambience. A room or living area can go from ‘plain ol’ Jane’ to having an awesome theme with just the right carpet.

You can also find woven patterns of many different types in carpets now, which allow you to break with monotony and definitely add your own special flare to any room. If you want to change a certain area in your house, but don’t necessarily have the money to buy all new furniture pieces and accents, this can definitely help. By adding new carpeting with a woven pattern, perhaps related to your current furniture if you like, and simply adding some new, colored pillows here and there, can definitely make a huge difference at just a fraction of the cost. Pretty amazing, huh!

If you’re a fan of carpet but are bored of the same ol’ texture from the office to the home, and would rather feel a much more plush, pampering and relaxing feel at home, there’s also something for you! The industry has not only transformed carpet in the colors and patterns they are providing to their clients, but also in texture. Thanks to new technologies, companies are now offering much more soft and indulging textures for all of your pampering needs, which you so deserve!

When selecting which carpet style and color, or theme will be best for each room, you may want to consider what the room will be used for and of course, how much traffic that particular room gets. That way, you can get the most bang for your buck, and maximize your inner interior designer skills to the best of your ability.

What was once seen as just a means to provide a cost-effective and efficient floor covering has now become the focal point of much design and the way to incorporate your own personality and style while making your place a home.

As keeping up with the trends and advancements within carpeting is important, not only to the manufacturers but also to the consumers, we at Accu-cut understand that your needs need to be met. With you in mind, we are constantly working to provide you with the best technology, versatility and efficiency; that an Accu-cut carpet cutting machine can offer. Our top of the line, equipment make selling and buying the most current carpets out there a pleasure and ease.

Winter is the “Mans” season, this is the time of year that men stand out and get noticed. With even the slightest color selections a man can go from casual to dress up in no times. When talking color here are a few good suggestions. The winter color for men is definitely grey. If you want to ensure you look trendy and smooth at all times then don’t be afraid to dress up in grey from head to toe. Naturally, you do want to change the shade a little bit but grey is truly a really hot color.

It also works well with one bright color if you want to add more energy. Very deep bloody red or electric blue can work well this season. Take suggestions to some of the hottest trends that you should include into your style. They are all going to help keep you warm and will still add some fun to your look. Just try to experiment with different things and you will look good this season.

One of the biggest choices that men have to make is the type of jacket that will go with your outfit. One of the hottest trends that you can take with you from 2013 to 2014 is a baseball jacket. They have been really trendy and continue doing so. The basic trendy baseball jackets but there are plenty of different styles to go with as well.  Business dress interprets to a suit and tie. If you’re attending an interview, client meeting or your daily job in a very skilled workplace, there’s no substitute for a suit.

Explore for suits made of superfine wool like our Signature, Signature Gold and executive suits. They’re comfy to wear and perpetually look sharp. Accessorize your suit with a silk tie and freshly ironed shirt. Don’t underestimate the importance of the shirt you decide on to match your suit. Not only does one wish to select a complementary color or pattern, however you furthermore may need to make certain the shirt is in good condition. Make sure that the collar is nicely pressed and fits well with none stains or fraying. Additionally take a look at your buttons. If any are broken or loose, repair them.

The most important part of an outfit is confidence, preparing yourself mentally before getting dressed will not only help you but guide you to colors patterns and textures that fit your mood. Accu-Cut likes to have to same attitude when pairing the right carpet cutting machine to the right client. It has to feel natural and honest. Were reliable and honest and stand behind our world famous carpet cutting equipment.

By Trevor Brockie