Stairways and corridors in residential care settings can be busy and often noisy places. Excess noise can cause confusion and discomfort for those that are living with dementia, which can lead to feelings of disorientation and isolation.

Sound Absorption

Keeping corridors as peaceful as possible, both during the day and night, is essential for staff and resident’s wellbeing. Carpet is naturally an outstanding sound absorptive material. No other acoustical material performs the dual role of a floor covering and a versatile acoustical aid. A carpet that is manufactured for such a demanding environment can absorb airborne noise as efficiently as many specialised acoustical materials.

Comfort

You may also have residents that like to wonder, some may even do this barefooted. A cold hard floor for such residents would provide very little comfort or warmth underfoot, whereas a carpeted corridor would feel soft and homely.

Stairways

Considering flooring options for stairways is also important and again carpet is an ideal finish for such areas. Stairways receive a lot of footfall traffic so any carpet installed in this area will need to have high-performance characteristics and be graded as either heavy domestic or for commercial use.

On stairways, people tend to step in the same spot of each stair. The carpet fibres, therefore, have to be hard-wearing so you’ll need either a higher tuft density in a polypropylene carpet or to use carpet made from Nylon fibres.

Safety is also a major consideration as hard surfaces on stairs could cause a safety issue. If dirt is tracked onto them or a spillage occurs, they can become slippery. If trips or falls do happen there’s not much of a cushion from hard surfaces and injuries may be more server. Therefore, in elderly care establishments, where you may have wonderers, hard flooring on stairs may not be the best choice in terms of safety.

View our collection of Healthcare Carpets to see which range would be ideal for your stairways and corridors.