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Mold Removal Company & Cleanup Experts with Affordable Pricing Whether you have pre-existing mold damage from years of excessive humidity in a crawlspace, attic, or basement, or a small bathroom leak that when was spotted revealed fungi growth, we have the solution for you. Not only can we treat and preserve/salvage drywall, joists, and sub floor with our process, but in the event when we must tear out drywall, trim, vanity's, insulation, etc, Atlantic Water Damage llc can repair, install and rebuild these affected areas too! This way you deal with one reliable professional company from start to finish. Our pricing is very affordable and we offer fast professional service around the clock throughout all of NJ. We explain everything from step 1-10 upfront and answer all and any questions/concerns you may have. In addition, our company policy is to work with the customer giving you complete control of what options and selections work best for you and your family. Contact us to discuss mold removal and mold remediation services today. Water damaged structures need to be mitigated immediately to prevent any further damage. We are equipped to handle even the largest mold remediation jobs at commercial sites. Homeowners can feel comfort knowing their damage is being handled by mold specialists with top industry standards and protocol, while they take advantage of our customer discounts that save you money. From your initial phone call to a hand shake at jobs completion, Atlantic Water Damage llc is your best remedy for flood cleanup, mold removal, and water damage repair in New Jersey.

Mold Facts Mold spores can grow within a 48 hour period if the right elements are set in place. Toxic molds can increase your susceptibility to a wide variety of diseases by weakening your immune system. Some molds live in temperatures below freezing, and some like it as warm as 122 F. Molds primarily thrive and become a problem when the relative humidity level is above 60% with temperatures between 50 and 90 degrees F. (10 to 32 degrees C.) and a pH from 3 to 8. Molds also tend to be more robust in poorly ventilated areas with little air movement to disrupt their growth. Crawls Space, basement, wall cavity's, and structural bays are the most common place for mold growth. These locations usually have poor airflow to ventilate and increase the probability of mold growth if conditions permit. Geographical location, seasonal climate, and any pre-existing conditions also factor in the equation of mold & fungi growth. Two common household molds are s. chartarum which is known as "black mold" or "toxic black mold" and stachybotrys which is a filamentous fungi that inhibit materials rich in cellulose. Water or flood damaged structures can take on these fungi growth if not mitigated immediately, thus preventing the need for mold removal and mold remediation services from a service provider.

Fast emergency service provided throughout every town, city, and county in NJ. Providing water damage restoration, flood cleanup, and mold removal services 24 hours a day for Monmouth, Middlesex, Somerset, Union, Essex, Morris, Bergen, Passaic, Sussex, Hudson, Warren, Hunterdon, Mercer, Burlington, Ocean, Atlantic, Cape May, Camden, Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland County.

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The health and safety of your family is much more important than the price youll have to pay to remove the mold, but this guide will help you if you need to get a bid.

If the area is a small one, you can remove the mold yourself with just a few dollars worth of cleaning supplies. If youre concerned about breathing the spores, you can get a respirator, which will cost from around $25 for a simple over the mouth and nose version, to around $150 for a full face professional level unit. If youre unsure if you need a respiratorthere are 7 ways to know if a mold is dangerous. For large infestations, its time to call in the pros.

Its much cheaper if you can deal with the mold yourself,but largeareas cant be handled very easily be a homeowner.One of the things a mold remediation specialist can do is clean areas like the crawlspace under your home and the duct work in the walls and attic. Mold spores that get into your heating and cooling system can get recirculated through your home, continuing to make you sick even if youve cleaned up the area where you originally found the mold.

The level of infestation will directly affect your mold removal cost. The remediation cost of a crawlspace can really vary. It could beas little as $500 or as much as $4,000 depending on how big it is, and how much mold is present. If the attic and ducts are involved, the cost for those generally ranges from $2,000 to $6,000. If your home has been flooded and the mold is all throughout it, there is much more that has to be done. This could drive your remediation cost up to $10,000 $30,000,orhigher, depending on the size of your home.

Even though you have an idea of how much mold removalcosts, be sure to shop around. The first company you find might not be the best one for your needs. Pricing can vary between companies, but you also have to pay attention to the experience levels and what kind of guarantee they have if the mold comes back.

Most consumers dont have that kind of money to spend out of pocket, so when youre considering insurance, make sure you get something that will coverat least part of the remediation cost if you live in a flood zone.If your home has mold, here are some tips to handle water damage claimsthrough your existing insurance.

You want people whove been removing mold (especially black mold) for a while, not new people who arent sure about the job. Youll also want to see if there is some kind of guarantee offered and there should be. You dont want to find out that the people didnt do their jobs properly and the mold has come back, only to be told that there is nothing that can be done until you pay more money.

When you find a company where you feel comfortable with the people, the work ethic, the guarantee, and the remediation cost that fit with your personal finances, youll be able to get the mold removed from your home and you and your family can get back to enjoying your lives. Youll be much healthier, and your home will be a safer place to be.

More Reading:

How Borax Kills Mold

3 Reasons Why You Should Never Use Bleach To Clean Mold

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Mold Removal Cost What You Can Expect To Pay

For Vinyl Siding Installation, Homeowners in Wichita, KS, Trust Continental Siding Supply

The installation of vinyl siding on your Wichita, Kansas, home is a complex process that should not be left to amateurs. If not expertly installed, your new siding can actually become a hazard for your home because improper installation can result in the growth of mold and mildew behind your siding. When you turn to Continental Siding Supply, however, this wont occur because we only employ professional installers.

At Continental Siding Supply, we keep our siding technicians busy with installation work year-round so that theyre always prepared to tackle the next project. In addition to vinyl siding, our professionals can provide installation for these other siding types:

Even though you may already be set on having vinyl siding installed on your Wichita, KS, residence, you may also want to take a look at our other siding options. When deciding, its best to consider the material of each siding type, what goes behind each siding type, and the method of installation for each siding type. Once you do so, were confident youll choose our polymer siding like 98 percent of our customers do.

While we promise the safe installation for all siding products we offer, our founder Jerry ONeal created a special installation method the Perma-Strate Wall System for our polymer siding. Not only will this system guarantee safe installation, but it also gives our polymer siding a seamless appearance. Plus, its durable polymer material provides unbeatable protection against hail damage, and its backed with thermal-resistant insulation. With a more stable home temperature, less strain is placed on HVAC systems, which may lower energy costs.

If you would like us to complete the installation of vinyl, polymer, or another siding type for your Wichita, KS, home, CALL NOW.

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A carpet is a textile floor covering typically consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing. The pile was traditionally made from wool, but, since the 20th century, synthetic fibers such as polypropylene, nylon or polyester are often used, as these fibers are less expensive than wool. The pile usually consists of twisted tufts which are typically heat-treated to maintain their structure. The term "carpet" is often used interchangeably with the term "rug", although the term "carpet" can be applied to a floor covering that covers an entire house, whereas a "rug" is generally no bigger than a single room, and traditionally does not even span from one wall to another, and is typically not even attached as part of the floor.

Carpets are used for a variety of purposes, including insulating a person's feet from a cold tile or concrete floor, making a room more comfortable as a place to sit on the floor (e.g., when playing with children or as a prayer rug), reducing sound from walking (particularly in apartment buildings) and adding decoration or colour to a room. Carpets can be made in any colour by using differently dyed fibers. Carpets can have many different types of patterns and motifs used to decorate the surface. In the 2000s, carpets are used in industrial and commercial establishments such as retail stores and hotels and in private homes. In the 2010s, a huge range of carpets and rugs are available at many price and quality levels, ranging from inexpensive, synthetic carpets that are mass produced in factories and used in commercial buildings to costly hand-knotted wool rugs which are used in private homes of wealthy families.

Carpets can be produced on a loom quite similar to woven fabric, made using needle felts, knotted by hand (in oriental rugs), made with their pile injected into a backing material (called tufting), flatwoven, made by hooking wool or cotton through the meshes of a sturdy fabric or embroidered. Carpet is commonly made in widths of 12 feet (3.7m) and 15 feet (4.6m) in the USA, 4m and 5m in Europe. Since the 20th century, where necessary for wall-to-wall carpet, different widths of carpet can be seamed together with a seaming iron and seam tape (formerly it was sewn together) and fixed to a floor over a cushioned underlay (pad) using nails, tack strips (known in the UK as gripper rods), adhesives, or occasionally decorative metal stair rods. Wall-to-wall carpet is distinguished from rugs or mats, which are loose-laid floor coverings, as wall-to-wall carpet is fixed to the floor and covers a much larger area.

Child labour has often been used in Asia for hand knotting rugs. The GoodWeave labelling scheme used throughout Europe and North America assures that child labour has not been used: importers pay for the labels, and the revenue collected is used to monitor centres of production and educate previously exploited children.[1]

The term carpet comes from Old French carpite. One derivation of the term states that the French term came from the Old Italian carpita, from the verb "carpire" meaning to pluck.[2][3] The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the term "carpet" was first used in English in the late 13th century, with the meaning "coarse cloth", and by the mid-14th century, "tablecloth, [or] bedspread".[4] The Online Etymology Dictionary states that the term comes "...from Old French carpite "heavy decorated cloth, carpet," from Medieval Latin or Old Italian carpita "thick woolen cloth," probably from Latin carpere "to card, pluck," probably so called because it was made from unraveled, shred[d]ed, "plucked" fabric".[4] The meaning of the term "carpet" shifted in the 15th century to refer to floor coverings.[4]

The term "carpet" is often used interchangeably with the term "rug". Some sources define a carpet as stretching from wall to wall.[5] Another definition treats rugs as of lower quality or of smaller size, with carpets quite often having finished ends. A third common definition is that a carpet is permanently fixed in place while a rug is simply laid out on the floor. Historically, the term "carpet" was also applied to table and wall coverings, as carpets were not commonly used on the floor in European interiors until the 15th century.

The term "rug" was first used in English in the 1550s, with the meaning "coarse fabric". The term is of "...Scandinavian origin; compare Norwegian dialectal rugga "coarse coverlet," from Old Norse rogg "shaggy tuft," from Proto-Germanic *rawwa-, perhaps related to rag (n.) and rough (adj.)."[6] The meaning of "rug" "...evolved to "coverlet, wrap" (1590s), then "mat for the floor" (1808)".[6]

The carpet is produced on a loom quite similar to woven fabric. The pile can be plush or Berber. Plush carpet is a cut pile and Berber carpet is a loop pile. There are new styles of carpet combining the two styles called cut and loop carpeting. Normally many colored yarns are used and this process is capable of producing intricate patterns from predetermined designs (although some limitations apply to certain weaving methods with regard to accuracy of pattern within the carpet). These carpets are usually the most expensive due to the relatively slow speed of the manufacturing process. These are very famous in India, Pakistan and Arabia.

These carpets are more technologically advanced. Needle felts are produced by intermingling and felting individual synthetic fibers using barbed and forked needles forming an extremely durable carpet. These carpets are normally found in commercial settings such as hotels and restaurants where there is frequent traffic.

On a knotted pile carpet (formally, a "supplementary weft cut-loop pile" carpet), the structural weft threads alternate with a supplementary weft that rises at right angles to the surface of the weave. This supplementary weft is attached to the warp by one of three knot types (see below), such as shag carpet which was popular in the 1970s, to form the pile or nap of the carpet. Knotting by hand is most prevalent in oriental rugs and carpets. Kashmir carpets are also hand-knotted. Pile carpets, like flat carpets, can be woven on a loom. Both vertical and horizontal looms have been used in the production of European and oriental carpets. The warp threads are set up on the frame of the loom before weaving begins. A number of weavers may work together on the same carpet. A row of knots is completed and cut. The knots are secured with (usually one to four) rows of weft. The warp in woven carpet is usually cotton and the weft is jute.[citation needed]

There are several styles of knotting, but the two main types of knot are the symmetrical (also called Turkish or Ghiordes) and asymmetrical (also called Persian or Senna). Contemporary centres of knotted carpet production are: Lahore and Peshawar (Pakistan), Kashmir (India / Pakistan), Mirzapur, Bhadohi,[7]Tabriz (Iran), Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Northern Africa, Nepal, Spain, Turkmenistan, and Tibet. The importance of carpets in the culture of Turkmenistan is such that the national flag features a vertical red stripe near the hoist side, containing five carpet guls (designs used in producing rugs). Kashmir is known for handknotted carpets of silk or wool. Child labour has often been used in Asia for hand knotting rugs. The GoodWeave labelling scheme used throughout Europe and North America assures that child labour has not been used: importers pay for the labels, and the revenue collected is used to monitor centres of production and educate previously exploited children.[1]

These are carpets that have their pile injected into a backing material, which is itself then bonded to a secondary backing made of a woven hessian weave or a man made alternative to provide stability. The pile is often sheared in order to achieve different textures. This is the most common method of manufacturing of domestic carpets for floor covering purposes in the world.

A flatweave carpet is created by interlocking warp (vertical) and weft (horizontal) threads. Types of oriental flatwoven carpet include kilim, soumak, plain weave, and tapestry weave. Types of European flatwoven carpets include Venetian, Dutch, damask, list, haircloth, and ingrain (aka double cloth, two-ply, triple cloth, or three-ply).

A hooked rug is a simple type of rug handmade by pulling strips of cloth such as wool or cotton through the meshes of a sturdy fabric such as burlap. This type of rug is now generally made as a handicraft. The process of creating a hooked rug is called Rug hooking[8][9]

Unlike woven carpets, embroidery carpets' are not formed on a loom. Their pattern is established by the application of stitches to a cloth (often linen) base. The tent stitch and the cross stitch are two of the most common. Embroidered carpets were traditionally made by royal and aristocratic women in the home, but there has been some commercial manufacture since steel needles were introduced (earlier needles were made of bone) and linen weaving improved in the 16th century. Mary, Queen of Scots, is known to have been an avid embroiderer. 16th century designs usually involve scrolling vines and regional flowers (for example, the Bradford carpet). They often incorporate animal heraldry and the coat of arms of the maker. Production continued through the 19th century. Victorian embroidered carpet compositions include highly illusionistic, 3-dimensional flowers. Patterns for tiled carpets made of a number of squares, called Berlin wool work, were introduced in Germany in 1804, and became extremely popular in England in the 1830s. Embroidered carpets can also include other features such as a pattern of shapes, or they can even tell a story.

Carpet can be formulated from many single or blended natural and synthetic fibres. Fibres are chosen for durability, appearance, ease of manufacture, and cost. In terms of scale of production, the dominant yarn constructions are polyamides (nylons) and polypropylene with an estimated 90% of the commercial market.[10]

Since the 20th century, nylon is one of the most common materials for the construction of carpets. Both nylon 6 and nylon 6-6 are used. Nylon can be dyed topically or dyed in a molten state (solution dying). Nylon can be printed easily and has excellent wear characteristics. Due to nylon's excellent wear-resistance, it is widely used in industrial and commercial carpeting. In carpets, nylon tends to stain easily because of the dye sites which exist on the fibre. These dye sites need to be filled in order to give nylon carpet any type of stain resistance. As nylon is petroleum-based it varies in price with the price of oil.

Polypropylene is used to produce carpet yarns because it is inexpensive. It is difficult to dye and does not wear as well as wool or nylon. Polypropylene is commonly used to construct berber carpets. In this case, polypropylene is commonly referred to as olefin. Large looped olefin berber carpets are usually only suited for light domestic use and tend to mat down quickly. Berber carpets with smaller loops tend to be more resilient and retain their new appearance longer than large looped berber styles. Commercial grade level-loop carpets have very small loops, and commercial grade cut-pile styles are well constructed. When made with polypropylene, commercial grade styles wear very well, making them very suitable for areas with heavy foot traffic such as offices. Polypropylene carpets are known to have good stain resistance, but not against oil- based agents. If a stain does set, it can be difficult to clean. Commercial grade carpets can be glued directly to the floor or installed over a 1/4" thick, 8-pound density padding. Outdoor grass carpets are usually made from polypropylene.[11]

Wool has excellent durability, can be dyed easily and is fairly abundant. When blended with synthetic fibres such as nylon the durability of wool is increased. Blended wool yarns are extensively used in production of modern carpet, with the most common blend being 80% wool to 20% synthetic fibre, giving rise to the term "80/20". Wool is relatively expensive and consequently it only comprises a small portion of the market.

The polyester known as "PET" (polyethylene terephthalate) is used in carpet manufacturing in both spun and filament constructions. After the price of raw materials for many types of carpet rose in the early 2000s, polyester became more competitive. Polyester has good physical properties and is inherently stain-resistant because it is hydrophobic, and, unlike nylon, does not have dye sites. Colour is infused in a molten state (solution dyeing). Polyester has the disadvantage that it tends to crush or mat down easily. It is typically used in mid- to low-priced carpeting.

Another polyester, "PTT" (Polytrimethylene terephthalate), also called Sorona or 3GT (Dupont)or Corterra (Shell), is a variant of PET. Lurgi Zimmer PTT was first patented in 1941, but it was not produced until the 1990s, when Shell Chemicals developed the low-cost method of producing high-quality 1,3 propanediol (PDO), the starting raw material for PTT Corterra Polymers. DuPont subsequently commercialized a biological process for making 1,3-propanediol from corn syrup, imparting significant renewable content on the corresponding Sorona polyester carpet fibers.[12] These carpet fibers have resiliency comparable to nylon.[13]

Acrylic is a synthetic material first created by the Dupont Corporation in 1941 but has gone through various changes since it was first introduced. In the past, acrylic carpet used to fuzz or "pill" easily. This happened when the fibres degraded over time and short strands broke away with contact or friction. Over the years, new types of acrylics have been developed to alleviate some of these problems, although the issues have not been completely removed. Acrylic is fairly difficult to dye but is colourfast, washable, and has the feel and appearance of wool, making it a good rug fabric.

The knotted pile carpet probably originated in the 3rd or 2nd millennium BC in West Asia, perhaps the Caspian Sea area (Northern Iran) [14] or the Armenian Highland,[15] although there is evidence of goats and sheep being sheared for wool and hair which was spun and woven as far back at the 7th millennium. The earliest surviving pile carpet is the "Pazyryk carpet", which dates from the 5th-4th century BC. It was excavated by Sergei Ivanovich Rudenko in 1949 from a Pazyryk burial mound in the Altai Mountains in Siberia. This richly coloured carpet is 200 x 183cm (6'6" x 6'0") and framed by a border of griffins.[16]

Although claimed by many cultures, this square tufted carpet, almost perfectly intact, is considered by many experts to be of Caucasian, specifically Armenian, origin. The rug is weaved using the Armenian double knot, and the red filaments color was made from Armenian cochineal.[17][18] The eminent authority of ancient carpets, Ulrich Schurmann, says of it, "From all the evidence available I am convinced that the Pazyryk rug was a funeral accessory and most likely a masterpiece of Armenian workmanship".[19] Gantzhorn concurs with this thesis. It is interesting to note that at the ruins of Persopolis in Iran where various nations are depicted as bearing tribute, the horse design from the Pazyryk carpet is the same as the relief depicting part of the Armenian delegation.[15] The historian Herodotus writing in the 5th century BC also informs us that the inhabitants of the Caucasus wove beautiful rugs with brilliant colors which would never fade.[20]

There has recently been a surge in demand for Afghan carpets, although many Afghan carpet manufacturers market their products under the name of a different country.[21] The carpets are made in Afghanistan, as well as by Afghan refugees who reside in Pakistan and Iran. Famous Afghan rugs include the Shindand or Adraskan (named after local Afghan villages), woven in the Herat area, in western Afghanistan.

Afghan carpets are also quite commonly known as Afghan rugs - are a distinguished and well recognised handmade material design that originates from Afghanistan. They intricate detailing mainly using designs from traditional tribal designs including Turkmen, Kazakh, Baloch, and Uzbeks. The hand-made rugs come in many patterns and colours, but the traditional and most common example of an Afghan carpet is the octagon-shaped elephant-foot (Bukhara) - The rugs with this print are commonly red in colour. Many dyes such as vegetable dyes are used to give the rich colours.[22]

The historian Herodotus writing in the 5th century BC also informs us that the inhabitants of the Caucasus wove beautiful rugs with brilliant colors which would never fade.[23] Various rug fragments have been excavated in Armenia dating back to the 7th century BC or earlier. The oldest, single, surviving knotted carpet in existence is the Pazyryk carpet, excavated from a frozen tomb in Siberia, dated from the 5th to the 3rd century BC, now in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. This square tufted carpet, almost perfectly intact, is considered by many experts to be of Caucasian, specifically Armenian, origin. The eminent authority of ancient carpets, Ulrich Schurmann, says of it, "From all the evidence available I am convinced that the Pazyryk rug was a funeral accessory and most likely a masterpiece of Armenian workmanship".[23] Gantzhorn concurs with this thesis. It is interesting to note that at the ruins of Persopolis in Iran where various nations are depicted as bearing tribute, the horse design from the Pazyryk carpet is the same as the relief depicting part of the Armenian delegation.[15]Armenian carpets were renowned by foreigners who travelled to Artsakh; the Arab geographer and historian Al-Masudi noted that, among other works of art, he had never seen such carpets elsewhere in his life.[24]

Art historian Hravard Hakobyan notes that "Artsakh carpets occupy a special place in the history of Armenian carpet-making."[25] Common themes and patterns found on Armenian carpets were the depiction of dragons and eagles. They were diverse in style, rich in colour and ornamental motifs, and were even separated in categories depending on what sort of animals were depicted on them, such as artsvagorgs (eagle-carpets), vishapagorgs (dragon-carpets) and otsagorgs (serpent-carpets).[25] The rug mentioned in the Kaptavan inscriptions is composed of three arches, "covered with vegatative ornaments", and bears an artistic resemblance to the illuminated manuscripts produced in Artsakh.[25]

The art of carpet weaving was in addition intimately connected to the making of curtains as evidenced in a passage by Kirakos Gandzaketsi, a 13th-century Armenian historian from Artsakh, who praised Arzu-Khatun, the wife of regional prince Vakhtang Khachenatsi, and her daughters for their expertise and skill in weaving.[26]

The Gultapin excavations discovered carpet several weaving tools which date back to the 4th-3rd millennium BC, mostly of Armenian origin. According to Iranica Online "The main weaving zone was in the eastern Transcaucasus south of the mountains that bisect the region diagonally , the area now comprised in the Azerbaijan SSR; it is the homeland of a Turkic population known today as Azeri. Other ethnic groups also practiced weaving, some of them in other parts of the Caucasus, but they were of lesser importance." [27] Azerbaijan was one of the most important centers of carpet weaving and as a result of that, several different schools have evolved. While traditionally schools are divided into four main branches, each region has its own version of the carpets. The Schools are divided into four main branches: Kuba-Shirvan, Ganja-Kazakh carpet-weaving school, The Baku carpet school, Karabakh school of carpet weaving.

Brussels Wilton The Brussels Loom was introduced into England towards the middle of the eighteenth century marked the beginning of a new era in carpet-weaving. It was the first loom on which a pile carpet could be woven mechanically, the pile consisting of rows of loops, formed over wires inserted weftwise during weaving and subsequently withdrawn. Brussels was the first type of carpet to be woven in a loom incorporating the jacquard pattern selecting mechanism and in 1849 power was applied to the loom by Biglow in the U.S.A.

Later when bladed wires were developed the pile loops were severed on withdrawal of the blade wires to produce a carpet known as Wilton. after this development the loom became known as the Wilton loom, and in modern usage the designation wilton applies to both cut-pile and loop-pile carpets made in this loom. The latter now variously described as Brussels-Wilton, round wire Wilton, loop-pile Wilton, and round wired jacquard. the methods of manufacture, including the principles of designing, preparatory processes, and weaving , are the same in most respects for both Brussels and Wilton qualities. The chief difference between them is that whereas Brussels loop-pile is secured satisfactorily by the insertion of two picks of weft to each wire ( 2-shot) the Wilton Wilton cut-pile is sometime woven similarly ( 2-shot) but more often with three picks of weft to each wire ( 3-shot) to ensure that the tufts are firmly secured in the carpet backing.

Brussels carpet have a smooth slightly ribbed surface and their patterning is well defined, a characteristic feature of the cloth. Closeness of pile rather than height contributes to their neat appearance and hard wearing properties, although they do not simulate the luxury of cut-pile carpets. ( Carpets by George Robinson F.T.I., F.S.D.C. published 1966 Chap 7 Wilton Carpets page 72.)

As opposed to most antique rug manufactory practices, Chinese carpets were woven almost exclusively for internal consumption. China has a long history of exporting traditional goods; however, it was not until the first half of the 19th century that the Chinese began to export their rugs. Once in contact with western influences, there was a large change in production: Chinese manufactories began to produce art-deco rugs with commercial look and price point. The centuries-old Chinese textile industry is rich in history. While most antique carpets are classified according to a specific region or manufactory, scholars attribute the age of any specific Chinese rug to the ruling emperor of the time. The earliest surviving examples of the craft were produced during the time of Ch'ung Chen, the last emperor of the Chen Dynasty.

Carpet weaving may have been introduced into the area as far back as the eleventh century with the coming of the first Muslim conquerors, the Ghaznavids and the Ghauris, from the West. It can with more certainty be traced to the beginning of the Mughal Dynasty in the early sixteenth century, when the last successor of Timur, Babar, extended his rule from Kabul to India to found the Mughal Empire. Under the patronage of the Mughals, Indian craftsmen adopted Persian techniques and designs. Carpets woven in the Punjab made use of motifs and decorative styles found in Mughal architecture.

Akbar, a Mogul emperor, is accredited to introducing the art of carpet weaving to India during his reign. The Mughal emperors patronized Persian carpets for their royal courts and palaces. During this period, he brought Persian craftsmen from their homeland and established them in India. Initially, the carpets woven showed the classic Persian style of fine knotting. Gradually it blended with Indian art. Thus the carpets produced became typical of the Indian origin and gradually the industry began to diversify and spread all over the subcontinent. During the Mughal period, the carpets made on the Indian subcontinent became so famous that demand for them spread abroad. These carpets had distinctive designs and boasted a high density of knots. Carpets made for the Mughal emperors, including Jahangir and Shah Jahan, were of the finest quality. Under Shah Jahan's reign, Mughal carpet weaving took on a new aesthetic and entered its classical phase.[citation needed] Indian carpets are well known for their designs with attention to detail and presentation of realistic attributes. The carpet industry in India flourished more in its northern part with major centres found in Kashmir, Jaipur, Agra and Bhadohi.

Indian carpets are known for their high density of knotting. Hand-knotted carpets are a speciality and widely in demand in the West. The carpet industry in India has been successful in establishing social business models that help underprivileged sections of the society.[28] Notable examples of social entrepreneurship ventures are Jaipur rugs,[29]Fabindia.[30]

Another category of Indian rugs which, though quite popular in most of the western countries, have not received much press, is hand-woven rugs of Khairabad (Citapore rugs).[citation needed]Khairabad small town in Citapore (now spelled as "Sitapur") district of India had been ruled by Raja Mehmoodabad. Khairabad (Mehmoodabad Estate) was part of Oudh province which had been ruled by shi'i Muslims having Persian linkages. Citapore rugs made in Khairabad and neighbouring areas are all hand-woven and distinct from tufted and knotted rugs. Flat weave is the basic weaving technique of Citapore rugs and generally cotton is the main weaving material here but jute, rayon and chenille are also popular. IKEA and Agocha have been major buyers of rugs from this area.

The art of weaving developed in South Asia at a time when few other civilizations employed it. Excavations at Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro ancient cities of the Indus Valley Civilization have established that the inhabitants used spindles and spun a wide variety of weaving materials. Some historians consider that the Indus Valley civilization first developed the use of woven textiles. As of the late 1990s, hand-knotted carpets were among Pakistan's leading export products and their manufacture is the second largest cottage and small industry. Pakistani craftsmen have the capacity to produce any type of carpet using all the popular motifs of gulls, medallions, paisleys, traceries, and geometric designs in various combinations.[31] At the time of independence, manufacturing of carpets was set up in Sangla Hill, a small town of District Sheikhupura. Chaudary Mukhtar Ahmad Member son of Maher Janda introduced and taught this art to locals and immigrants. He is considered founder of this industry in Pakistan. Sangla Hill is now a focal point in Carpet Industry in Pakistan. Almost all the exporters and manufacturers who are running their business at Lahore, Faisalabad and Karachi have their area offices in Sangla Hill.

The Persian carpet is a part of Persian (Iranian) art and culture. Carpet-weaving in Persia dates back to the Bronze Age. The earliest surviving corpus of Persian carpets come from the Safavid dynasty (15011736) in the 16th century. However, painted depictions prove a longer history of production. There is much variety among classical Persian carpets of the 16th and 17th century. Common motifs include scrolling vine networks, arabesques, palmettes, cloud bands, medallions, and overlapping geometric compartments rather than animals and humans.[citation needed] This is because Islam, the dominant religion in that part of the world, forbids their depiction.[citation needed] Still, some show figures engaged either in the hunt or feasting scenes. The majority of these carpets are wool, but several silk examples produced in Kashan survive.[32]

Iran is also the world's largest producer and exporter of handmade carpets, producing three quarters of the world's total output and having a share of 30% of world's export markets.[33][34] Iran is also the maker of the largest handmade carpet in history, measuring 60,546 square feet.[35][36]

Scandinavian rugs are among the most popular of all weaves in modern design. Preferred by influential modernist thinkers, designers, and advocates for a new aesthetic in the mid-twentieth century, Scandinavian rugs have become very widespread in many different avenues of contemporary interior design. With a long history of adaptation and evolution, the tradition of Scandinavian rug-making is among the most storied of all European rug-making traditions.

Turkish carpets (also known as Anatolian), whether hand knotted or flat woven, are among the most well known and established hand crafted art works in the world. Historically: religious, cultural, environmental, sociopolitical and socioeconomic conditions created widespread utilitarian need and have provided artistic inspiration among the many tribal peoples and ethnic groups in Central Asia and Turkey.[38] Turks; nomadic or pastoral, agrarian or town dwellers, living in tents or in sumptuous houses in large cities, have protected themselves from the extremes of the cold weather by covering the floors, and sometimes walls and doorways, with carpets and rugs. The carpets are always hand made of wool or sometimes cotton, with occasional additions of silk. These carpets are natural barriers against the cold. Turkish pile rugs and kilims are also frequently used as tent decorations, grain bags, camel and donkey bags, ground cushions, oven covers, sofa covers, bed and cushion covers, blankets, curtains, eating blankets, table top spreads, prayer rugs and for ceremonial occasions.

The oldest records of flat woven kilims come from atalhyk Neolithic pottery, circa 7000 B.C. One of the oldest settlements ever to have been discovered, atalhyk is located south east of Konya in the middle of the Anatolian region.[39] The excavations to date (only 3% of the town) not only found carbonized fabric but also fragments of kilims painted on the walls of some of the dwellings. The majority of them represent geometric and stylized forms that are similar or identical to other historical and contemporary designs.[40]

The knotted rug is believed to have reached Asia Minor and the Middle East with the expansion of various nomadic tribes peoples during the latter period of the great Turkic migration of the 8th and 9th centuries. Famously depicted in European paintings of The Renaissance, beautiful Anatolian rugs were often used from then until modern times, to indicate the high economic and social status of the owner.

Women learn their weaving skills at an early age, taking months or even years to complete the beautiful pile rugs and flat woven kilims that were created for their use in every aspect of daily life. As is true in most weaving cultures, traditionally and nearly exclusively, it is women and girls who are both artisan and weaver.[41][42][43]

Trkmen carpet (also called "Bukhara Uzbekistan") is a type of handmade floor-covering textile traditionally originating in Central Asia. It is useful to distinguish between the original Turkmen tribal rugs and the rugs produced in large numbers for export in the 2000s, mainly in Pakistan and Iran. The original Turkmen rugs were produced by the Turkmen tribes who are the main ethnic group in Turkmenistan and are also found in Afghanistan and Iran. They are used for various purposes, including tent rugs, door hangings and bags of various sizes.[44]

Oriental carpets began to appear in Europe after the Crusades in the 11th century, due to contact by Crusaders with Eastern traders. Until the mid-18th century they were mostly used on walls and tables. Except in royal or ecclesiastical settings they were considered too precious to cover the floor. Starting in the 13th century oriental carpets begin to appear in paintings (notably from Italy, Flanders, England, France, and the Netherlands). Carpets of Indo-Persian design were introduced to Europe via the Dutch, British, and French East India Companies of the 17th and 18th century.[45]

Although isolated instances of carpet production pre-date the Muslim invasion of Spain, the Hispano-Moresque examples are the earliest significant body of European-made carpets. Documentary evidence shows production beginning in Spain as early as the 10th century AD. The earliest extant Spanish carpet, the so-called Synagogue carpet in the Museum of Islamic Art, Berlin, is a unique survival dated to the 14th century. The earliest group of Hispano-Moresque carpets, Admiral carpets (also known as armorial carpets), has an all-over geometric, repeat pattern punctuated by blazons of noble, Christian Spanish families. The variety of this design was analyzed most thoroughly by May Beattie. Many of the 15th-century, Spanish carpets rely heavily on designs originally developed on the Anatolian Peninsula. Carpet production continued after the Reconquest of Spain and eventual expulsion of the Muslim population in the 15th century. 16th-century Renaissance Spanish carpet design is a derivative of silk textile design. Two of the most popular motifs are wreaths and pomegranates.

During the Moorish (Muslim) period production took place in Alcaraz in the province of Murcia, as well as being recorded in other towns. Carpet production after the Christian reconquest continued in Alcaraz while Cuenca, first recorded as a weaving centre in the 12th century, became increasingly important, and was dominant in the 17th and early 18th century. Carpets of completely different French based designs began to be woven in a royal workshop, the Royal Tapestry Factory (Real Fbrica de Tapices de Santa Brbara) in Madrid in the 18th century. Cuenca was closed down by royal degree of Carlos IV in the late 18th century to stop it competing with the new workshop. Madrid continued as a weaving centre through to the 20th century, producing brightly coloured carpets most of whose designs are strongly influenced by French carpet design, and which are frequently signed (on occasions with the monogram MD; also sometimes with the name Stuyck) and dated in the outer stripe. After the Spanish civil war General Franco revived the carpet weaving industry in workshops named after him, weaving designs that are influenced by earlier Spanish carpets, usually in a very limited range of colours.[46]

Pirot carpet[a] (Serbian: , Pirotski ilim) to a variety of flat tapestry-woven carpets or rugs traditionally produced in Pirot, a town in southeastern Serbia. Pirot kilims with some 122 ornaments and 96 different types have been protected by geographical indication in 2002. They are one of the most important traditional handicrafts in Serbia. In the late 19th century and up to the Second World War, Pirot kilims have been frequently used as insignia of Serbian and Yugoslav royalty. This tradition was revived in 2011 when Pirot kilims were reintroduced for state ceremonies in Serbia. Carpet weaving in Pirot dates back to the Middle Ages.[47] One of the first mentions of the Pirot kilim in written sources date to 1565, when it was said that the ajkai boats on the Danube and Drava were covered with Pirot kilims. Pirot was once the most important rug-making centre in the Balkans. Pirot is located on the historical main highway which linked central Europe with Constantinople.Pirot was also known as arky in Turkish. The Pirot carpet varieties are also found in Bulgaria and Turkey, and in many other international collections. One of the chief qualities are the colour effects achieved through the choice and arrangement of colours.

In the beginning of the 19th century plant dyes were replaced by aniline colourings. "The best product of the country is the Pirot carpet, worth about ten shillings a square metre. The designs are extremely pretty, and the rugs, without being so heavy as the Persian, or so ragged and scant in the web and woof as Caramanian, wear for ever. The manufacture of these is almost entirely confined to Pirot. From Pirots old Turkish signification as arky stems the traditional trade name of the rugs as arky-kilims. Stemming from the homonym to the today's Turkish settlement of arky in Thracia, which had no established rug making tradition, arkys are often falsely ascribed to originate from Turkey. Also in the rug selling industry, arky are mostly labeled as being of oriental or Turkish origin as to easier sell them to non familiar customers as they prefer rug with putative oriental origin. In fact, arkys have been established from the 17th century in the region of the Western Balkan or Stara Planina mountains in the towns of Pirot, Berkowiza, Lom, Chiprovtsi and Samokow. Later they have been also produced in Knjaevac and Caribrod.

The Chiprovtsi carpet ( ) is a type of handmade carpet with two absolutely identical sides, part of Bulgarian national heritage, traditions, arts and crafts. Its name is derived from the town of Chiprovtsi where their production started in the 17th century. The carpet weaving industry played a key role in the revival of Chiprovtsi in the 1720s after the devastation of the failed 1688 Chiprovtsi Uprising against Ottoman rule. The western traveller Ami Bou, who visited Chiprovtsi in 18361838, reported that "mainly young girls, under shelters or in corridors, engage in carpet weaving. They earn only five francs a month and the payment was even lower before". By 1868, the annual production of carpets in Chiprovtsi had surpassed 14,000square metres.[48] In 1896, almost 1,400 women from Chiprovtsi and the region were engaged in carpet weaving. In 1920, the locals founded the Manual Labour carpet-weaving cooperative society, the first of its kind in the country.[49] At present. the carpet (kilim) industry remains dominant in the town.[50] Carpets have been crafted according to traditional designs, but in recent years it is up to the customers to decide the pattern of the carpet they have ordered. The production of a single 3 by 4m (9.8 by 13.1ft) carpet takes about 50 days; primarily women engage in carpet weaving. Work is entirely manual and all used materials are natural; the primary material is wool, coloured using plant or mineral dyes. The local carpets have been prized at exhibitions in London, Paris, Lige and Brussels. In recent decades, however, the Chiprovtsi carpet industry has been in decline as it had lost its firm foreign markets. As a result, the town and the municipality have been experiencing a demographic crisis.

In 1608 Henry IV initiated the French production of "Turkish style" carpets under the direction of Pierre DuPont. This production was soon moved to the Savonnerie factory in Chaillot just west of Paris. The earliest, well-known group produced by the Savonnerie, then under the direction of Simon Lourdet, are the carpets that were produced in the early years of Louis XIV's reign. They are densely ornamented with flowers, sometimes in vases or baskets, against dark blue or brown grounds in deep borders. The designs are based on Netherlandish and Flemish textiles and paintings. The most famous Savonnerie carpets are the series made for the Grande Galerie and the Galerie d'Apollon in the Palais du Louvre between c. 1665-1685. These 105 masterpieces, made under the artistic direction of Charles Le Brun, were never installed, as Louis XIV moved the court to Versailles in 1688. Their design combines rich acanthus leaves, architectural framing, and mythological scenes (inspired by Cesare Ripa's Iconologie) with emblems of Louis XIV's royal power.

Pierre-Josse Perrot is the best-known of the mid-eighteenth-century carpet designers. His many surviving works and drawings display graceful rococo s-scrolls, central rosettes, shells, acanthus leaves, and floral swags. The Savonnerie manufactory was moved to the Gobelins in Paris in 1826.[51] The Beauvais manufactory, better known for their tapestry, also made knotted pile carpets from 1780 to 1792. Carpet production in small, privately owned workshops in the town of Aubusson began in 1743. Carpets produced in France employ the symmetrical knot.[46]

Knotted pile carpet weaving technology probably came to England in the early 16th century with Flemish Calvinists fleeing religious persecution. Because many of these weavers settled in South-eastern England in Norwich the 14 extant 16th and 17th century carpets are sometimes referred to as "Norwich carpets." These works are either adaptations of Anatolian or Indo-Persian designs or employ Elizabethan-Jacobean scrolling vines and blossoms. All but one are dated or bear a coat of arms. Like the French, English weavers used the symmetrical knot. There are documented and surviving examples of carpets from three 18th-century manufactories: Exeter (17561761, owned by Claude Passavant, 3 extant carpets), Moorfields (17521806, owned by Thomas Moore, 5 extant carpets), and Axminster (17551835, owned by Thomas Whitty, numerous extant carpets). Exeter and Moorfields were both staffed with renegade weavers from the French Savonnerie and, therefore, employ the weaving structure of that factory and Perrot-inspired designs. Neoclassical designer Robert Adam supplied designs for both Moorfields and Axminster carpets based on Roman floor mosaics and coffered ceilings. Some of the most well-known rugs of his design were made for Syon House, Osterley House, Harewood House, Saltram House, and Newby Hall.

Axminster carpet was a unique floor covering made originally in a factory founded at Axminster, Devon, England, in 1755 by the cloth weaver Thomas Whitty. Resembling somewhat the Savonnerie carpets produced in France, Axminster carpets were symmetrically knotted by hand in wool on woolen warps and had a weft of flax or hemp. Like the French carpets, they often featured Renaissance architectural or floral patterns; others mimicked oriental patterns. Similar carpets were produced at the same time in Exeter and in the Moorfields section of London and, shortly before, at Fulham in Middlesex. The Whitty factory closed in 1835 with the advent of machine-made carpeting. The name Axminster, however, survived as a generic term for machine-made carpets whose pile is produced by techniques similar to those used in making velvet or chenille.[52]

Axminster carpet has three main types of broadloom carpet construction in use today (machine woven, tufted & hand knotted). Machine woven carpet is an investment that will last 20 or 30 years and woven Axminster and Wilton carpets are still extremely popular in areas where longevity and design flexibility are a big part of the purchasing decision. Hotels and leisure venues almost always choose these types and many homes use woven Axminsters as design statements.

Machine-woven carpets like Axminster and Wilton are made by massive looms that weave together bobbins of carpet yarn and backing. The finished result, which can be intricately patterned, creates a floor that provides supreme underfoot luxury with high performance. Tufted carpets are also popular in the home. They are relatively speedy to make - a pre-woven backing has yarns tufted into it. Needles push the yarn through the backing and which is then held in place with underlying "loopers". Tufted carpets can be twist pile, velvet, or loop pile. Twist pile carpets are produced when one or more fibres are twisted in the tufting process, so that in the finished carpet they appear to be bound together. Velvet pile carpets tend to have a shorter pile and a tighter construction, giving the finished article a smooth, velvety appearance. Loop pile carpets are renowned for being hard wearing and lend carpets great texture. The traditional domain of rugs from far away continents, hand knotted squares and rugs use the expertise of weavers to produce work of the finest quality. Traditional rugs often feature a deliberate mistake on behalf of the weaver to guarantee their authenticity.

Six of Axminster carpets are known as the "Lansdowne" group. These have a tripartite design with reeded circles and baskets of flowers in the central panel flanked by diamond lozenges in the side panels. Axminster Rococo designs often have a brown ground and include birds copied from popular, contemporary engravings. Even now a large percentage of the 55,000 population town still seek employment in this industry. The town of Wilton, Wiltshire is also known for its carpet weaving, which dates back to the 18th century.[53]

The Brussels Loom was introduced into England towards the middle of the eighteenth century marked the beginning of a new era in carpet-weaving. It was the first loom on which a pile carpet could be woven mechanically, the pile consisting of rows of loops, formed over wires inserted weftwise during weaving and subsequently withdrawn. Brussels was the first type of carpet to be woven in a loom incorporating the jacquard pattern selecting mechanism and in 1849 power was applied to the loom by Biglow in the U.S.A.

Later when bladed wires were developed the pile loops were severed on withdrawal of the blade wires to produce a carpet known as Wilton. after this development the loom became known as the Wilton loom, and in modern usage the designation wilton applies to both cut-pile and loop-pile carpets made in this loom. The latter now variously described as Brussels-Wilton, round wire Wilton, loop-pile Wilton, and round wired jacquard. the methods of manufacture, including the principles of designing, preparatory processes, and weaving , are the same in most respects for both Brussels and Wilton qualities. The chief difference between them is that whereas Brussels loop-pile is secured satisfactorily by the insertion of two picks of weft to each wire ( 2-shot) the Wilton Wilton cut-pile is sometime woven similarly ( 2-shot) but more often with three picks of weft to each wire ( 3-shot) to ensure that the tufts are firmly secured in the carpet backing.

Brussels carpet have a smooth slightly ribbed surface and their patterning is well defined, a characteristic feature of the carpet. Closeness of pile rather than height contributes to their neat appearance and hard wearing properties, although they do not simulate the luxury of cut-pile carpets. Brussels Wilton Carpets were initially produced on 27inch(3/4) looms and were sewn together by hand. The looms could incorporate up to 5 frames all with different colours thus enabling figured or pattern carpets to be manufactured. With judicial and very skilful planting of colours in the frames the number of colours could be increased to about twenty thus enabling very complex designs to be produced. Due to the additional costs in labour these carpets were normally only produced for the bespoke market.

After the first World War the carpets started to be produced for the general market using popular designs and colourways but they always remained at the luxury end of the general market. The growing middle class of the twentieth century aspired to acquire a Wilton carpet for their 'best' room. Despite the impact of industrialization, the areas where Brussels Wilton carpets were produced remained centred mainly in the Midlands around the towns of Wilton and Kidderminster and in West Yorkshire where the firm of John Crossley and Sons in Halifax became synonymous with carpet manufacture. There were smaller areas of manufacture in Scotland and Durham. With the development of different manufacturing methods and looms capable of the mass production of carpets, the public began change their dcor, including carpets, on a regular basis, which increased the demand for carpets. The last quarter of the 20th century saw the rapid decline of the labour intensive Brussels Wilton carpets. Very few of the original Wilton looms still exist and the few that do are either in museums or used by small manufacturers that continue to produce bespoke (custom-made) luxury carpets for the elite and to replace carpets in historic buildings in the UK and abroad.[54]

Carpet is commonly made in widths of 12 feet (3.7m) and 15 feet (4.6m) in the US, 4m and 5m in Europe. Where necessary different widths can be seamed together with a seaming iron and seam tape (formerly it was sewn together) and it is fixed to a floor over a cushioned underlay (pad) using nails, tack strips (known in the UK as gripper rods), adhesives, or occasionally decorative metal stair rods, thus distinguishing it from rugs or mats, which are loose-laid floor coverings. For environmental reasons, the use of wool, natural bindings, natural padding, and formaldehyde-free glues is becoming more common. These options are almost always at a premium cost.

In the UK, some carpets are still manufactured for pubs and clubs in a narrow width of 27 inches (0.69m) and then sewn to size. Carpeting which covers an entire room area is loosely referred to as 'wall-to-wall', but carpet can be installed over any portion thereof with use of appropriate transition moldings where the carpet meets other types of floor coverings. Carpeting is more than just a single item; it is, in fact, a system comprising the carpet itself, the carpet backing (often made of latex), the cushioning underlay, and a method of installation. Carpet tiles are also available, typically 50 centimetres (20in) square. These are usually only used in commercial settings and are affixed using a special pressure-sensitive glue, which holds them into place while allowing easy removal (in an office environment, for example) or to allow rearrangement in order to spread wear.[55]

"Carpet binding" is a term used for any material being applied to the edge of a carpet to make a rug. Carpet binding is usually cotton or nylon, but also comes in many other materials such as leather. Non-synthetic binding is frequently used with bamboo, grass and wool rugs, but is often used with carpet made from other materials.

There are many stories about magic carpets, legendary flying carpets that can be used to transport people who are on it instantaneously or quickly to their destination. Disney's Aladdin depicts a magic carpet found by Aladdin and Abu in the Cave of Wonders while trying to find Genie's lamp. Aladdin and Jasmine ride on him to go on a ride around the world. The term "[m]agic carpet [is] first attested [in] 1816.[4] From the 16th century to the 19th century, the term "carpet" was used "...as an adjective often with a tinge of contempt, when used of men (as in carpet-knight, 1570s)", which meant a man who was associated with "...luxury, ladies' boudoirs, and drawing rooms".[4]Rolling out the red carpet is an expression which means to welcome a guest lavishly and handsomely. In some cases, an actual red carpet is used for VIPs and celebrities to walk on, such as at the Cannes Film Festival and when foreign dignitaries are welcomed to a country.

In 1820s British servant slang, to "carpet" someone means to call them for a reprimand.[4] To be called on the carpet means to be summoned for a serious reason, typically a scolding reprimand; this usage dates from 1900.[56] A stronger variant of this expression, to be "hauled on the carpet", implies an even sterner reprimand. Carpet bombing is a type of bombing from airplanes which developed in the 20th century in which an entire city is bombed (rather than precise strikes on military targets). The slang expression "laugh at the carpet" means to vomit on the floor (especially a carpeted floor).[57] The expression "on the carpet" refers to a matter which is under discussion or consideration.[57] The term "carpet muncher" is a derogatory slang term for a lesbian woman; this expression is first attested in 1992.[58]

The term carpet bag, which literally refers to a suitcase made from a piece of carpet, is used in several figurative contexts. The term gained a popular usage after the American Civil War to refer to carpetbaggers, Northerners who moved to the South after the war, especially during the Reconstruction era (18651877). Carpetbaggers allegedly politically manipulated and controlled former Confederate states for financial and power gains. In modern usage in the U.S., the term is sometimes used derisively to refer to a politician who runs for public office in an area where he or she does not have deep community ties, or has lived only for a short time. In the United Kingdom, the term was adopted to refer informally to those who join a mutual organization, such as a building society, in order to force it to demutualize, that is, to convert into a joint stock company, solely for personal financial gain.

Cutting the rug is a slang term for dancing which originated in 1942.[6] The use of the term "rug" as an informal term for a "toupee" (man's wig) is theater slang from 1940.[6] The term "sweep [something] under the rug" or "sweep [something] under the carpet" figuratively refers to situations where a person or organization is hiding something embarrassing or negative; this use was first recorded in 1953.[4] The figurative expression "pull the rug out from under (someone)", meaning to "suddenly deprive of important support" is first attested to in 1936, in American English. A related figurative expression used centuries earlier was "cut the grass under (one's) feet", which is attested to in the 1580s.[6] A "rugrat" or "rug-rat" is a slang term for a baby or child, first attested in 1968.[6] The expression "snug as a bug in a rug" means "wrapped up tight, warm, and comfortable".[59] To "lie like a rug" means "to tell lies shamelessly".[60] The expression "pull the rug out (from under someone)" means "to make someone or someone's plans fall through" or "to upset someone's plans".[61]

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An apartment (in American and Canadian English) or a flat (in British English) is a self-contained housing unit (a type of residential real estate) that occupies only part of a building, correctly, on a single level without a stair. Such a building may be called an apartment building, apartment complex, flat complex, block of flats, tower block, high-rise or, occasionally mansion block (in British English), especially if it consists of many apartments for rent. In Scotland it is called a block of flats or, if it's a traditional sandstone building, a tenement, which has a pejorative connotation elsewhere. Apartments may be owned by an owner/occupier, by leasehold tenure or rented by tenants (two types of housing tenure).

The term apartment is favoured in North America (although flat is used in the case of a unit which is part of a house containing two or three units, typically one to a floor). In the UK, the term apartment is more usual in professional real estate and architectural circles where otherwise the term flat is commonly, but not exclusively, for an apartment without a stair (hence a 'flat' apartment). Technically multi-storey apartments are referred to as 'duplex' (or 'triplex') indicating the number of floors within the property. Usage generally follows the British in Ireland, Singapore, Hong Kong and most Commonwealth nations.

In Malaysian English, flat often denotes a housing block of lesser quality meant for lower-income groups, while apartment is more generic and may also include luxury condominiums. This usage has also been appearing in British English where apartment is used by developers to denote expensive 'flats' in exclusive and expensive residential areas in, for example, parts of London such as Belgravia and Hampstead.

In Australian English, the term flat was traditionally used, but the term apartment is also frequently used, as is "unit", short for "home unit".

Tenement law refers to the feudal basis of permanent property such as land or rents. It may be found combined as in "Messuage or Tenement" to encompass all the land, buildings and other assets of a property.

In the United States, some apartment-dwellers own their own apartments, either as co-ops, in which the residents own shares of a corporation that owns the building or development; or in condominiums, whose residents own their apartments and share ownership of the public spaces. Most apartments are in buildings designed for the purpose, but large older houses are sometimes divided into apartments. The word apartment denotes a residential unit or section in a building. In some locations, particularly the United States, the word connotes a rental unit owned by the building owner, and is not typically used for a condominium.

In the England and Wales, some flat owners own shares in the company that owns the freehold of the building as well as holding the flat under a lease. This is commonly known as a "share of freehold" flat. The freehold company has the right to collect annual ground rents from each of the flat owners in the building. The freeholder can also develop or sell the building, subject to the usual planning and restrictions that might apply. This does not happen in Scotland, where long leasehold of residential property was formerly unusual, and is now not possible.[1]

In some countries the word "unit" is a more general term referring to both apartments and rental business suites. The word 'unit' is generally used only in the context of a specific building; e.g., "This building has three units" or "I'm going to rent a unit in this building", but not "I'm going to rent a unit somewhere". In Australia, a 'unit' refers to flats, apartments or even semi-detached houses. Some buildings can be characterized as 'mixed use buildings', meaning part of the building is for commercial, business, or office use, usually on the first floor or first couple of floors, and there are one or more apartments in the rest of the building, usually on the upper floors.

In some parts of the world, the word apartment refers to a new purpose-built self-contained residential unit in a building, whereas the word flat means a converted self-contained unit in an older building. An industrial, warehouse, or commercial space converted to an apartment is commonly called a loft, although some modern lofts are built by design. An apartment consisting of the top floor of a high-rise apartment building can be called a penthouse.

The smallest self-contained apartments are referred to as studio, efficiency or bachelor apartments in the US, or studio flat in the UK. These usually consist of a large single main room which acts as the living room, dining room and bedroom combined and usually also includes kitchen facilities, with a separate smaller bathroom. A bedsit is a UK variant on single room accommodation which involves bathroom facilities shared with other bedsits. In Korea, the term one room (wonroom) refers to a studio apartment.[2]

Moving up from these are one-bedroom apartments, in which a bedroom is separate from the rest of the apartment. Then there are two-bedroom, three-bedroom, etc. apartments (apartments with more than three bedrooms are rare). Small apartments often have only one entrance.

Large apartments often have two entrances, perhaps a door in the front and another in the back. Depending on the building design, the entrance doors may be directly to the outside or to a common area inside, such as a hallway.

The term garden apartment is variously defined, following regional practices.

In some locales, a garden apartment complex consists of magnet rise apartment buildings built with landscaped grounds surrounding them.[3] The apartment buildings are often arranged around courtyards that are open at one end. Such a garden apartment shares some characteristics of a townhouse: each apartment has its own building entrance, or shares that entrance via a staircase and lobby that adjoins other units immediately above and/or below it. Unlike a townhouse, each apartment occupies only one level. Such garden apartment buildings are almost never more than three stories high, since they typically don't have elevators/lifts. However, the first "garden apartment" buildings in New York, USA, built in the early 1900s, were constructed five stories high.[4][5] Some garden apartment buildings place a one-car garage under each apartment. The interior grounds are often landscaped.

In other locales, a garden apartment is a unit built at or below grade or at ground level.[6] The implication is that there is a view or direct access to a garden from the apartment, but this is not necessarily the case.

In most West Coast cities in the United States, due to the need for resisting earthquakes at a low building cost, these low-rise apartments are mostly built of wooden frames with thin plaster-board based exterior and interior dry walls, despite sometimes being on as many as three or four levels.[citation needed]

When part of a house is converted for the ostensible use of a landlord's family member, the unit may be known as an in-law apartment or granny flat, though these (sometimes illegally) created units are often occupied by ordinary renters rather than family members. In Canada these suites are commonly located in the basements of houses and are therefore normally called basement suites or "mother-in-law suites".

Maisonette (from the French maisonnette, meaning "little house") typically refers to larger apartments spreading across two or more floors of an apartment building connected by staircases within the maisonette.

In the UK, the term "maisonette" may be used to distinguish dwellings which have their own entrance independent from the rest of a multi-storey block, and are located above a shop or other retail establishment. This is different from flats, which are usually reached through shared entrance doors, stairs or corridors. This definition of maisonette includes smaller maisonettes occupying a single floor of a block, including designs also known as cottage flats and Tyneside flats.

In Milwaukee vernacular architecture, a Polish flat is an existing small house or cottage that has been lifted up to accommodate the creation of a new basement floor housing a separate apartment, then set down again; thus becoming a modest two-story flat.[7]

Most apartments are on one level, which is why they are sometimes referred to as a "flat". An apartment on more than one level with its own internal staircase is often referred to as a "Duplex" - many penthouses are designed along these lines. The use of the term is derived from converting two separate units into one by connecting them with an internal private stair. Two story units in new construction are also sometimes referred to as "townhouses". Otherwise, "duplex" refers to two separate units with a common demising wall or floor-ceiling assembly. Groups of more than two units have corresponding names (Triplex, etc.).

This type of apartment developed in North America during the middle of the 20th century. The term initially described a living space created within a former industrial building, usually 19th century. These large apartments found favour with artists and musicians wanting accommodation in large cities (New York for example) and is related to unused buildings in the decaying parts of such cities being occupied illegally by people Squatting. These Loft apartments were usually located in former highrise warehouses and factories left vacant after town planning rules and economic conditions in the mid 20th century changed. The resulting apartments created a new bohemian lifestyle and are arranged in a completely different way from most urban living spaces, often including workshops and art studio spaces. As the supply of old buildings of a suitable nature has dried up developers have responded by constructing new buildings in the same aesthetic with varying degrees of success.

In Russia, a communal apartment () is a room with a shared kitchen and bath. A typical arrangement is a cluster of five or so room-apartments with a common kitchen and bathroom and separate front doors, occupying a floor in a pre-Revolutionary mansion. Traditionally a room is owned by the government and assigned to a family on a semi-permanent basis.[8]

A "serviced apartment" is any size space for residential living which includes regular maid and cleaning services provided by the rental agent. Serviced apartments or serviced flats developed in the early part of the 20th century and were briefly fashionable in the 1920s and 30s. They are intended to combine the best features of luxury and self-contained apartments, often being an adjunct of a hotel. Like guests semi-permanently installed in a luxury hotel, residents could enjoy the additional facilities such as house keeping, laundry, catering and other services if and when desired.

A feature of these apartment blocks was quite glamorous interiors with lavish bathrooms but no kitchen or laundry spaces in each flat. This style of living became very fashionable as many upper-class people found they could not afford as many live-in staff after the First War and revelled in a "lock-up and leave" life style that serviced apartment hotels supplied. Some buildings have been subsequently renovated with standard facilities in each apartment, but serviced apartment hotel complexes continue to be constructed. Recently a number of hotels have supplemented their traditional business model with serviced apartment wings, creating privately owned areas within their buildings - either freehold or leasehold.

Apartments may be available for rent furnished, with furniture, or unfurnished into which a tenant moves in with their own furniture. Serviced apartments, intended to be convenient for shorter stays, include soft furnishings and kitchen utensils, and maid service.

Laundry facilities may be found in a common area accessible to all the tenants in the building, or each apartment may have its own facilities. Depending on when the building was built and its design, utilities such as water, heating, and electricity may be common for all the apartments in the building or separate for each apartment and billed separately to each tenant. (Many areas in the US have ruled it illegal to split a water bill among all the tenants, especially if a pool is on the premises.) Outlets for connection to telephones are typically included in apartments. Telephone service is optional and is almost always billed separately from the rent payments. Cable television and similar amenities also cost extra. Parking space(s), air conditioner, and extra storage space may or may not be included with an apartment. Rental leases often limit the maximum number of people who can reside in each apartment.

On or around the ground floor of the apartment building, a series of mailboxes are typically kept in a location accessible to the public and, thus, to the mail carrier too. Every unit typically gets its own mailbox with individual keys to it. Some very large apartment buildings with a full-time staff may take mail from the mailman and provide mail-sorting service. Near the mailboxes or some other location accessible by outsiders, there may be a buzzer (equivalent to a doorbell) for each individual unit. In smaller apartment buildings such as two- or three-flats, or even four-flats, rubbish is often disposed of in trash containers similar to those used at houses. In larger buildings, rubbish is often collected in a common trash bin or dumpster. For cleanliness or minimizing noise, many lessors will place restrictions on tenants regarding smoking or keeping pets in an apartment.

In the United States, properties are typically put into one of four property classes. Each "class" of properties has a letter grade. These grades are used to help investors and real estate brokers speak a common language so they can understand a property's characteristics and condition quickly. They are as follows:

Class A properties are luxury units. They are usually less than 10 years old and are often new, upscale apartment buildings. Average rents are high, and they are generally located in desirable geographic areas. White-collar workers live in them and are usually renters by choice.

Class B properties can be 10 to 25 years old. They are generally well maintained and have a middle class tenant base of both white and blue-collar workers. Some are renters by choice, and others by necessity.

Class C properties were built within the last 30 to 40 years. They generally have blue-collar and low- to moderate-income tenants, and the rents are below market. This is where you'll find many tenants that are renters "for life". On the other hand, some of their tenants are just starting out and are likely to work their way up the rental scale as they get better jobs.

Class D properties house many Section 8 (government-subsidized) tenants. They are generally located in lower socioeconomic areas.

In the Classic Period Mesoamerican city of Teotihuacan,[9] apartments were not only the standard means of housing the city's population of over 200,000 inhabitants, but show a remarkably even wealth distribution for the entire city, even by contemporary standards.[10] Furthermore, the apartments were inhabited by the general populace as a whole,[11] in contrast to other Pre-Modern socieites, where apartments were limited to housing the lower class members of the society, as with the somewhat contemporary Roman insulae.

In ancient Rome, the insulae (singular insula) were large apartment buildings where the lower and middle classes of Romans (the plebs) dwelled. The floor at ground level was used for tabernas, shops and businesses, with living space on the higher floors. Insulae in Rome and other imperial cities reached up to ten or more stories,[12] some with more than 200 stairs.[13] Several emperors, beginning with Augustus (r. 30BC-14AD), attempted to establish limits of 2025m for multi-storey buildings, but met with only limited success.[14][15] The lower floors were typically occupied by either shops or wealthy families, while the upper stories were rented out to the lower classes.[12] Surviving Oxyrhynchus Papyri indicate that seven-story buildings even existed in provincial towns, such as in 3rd century Hermopolis in Roman Egypt.[16]

During the medieval Arabic-Islamic period, the Egyptian capital of Fustat (Old Cairo) housed many high-rise residential buildings, some seven stories tall that could reportedly accommodate hundreds of people. In the 10th century, Al-Muqaddasi described them as resembling minarets,[17] and stated that the majority of Fustat's population lived in these multi-storey apartment buildings, each one housing over 200 people.[18] In the 11th century, Nasir Khusraw described some of these apartment buildings rising up to fourteen stories, with roof gardens on the top storey complete with ox-drawn water wheels for irrigating them.[17]

By the 16th century, the current Cairo also had high-rise apartment buildings, where the two lower floors were for commercial and storage purposes and the multiple stories above them were rented out to tenants.[19]

The Hakka people in southern China adopted communal living structures designed to be easily defensible, in the form of Weilongwu () and Tulou (). The latter are large, enclosed and fortified earth buildings, between three and five stories high and housing up to eighty families.

In the late 19th and early 20th century, the concept of the 'flat' was slow to catch on amongst the British middle classes which generally followed the north European standard of single family houses dating far back into history. Those who lived in 'flats' were assumed to be lower class and somewhat itinerant, renting for example a 'flat above a shop' as part of a lease agreement for a maid or tradesman. In London and most of Britain, everyone who could afford to do so occupied an entire house even if this was small terraced urban rowhouse - while the working poor continued to rent rooms in often overcrowded properties, with one (or more) families per room.

During the last quarter of the 19th century, as wealth increased, ideas began to change. Both urban growth and the increase in population meant that more imaginative housing concepts were going to be needed if the middle and upper classes were to maintain a pied--terre in the capital. The traditional London town house was becoming increasingly expensive to maintain. Especially for bachelors and unmarried women, the idea of renting a modern mansion flat came increasingly into vogue.

The first mansion flats in England were:

In London, by the time of the 2011 census, 52% of all homes were flats.[20]

In Scotland, the term "tenement" lacks the pejorative connotations it carries elsewhere, and refers simply to any block of flats sharing a common central staircase and lacking an elevator, particularly those constructed before 1919. Tenements were, and continue to be, inhabited by a wide range of social classes and income groups.

During the 19th century tenements became the predominant type of new housing in Scotland's industrial cities, although they were very common in the Old Town in Edinburgh from the 15th century, where they reached ten or eleven storeys and in one case fourteen storeys. Built of sandstone or granite, Scottish tenements are usually three to five storeys in height, with two to four flats on each floor. (In contrast, industrial cities in England tended to favour "back-to-back" terraces of brick.) Scottish tenements are constructed in terraces, and each entrance within a block is referred to as a close or stairboth referring to the shared passageway to the individual flats. Flights of stairs and landings are generally designated common areas, and residents traditionally took turns to sweep clean the floors, and in Aberdeen in particular, took turns to make use of shared laundry facilities in the "back green" (garden or yard). It is now more common for cleaning of the common ways to be contracted out through a managing agent or "factor".

Tenements today are bought by a wide range of social types, including young professionals, older retirees, and by absentee landlords, often for rental to students after they leave halls of residence managed by their institution. The National Trust for Scotland Tenement House Museum in Glasgow offers an insight into the lifestyle of tenement dwellers.

Many multi-storey tower blocks were built in the UK after the Second World War. A number of these are being demolished and replaced with low-rise buildings or housing estates known in Scotland as housing schemes, often modern interpretations of the tenement.

In Glasgow, where Scotland's highest concentration of tenement dwellings can be found, the urban renewal projects of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s brought an end to the city's slums, which had primarily consisted of older tenements built in the early 19th century in which large extended families would live together in cramped conditions. They were replaced by high-rise blocks that, within a couple of decades, became notorious for crime and poverty. The Glasgow Corporation made many efforts to improve the situation, most successfully with the City Improvement Trust, which cleared the slums of the old town, replacing them with what they thought of as a traditional high street, which remains an imposing townscape. (The City Halls and the Cleland Testimonial were part of this scheme.) National government help was given following World War I when Housing Acts sought to provide "homes fit for heroes". Garden suburb areas, based on English models, such as Knightswood, were set up. These proved too expensive, so a modern tenement, three stories high, slate roofed and built of reconstituted stone, was re-introduced and a slum clearance programme initiated to clear areas such as the Calton and the Garngad.

Post Second World War, more ambitious plans, known as the Bruce Plan, were made for the complete evacuation of slums to modern mid-rise housing developments on the outskirts of the city. However, central government refused to fund the plans, preferring instead to depopulate the city to a series of New Towns.[21][22] Again, economic considerations meant that many of the planned "New Town" amenities were never built in these areas. These housing estates, known as "schemes", came therefore to be widely regarded as unsuccessful; many, such as Castlemilk, were just dormitories well away from the centre of the city with no amenities, such as shops and public houses ("deserts with windows", as Billy Connolly once put it). High rise living too started off with bright ambitionthe Moss Heights, built in the 1950s, are still desirablebut fell prey to later economic pressure. Many of the later tower blocks were poorly designed and cheaply built and their anonymity caused some social problems.

In 1970 a team from Strathclyde University demonstrated that the old tenements had been basically sound, and could be given new life with replumbing providing modern kitchens and bathrooms.[21] The Corporation acted on this principle for the first time in 1973 at the Old Swan Corner, Pollokshaws. Thereafter, Housing Action Areas were set up to renovate so-called slums. Later, privately owned tenements benefited from government help in "stone cleaning", revealing a honey-coloured sandstone behind the presumed "grey" tenemental facades. The policy of tenement demolition is now considered to have been short-sighted, wasteful and largely unsuccessful. Many of Glasgow's worst tenements were refurbished into desirable accommodation in the 1970s and 1980s[23] and the policy of demolition is considered to have destroyed fine examples of a "universally admired architectural" style. The Glasgow Housing Association took ownership of the public housing stock from the city council on 7 March 2003, and has begun a 96 million clearance and demolition programme to clear and demolish many of the high-rise flats.[24]

High-rise apartment buildings were built in the Yemeni city of Shibam in the 16th century. The houses of Shibam are all made out of mud bricks, but about 500 of them are tower houses, which rise 5 to 11 stories high,[25] with each floor having one or two apartments.[26][27] Shibam has been called "Manhattan of the desert".[27] Some of them were over 100 feet (30m) high, thus being the tallest mudbrick apartment buildings in the world to this day.[28]

In the 10th century, the Chacoan people constructed large, multi-room dwellings, some comprising more than 900 rooms, in the Chaco Canyon area of what is now northwest New Mexico.

In 1839, the first New York City tenement was built. The tenements were breeding grounds for outlaws, juvenile delinquents, and organized crime.

Tenements were also known for their price gouging rent. How the Other Half Lives notes one tenement district:

Blind Man's Alley bear its name for a reason. Until little more than a year ago its dark burrows harbored a colony of blind beggars, tenants of a blind landlord, old Daniel Murphy, whom every child in the ward knows, if he never heard of the President of the United States. "Old Dan" made a big fortune--he told me once four hundred thousand dollars-- out of his alley and the surrounding tenements, only to grow blind himself in extreme old age, sharing in the end the chief hardship of the wretched beings whose lot he had stubbornly refused to better that he might increase his wealth. Even when the Board of Health at last compelled him to repair and clean up the worst of the old buildings, under threat of driving out the tenants and locking the doors behind them, the work was accomplished against the old man's angry protests. He appeared in person before the Board to argue his case, and his argument was characteristic. "I have made my will," he said. "My monument stands waiting for me in Calvary. I stand on the very brink of the grave, blind and helpless, and now (here the pathos of the appeal was swept under in a burst of angry indignation) do you want me to build and get skinned, skinned? These people are not fit to live in a nice house. Let them go where they can, and let my house stand." In spite of the genuine anguish of the appeal, it was downright amusing to find that his anger was provoked less by the anticipated waste of luxury on his tenants than by distrust of his own kind, the builder. He knew intuitively what to expect. The result showed that Mr. Murphy had gauged his tenants correctly.[pageneeded][citation needed]

The Dakota (1884) was one of the first luxury apartment buildings in New York City. The majority, however, remained tenements.

Many reformers, such as Upton Sinclair and Jacob Riis, pushed for reforms in tenement dwellings. As a result, in 1901, New York state passed a law called the New York State Tenement House Act to improve the conditions in tenements.

More improvements followed. In 1949, President Harry S. Truman signed the Housing Act of 1949 to clean slums and reconstruct housing units for the poor.

Some significant developments in architectural design of apartment buildings came out of the 1950s and '60s. Among them were groundbreaking designs in the 860-880 Lake Shore Drive Apartments (1951), New Century Guild (1961), Marina City (1964) and Lake Point Tower (1968).

Apartment buildings are multi-story buildings where three or more residences are contained within one structure. In more urban areas, apartments close to the downtown area have the benefits of proximity to jobs and/or public transportation. However, prices per square foot are often much higher than in suburban areas.

The distinction between rental apartments and condominiums is that while rental buildings are owned by a single entity and rented out to many, condominiums are owned individually, while their owners still pay a monthly or yearly fee for building upkeep. Condominiums are often leased by their owner as rental apartments. A third alternative, the cooperative apartment building (or "co-op"), acts as a corporation with all of the tenants as shareholders of the building. Tenants in cooperative buildings do not own their apartment, but instead own a proportional number of shares of the entire cooperative. As in condominiums, cooperators pay a monthly fee for building upkeep. Co-ops are common in cities such as New York, and have gained some popularity in other larger urban areas in the U.S.

In the United States, "tenement" is a label usually applied to the less expensive, more basic rental apartment buildings in older sections of large cities. Many of these apartment buildings are "walk-ups" without an elevator, and some have shared bathing facilities, though this is becoming less common. The slang term "dingbat" is used to describe cheap urban apartment buildings from the 1950s and 1960s with unique and often wacky faades to differentiate themselves within a full block of apartments. They are often built on stilts, and with parking underneath.

Apartments were popular in Canada, particularly in urban centres like Vancouver, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, and Hamilton, Ontario in the 1950s to 1970s. By the 1980s, many multi-unit buildings were being constructed as condominiums instead of apartments, and both are now very common. In Toronto and Vancouver, high-rise apartments and condominiums have been spread around the city, giving even the major suburbs a skyline. The robustness of the condo markets in Toronto and Vancouver are based on the lack of land availability.[29] The average cap rate in the Greater Toronto Area for Q3 2015 hit its lowest level in the last 30 years. The cap rate in Q3 2015 stood at 3.75 per cent, down from 4.2 per cent in Q2 2015 and down almost 50 per cent from the 6.3 per cent posted in Q3 2010.[30]

In Australia, the terms "unit", "flat" and "apartment" are largely used interchangeably. Newer high-rise buildings are more often marketed as "apartments", as the term "flats" carries colloquial connotations. The term condominium or condo is rarely used in Australia despite attempts by developers to market it. A high-rise apartment building is commonly referred to as a residential tower, apartment tower, or block of flats in Australia.

Apartment buildings in Australia are typically managed by a body corporate or "owners corporation" in which owners pay a monthly fee to provide for common maintenance and help cover future repair. Many apartments are owned through strata title. Due to legislation, Australian banks will either apply loan to value ratios of over 70% for strata titles of less than 50 square metres, the big four Australian banks will not loan at all for strata titles of less than 30 square metres. These are usually classified as studio apartments or student accommodation. Australian legislation enforces a minimum 2.4m floor-ceiling height which differentiates apartment buildings from office buildings.

In Australia, apartment living is a popular lifestyle choice for DINKY, yuppies, university students and more recently empty nesters, however, rising land values in the big cities in recent years has seen an increase in families living in apartments. In Melbourne and Sydney apartment living is sometimes not a matter of choice for the many socially disadvantaged people who often end up in public housing towers.

Australia has a relatively recent history in apartment buildings. Terrace houses were the early response to density development, though the majority of Australians lived in fully detached houses. Apartments of any kind were legislated against in the Parliament of Queensland as part of the Undue Subdivision of Land Prevention Act 1885.

The earliest apartment buildings were in the major cities of Sydney and Melbourne as the response to fast rising land values. Melbourne Mansions on Collins Street, Melbourne (now demolished), built in 1906 for mostly wealthy residents is believed by many to be the earliest. Today the oldest surviving self-contained apartment buildings are in the St Kilda area including the Fawkner Mansions (1910), Majestic Mansions (1912 as a boarding house) and the Canterbury (1914 - the oldest surviving buildings contained flats).[31] Kingsclere, built in 1912 is believed to be the earliest apartment building in Sydney and still survives.[32]

During the interwar years, apartment building continued in inner Melbourne (particularly in areas such as St Kilda and South Yarra), Sydney (particularly in areas such as Potts Point, Darlinghust and Kings Cross) and in Brisbane (in areas such as New Farm, Fortitude Valley and Spring Hill).

Post World War II, with the Australian Dream apartment buildings went out of vogue and flats were seen as accommodation only for the poor. Walk-up "flats" (without a lift) of two to three storeys however were common in the middle suburbs of cities for lower income groups.

The main exceptions were Sydney and the Gold Coast, Queensland where apartment development continued for more than half a century. In Sydney a limited geography and highly sought after waterfront views (Sydney Harbour and beaches such as Bondi) made apartment living socially acceptable. While on the Gold Coast views of the ocean, proximity to the beach and a large tourist population made apartments a popular choice. Since the 1960s, these cities maintained much higher population densities than the rest of Australia through the acceptance of apartment buildings.

In other cities apartment building was almost solely restricted to public housing. Public housing in Australia was common in the larger cities, particularly in Melbourne (by the Housing Commission of Victoria) where a huge number of hi-rise housing commission flats were built between the 1950s and 1970s by successive governments as part of an urban renewal program. Areas affected included Fitzroy, Flemington, Collingwood, Carlton, Richmond and Prahran. Similar projects were run in Sydney's lower socio economic areas like Redfern.

In the 1980s, modern apartment buildings sprang up in riverside locations in Brisbane (along the Brisbane River) and Perth (along the Swan River).

In Melbourne in the 1990s a trend began for apartment buildings without the requirement of spectacular views. As a continuation of the gentrification of the inner city, a fashion became New York "loft" style apartments and a large stock of old warehouses and old abandoned office buildings in and around the CBD became the target of developers. The trend of adaptive reuse extended to conversion of old churches and schools. Similar warehouse conversions and gentrification began in Brisbane suburbs such as Teneriffe, Queensland and Fortitude Valley and in Sydney in areas such as Ultimo. As supply of buildings for conversion ran out, reproduction and post modern style apartments followed. The popularity of these apartments also stimulated a boom in the construction of new hi-rise apartment buildings in inner cities. This was particularly the case in Melbourne which was fuelled by official planning policies (Postcode 3000), making the CBD the fastest growing, population wise in the country. Apartment building in the Melbourne metropolitan area has also escalated with the advent of the Melbourne 2030 planning policy. Urban renewal areas like Docklands, Southbank, St Kilda Road and Port Melbourne are now predominately apartments. There has also been a sharp increase in the amount of student apartment buildings in areas such as Carlton in Melbourne.

Despite their size, other smaller cities including Canberra, Darwin, Townsville, Cairns, Newcastle, Wollongong, Adelaide and Geelong have begun building apartments in the 2000s.

Today, residential buildings Eureka Tower and Q1 are the tallest in the country. In many cases, apartments in inner city areas of the major cities can cost much more than much larger houses in the outer suburbs.

There are Australian cities, such as Gold Coast, Queensland, which are inhabited predominately by apartment dwellers.

Some apartment buildings have high levels of security. For example, to enter a high-security building, a person must validate their smartcard at the main entrance. In some apartments, while at the lift, the smartcard would be used again to be able to press the button for lift access. Finally, the person walks to their apartment and uses their key to unlock the entrance door. This 2- or 3-tier security will, in most cases, prevent home invasions and theft. Some buildings may have a doorman to guard the premises. Many middle- and upper-tier apartments have video phones, whereby residents can see and verify who is at the main entrance before allowing access to the building.

Owning or renting an apartment is also more convenient than owning a house as the general maintenance and landscaping is taken care of by the owner or body corporate. This is particularly the case in regions with climate extremes, such as the long and snowy winters in the Nordic countries of northern Europe and most of Canada where there is much snow clearing work for house residents.

The total cost for the construction of an apartment is much less than the cost invested in the construction of a single house. When the cost of a single unit in the apartment is compared to a single house of the same dimension, the difference in cost is very large.[citation needed] The cost of land is shared by all the owners of the apartment. But the price at which the flats are sold is not exactly proportional to the difference, but the real estator makes a big share of profits because the price at which the flats are sold are almost equal to the price of the houses in specific areas of the city. In this way apartment construction is an advantage to the real estator.[citation needed]

In Scandinavian countries apartment dwelling and renting through non-profit housing co-operatives is commonplace. Apartment users are allowed to modify the interior of the apartment to suit their wishes. Often the extended families have a shared holiday house in the countryside. The investment in real estate for a family is reduced leading to greater disposable income for quality of life.[citation needed]

Buildings between 4 and 7 stories have a lower energy footprint per m2 than do high-rises greater than 7 stories[citation needed] . There seems to be a tradeoff with many other variables in a life cycle analysis, which would suggest that 7 stories (around fifty dwelling units per hectare for optimum transport petroleum use (Kenworthy)) is the optimum density in T1 urban areas, the city of Paris being an example (Mehaffy). Buildings not requiring lifts (around 4 floors, though it could be five with a final two storey apartment (maisonette)) are normally more energy efficient. Note, this is dependent on the particular country's accessibility requirements.

High-rise buildings cast a significant shadow over nearby buildings, reducing solar energy harvesting. They also cast shadows over public spaces, reducing their amenity value, and these spaces are a very valuable resource in mid-density cities. Wind turbulence can also be a significant problem at ground level if design provisions are not made. The prevailing cooling breezes in summer can be disrupted for nearby buildings also.[citation needed]

In most west coast cities in United States, due to the need for resisting earthquakes at a low building cost, low rise apartments, up to 3 to 4 levels, are mostly built of wooden frames with thin plasterboard-based interior dry walls with a poor noise insulation standard. As a result, it is often possible to hear neighbours clearly, sometimes well enough to hear conversations or snoring at night, as dramatized in the movie Office Space by the neighbouring characters talking through their apartment walls directly.

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New Jersey Powerwash safely cleans and protects the many surfaces that exist at your residence, including: aluminum, vinyl, steel, painted and unpainted wood siding, brick, stone, decks, driveways, patios, garage floors, etc. New Jersey Powerwash removes dirt, atmospheric pollution, mold, mildew, stains and more. Be sure to ask us about our high quality wood preservatives, concrete and paver sealers, color tints and mold/mildew prevention treatments.

The exterior surfaces of your home are constantly exposed to harmful elements, both man-made and natural. Ultraviolet light rays, wind, rain, dirt, and grime physically attack surfaces causing them to degrade, discolor, oxidize or chalk over time. Mold, mildew, birds, insects, spiders, tree sap and shot-gun spores can add to these effects. Then comes the assault caused by man-made elements such as industrial pollution and automotive exhaust, acid rain, chimney soot, and even smoke from your BBQ. These take their toll on your home over time. If not removed periodically they can destroy the beauty and reduce the value of your property dramatically.

To maintain the appearance and value of your home, periodic New Jersey Powerwash cleaning of exterior surfaces is recommended. This may include power washing your house, deck, roof, awnings, gutters, patio, walks, and driveway. The frequency of cleaning will depend on local conditions. Cleaning can greatly slow the ravages of nature and it will definitely enhance the beauty and preserve the value and livability of your house. Application of New Jersey Powerwash Spray Wax can inexpensively increase the time between washing for some surfaces. Other protective coatings and sealers can supply longer term protection and enhanced appearance. (Ask your New Jersey Powerwash representative for specifics.)

Mildew is a common problem in some areas due to local conditions of heat, humidity and surroundings. Airborne mold and fungus spores can also produce similar harmful deposits. New Jersey Powerwash uses environmentally friendly, cleaning agents designed specifically to eliminate mildew and mold while also removing dirt and pollution. Our New Jersey Powerwash cleaning agents leave behind a clean surface that is not readily hospitable to mildew and mold spores and therefore will slow their re-appearance. We can also apply a proprietary New Jersey Powerwash treatment to further retard the future growth of mold and mildew. (Ask your New Jersey Powerwash representative for specifics.)

Below is a list of exterior home surfaces we can powerwash to renew and clean your home:

Vinyl Siding Stucco & Dryvit Brick & Masonry Aluminum Siding

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