Guide · For the trade
Hallway carpet: wall to wall, a runner, or a rug and how to specify each
Hallway carpet is the hardest-worked floor covering in the house after the stair: every trip between rooms crosses it in the same 24-inch lane. The specification that holds up is a dense, low pile at 1/2 inch or under, in wool or solution-dyed nylon, in a mid-tone heather or a pattern, over a dense pad, whether it is installed wall to wall, laid as a 27 to 36 inch runner, or cut from the same roll as the adjoining rooms. Which of the three the hall gets depends on the floor underneath, the rooms it joins and whether there is a stair at the end of it.
This guide is for the designer or the junior laying out the halls on a plan: wall-to-wall hallway carpet against a hallway carpet runner, fiber and pile for the traffic, pattern and direction in a long narrow space, seams and transitions, the pad and the questions clients ask. The width and length rules for placing a runner are in the hall runners guide; the stair that usually starts in the hall is in the stair carpet guide. This page is the hall as a room.
Wall to wall, runner or rug: the first decision
| Option | Choose it when | Fiber and pile | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wall-to-wall hallway carpet | The bedrooms off the hall are carpeted, the hall is upstairs, the client wants quiet, or the floor under it is not worth showing | Wool or solution-dyed nylon loop or dense cut pile, 1/4 to 1/2 in, 40 oz or more | The traffic lane; a solid light color shows it in a year |
| Hallway carpet runner | The floor is wood, stone or tile and should show 4 to 6 in on each side, or the hall leads to a stair runner | Wool Wilton, wool loop, sisal with a border, polypropylene flatweave; same pile limits | Pad cut 1 in narrower than the runner; doorways the runner must stop short of |
| Rug in a hall | The hall is wide, 5 ft or more, or opens to a gallery or a landing that reads as a room | A bound broadloom or a 4x10 to 5x12 finished rug | Leaving 12 to 18 in of floor all round so it does not read as a misfit runner |
Upstairs halls in a carpeted house are almost always wall to wall, continuous with the bedrooms and the stair. Downstairs halls on a hard floor are almost always a runner. The rug is the exception for the wide gallery hall of a large house.
The best hallway carpet: fiber and construction for the lane
Wool is the first choice: it springs back in the lane where nylon eventually flattens and polyester mats, hides soil in its heathers and is naturally flame resistant. A woven wool Wilton loop or cut pile at 1/4 to 3/8 inch is the hall carpet the mills have made for a century; Prestige Mills, Couristan, Bloomsburg each weave dozens at 12 ft, 13 ft 2 in and 15 ft. Solution-dyed nylon is the second choice where budget or a dog decides, in a loop or tight textured cut pile from Masland, Fabrica or Milliken with lifetime stain warranties and Class I flammability. Polypropylene is acceptable only as a flat runner on a hard floor. Polyester, frieze and anything over 1/2 inch wear a visible path within a year or two. Face weight of 40 ounces or more and the mill's density figure are the two numbers to read. The cut pile vs loop guide covers the surface choice.
Pattern, color and direction in a long narrow space
A hall is a corridor and the carpet either lengthens or shortens it. A stripe run along the hall draws the eye down it and makes a short hall longer; run across, it makes a 40-foot gallery feel wider and shorter. A small all-over pattern, a trellis or petit point at a 2 to 4 inch repeat, hides the traffic lane better than any solid and is the standard answer for a hall that has to look right for fifteen years. Color: mid-tone heathers and two-tone yarns; a pale solid shows the lane and a dark solid shows every piece of lint. Keep the repeat small enough to read in a 42-inch width; a 24-inch repeat shows one and a half motifs and looks cut. The patterned carpet and stripe filters are the places to start.
Seams, doorways and transitions
Tell the installer to run the carpet the length of the hall with no cross seams, which means a 36 to 48 inch hall is cut as a strip from the roll width; cross seams in a hall sit in the traffic lane and open. Where the hall meets a carpeted room, the seam goes under the closed door and the pile direction must match through the doorway or the two rooms will shade differently. Where it meets a hard floor, specify a flat metal or a bound edge. Where it turns into a stair, the carpet is seamed at the top nosing so the stair runs as its own piece. Ask for a seam diagram before the order; the carpet seams guide explains what to look for on it.
Pad for a hall
A hall takes a thinner, denser pad than a bedroom: 1/4 to 3/8 inch dense felt, rubber or 32 ounce pad under wall-to-wall hallway carpet, because the 7/16 inch 8 pound rebond standard under a bedroom cut pile flexes in a lane and the carpet over it wrinkles. Under a runner on a hard floor, 1/4 inch felt and rubber cut 1 inch narrower and 2 inches shorter than the runner.
Questions designers ask
What is the best material for a hallway or entry runner?
Wool in a woven Wilton or a loop, with a pile under 1/2 inch, for a hall that is dry; a polypropylene or solution-dyed nylon flatweave for the entry itself, where wet shoes land. Sisal with a leather border is the natural-fiber answer for a dry hall and a mistake at the front door.
What is the 70 percent rule and does it apply to a hallway?
The 70 percent rule says an area rug should cover about 70 percent of a room's floor, leaving a band of floor at the walls. In a hall it becomes the runner rule: the runner leaves 4 to 6 inches of floor on each side and 12 to 18 inches at each end, which works out to roughly the same proportion.
How is a runner installed over carpeted stairs off the hall?
It is not, in a spec we would write. A runner over existing carpet is loose on a soft base and creeps; the right sequence is to remove the stair carpet, pad the treads and install the runner on the bare stair, then continue the same runner down the hall. The stair runner installation guide covers it.
What hallway carpet is being specified now?
Small-scale woven wool patterns, petit point and trellis, in warm greys and putty; wool loop in a two-tone heather; and bordered sisal runners on wood floors. Wide stripes on stairs and halls together are the pattern of the moment. What is not being specified is a pale solid plush, for the reasons in this guide.
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