The Need for Carpets

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THE NEED FOR CARPETS

1. The Need for at least one carpet for room(s) or stair(s)

All the 975 housewives were asked: “Are you in need of carpets for any rooms or stairs?” Table 18 shows the distribution of these answers.

Table 18

		%
No. of housewives in need of carpet (s) for room(s) only	261	27
No. of housewives in need of carpet (s) for stair only	114	12
No. of housewives in need of carpet (s) for both only	296	30
No. of housewives in need of carpet (s) for neither only	304	31
Total	975	100

From this follows:-

Table 19

		%
No. of housewives in need of at least one room carpet	557	57
No. of housewives in need of at least one stair carpet	410	42

Analyses of these in terms of urban/rural, economic group and age of dwelling are given in Tables 20 and 21.

Table 20

Number of housewives who said they needed carpet(s) for room(s), stairs(s), both or neither

	Economic Group										Age of Dwelling
No. of housewives in need of carpets for:-	Urban		Rural		Up to £3		Over £3 to £4		Over £4 to £5.10.		Pre 1914		Post 1918
No. of housewives in need of carpets for:-	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
Room(s) only	209	26	52	30	37	19	92	31	131	28	156	25	105	31
Stairs only	90	11	24	14	20	10	35	12	58	12	72	11	42	12
Both	263	33	33	19	48	25	89	30	155	33	190	30	106	31
Neither	241	30	63	37	90	46	82	27	127	27	215	34	89	26
Total	803	100	172	100	195	100	298	100	471	100	633	100	342	100

(In 11 cases Economic Group was not recorded).

Table 21

	Economic Group										Age of dwelling
	Urban		Rural		Up to £3		Over £3 to £4		Over £4 to £5.10.		Pre 1914		Post 1918
	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%	No.	%
No. of housewives in need of at least 1 room carpet	472	59	85	49	85	44	181	61	286	61	346	55	211	62
No. of housewives in need of at least 1 stair carpet	353	44	57	33	68	35	124	42	213	45	262	41	148	43

In 10 cases economic group was not recorded.

2. The Number of housewives requiring various numbers of room-carpets

Question 1b. “For which rooms are they needed?” was added after 324 of the 975 informants had already been interviewed.

651 of the 975 housewives - or, rather, those of the 651 who had said they were in need of at least one room carpet - were asked for which room(s) they were needed. Assuming that not more than one carpet was needed for any one room, we were thus able to tell how many carpets each housewife needed. Table 22 shows the numbers of room carpets, and percentages, of housewives requiring various numbers of room carpets.

Table 22

No. of room-carpets required	No. of housewives requiring them		%
0	256		41.0
1	203	369	32.5
2	79		12.6
3	50		8.0
4	29		4.6
5	6		1.0
6	2		0.3
7 or more	0		0.0
sum	625		100.0
Room asked but no answer available	26
SAMPLE	651

It will be seen that 41% of the housewives say they require no room-carpet. It can be inferred from Table 19 that 100%-57% = 43% of the full sample of 975 housewives say the same, so that in this respect the restricted sample of 651 housewives does not differ markedly from the full sample.

If we include the 256 housewives who need no room-carpets, the number of room-carpets required per housewife is 1.07. If we consider only those who do require one or more carpets, the number is 1.8.

3. The proposed distribution of the Required Room-carpets

(a) By Types of Room

The 369 housewives shown in Table 22a to require room-carpet(s) needed between them 669 carpets (assuming one carpet per room). Table - 23 shows the number of carpets required for each of 3 types of room.

Table 22a

Type of room	No. of room-carpets	%
Bed/bed-sitting room	308	46
Living-room	335	50
Others	26	4
Total	669	100

It will be seen that half the room-carpets are required for living-rooms.

17 18 19

(b) By types of room within households

Tables 23-28 show the distributions over three types of room proposed by the 369 housewives for the room-carpets they need. These housewives, together with the the 256 who require no room-carpets and the 26 for whom answers are not available as to which room(s) they require them for, make up the restricted sample of 651.

Table 23

203 housewives each requiring 1 room-carpet

No. of housewives proposing each distribution for their required room-carpets.	%	No. of bed or bed-sitting rooms to be carpeted.	No. of living-rooms to be carpeted.	No. of other rooms to be carpeted.
164	81	0	1	0
38	19	1	0	0
1	-	0	0	1
203	100

Table 24

79 housewives each requiring 2 room-carpets

No. of housewives proposing each distribution of room-carpets	%	No. of bed or bed-sitting rooms to be carpeted.	No. of living-rooms to be carpeted.	No. of other rooms to be carpeted.
57	72	1	1	0
10	13	2	0	0
6	8	0	2	0
5	6	0	1	1
1	1	0	0	2
79	100

Table 25

50 Housewives each requiring 3 room-carpets

No. of housewives proposing each distribution of room-carpets.	%	No. of bed or bed-sitting rooms to be carpeted.	No. of living-rooms to be carpeted.	No. of other rooms to be carpeted.
33	66	2	1	0
8	16	3	0	0
6	12	1	2	0
2	4	1	1	1
1	2	2	0	1
50	100

Table 26*

29 Housewives each requiring 4 room-carpets

No. of housewives proposing each distribution of room-carpets.	%	No. of bed or bed-sitting rooms to be carpeted	No. of living-rooms to be carpeted.	No. of other rooms to be carpeted.
11	-	3	1	0
9	-	2	2	0
7	-	2	1	1
1	-	1	1	2
1	-	4	0	0
29

* The number of housewives concerned are so small that little significance can be attached to their proposed allocation of carpets to various types of room.

Table 27*

6 Housewives each requiring 5 room-carpets

No. of housewives proposing each distribution of room-carpets.	%	No. of bed or bed-sitting rooms to be carpeted	No. of living-rooms to be carpeted.	No. of other rooms to be carpeted.
3	-	3	2	0
1	-	2	1	2
1	-	3	1	1
1	-	4	1	0
6

Table 28*

2 Housewives each requiring 6 room-carpets

No. of housewives proposing each distribution of room-carpets.	%	No. of bed or bed-sitting rooms to be carpeted	No. of living-rooms to be carpeted.	No. of other rooms to be carpeted.
1	-	2	2	2
1	-	3	2	1
2

It will be seen that in households requiring only one room-carpet the popular proposal (81%) is to have it in a living room.

In households requiring 2 room-carpets the most popular proposal (72%) is to have them 1 in a living-room and 1 in a bed or bed-sitting-room.

In households requiring 3 room-carpets the most popular proposal (66%) is to have them 1 in a living-room and 2 in a bed or bed-sitting-room.

These three types of most popular distribution agree with the most popular types Of distribution of room-carpets at present in use as can be seen by referring section III of “The Present Distribution of Room-Carpets” above.

In households requiring 4 room-carpets the most popular proposal (11 out 29) is to have them 1 in a living-room and 3 in a bed or bed-sitting-room.

In households requiring 5 room-carpets the most popular proposal (3 out of 6) is to have them 2 in living-rooms and 3 in bed or bed-sitting-rooms.

For the 203 housewives who require 1 room-carpet only and the 79 require 2 room-carpets only it is possible to classify in greater detail the type of rooms for which they are wanted. These results are presented as tables 29 and 30.

Table 29

203 Housewives each requiring one room-carpet only

Type of room	No. of housewives	%
Working kitchen	1	-
Kitchen living room	58	29
Parlour	27	13
Living-room	79	39
Bed/bed-sitting-room	38	19
Other room	0	0
	203	100

It will be seen that the largest percentage (39%) of housewives, in need of one carpet only, need it for a living-room other than a parlour. 52% need it for a parlour or other living-room.

Table 30

79 Housewives each requiring 2 room-carpets only

	Working kitchen	Kitchen-living-room	Parlour	Living-room	Bedroom	Other room
Working kitchen	0
Kitchen-living-room	0	0
Parlour	0	1	0
Living-room	2	4	0	1
Bedroom, bed-sitting-room	0	23	7	27	10
Other room	1	2	1	0	0	0

It will that seen that of those housewives requiring 2 room-carpets the greatest number (27) require one for a bedroom and one for a living room. The next most popular choice (23 housewives) is 1 for a bedroom and 1 for a kitchen-living- room. 10 housewives require the 2 carpets for 2 bedrooms.

[4] The numbers of housewives concerned are so small that little significance can be attached to their proposed allocation of carpets to various types of room.

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