Boxoffice (Oct-Dec 1963)

LUXURIOUS CARPET IS ALSO PRACTICAL Beautiful carpet covers the lobby floor and sweeps up the wide stairs in the recently remodeled Fox California Theatre in San Diego, Calif. The small red pattern is woven against a black ground color. In addition to the luxurious warmth and color added to an interior, carpet also has acoustical qualities to absorb sound, and reduces the incidence of slips and slides. As spelled out in the accompanying article, it also has the lowest "use cost" of all the major types of non-carpeted floors. Although Initial Cost Is Higher, Maintenance Cost Is Lower Than Other Floors Carpet's image as a beautiful and dignified, but somewhat perishable luxury has shifted. It is now being recognized as a beautiful and dignified but superbly practical floor covering,” according to a new booklet published by the American Carpet Institute which is based upon an exhaustive study by the Industrial Sanitation Counselors, Inc., of Louisville, Ky., considered one of the nation’s leading cost control specialists in industrial housekeeping. The new study has established that the total annual “use cost” of carpeted floors in public spaces is from 40 to 47 per cent less than all the major types of noncarpeted floors. HOW "USE COST" IS FIGURED The concept of annual “use cost,” as developed in the study, is based on the combination of the installed price of the flooring materials, plus their upkeep costs per year, divided by the number of years of the expectant wear-life for each product. Analyzed in the study were the installed price, average wear-life expectancy and maintenance costs for carpeting, asphalt tile, vinyl asbestos tile, vinyl tile and terrazzo floors in a wide variety of actual commercial installations across the country. A total of 400,000 square feet of carpeted floors was examined and evaluated and compared to well over 1,000,000 square feet of various kinds of non-carpeted floors. Some of the types of buildings covered in the study were office buildings, banks, schools, department stores, hotels, motor hotels, hospitals and governmental buildings. THE STANDARD OF COMPARISON For purpose of the cost study, 1,000 square feet of floor space was used as the standard of comparison. Maintenance costs included costs of labor, equipment and supplies, and were based on the manpower, time and equipment required to sustain “90, 80 and 70 maintenance levels.” In the Maintenance Level Rating System developed by Industrial Sanitation Counselors, 100 would equal perfect appearance 'higher than many building owners believe possible) . Installed costs were based on the average costs for the materials determined from the range of lowest-to-highest prices normally charged for the flooring products in commercial use. As revealed by the study, the following is the total annual use cost comparison at a 90 maintenance level, per 1,000 square feet: Carpet $182.41 Terrazzo $307.86 Vinyl tile $310.81 Vinyl asbestos tile $320.89 Asphalt tile $348.29 In arriving at these figures, the installed cost per square foot of carpet and the other flooring materials was based on the following averages: Terrazzo — $2 per square foot; Carpet — $1.20 per square foot (including padding) ; Vinyl — 80<* per square foot; Vinyl asbestos — 55<t per square foot, and Asphalt tile — 35£ per square foot. The life expectancy, determined from the actual experience of the commercial and institutional buildings under study, was based on medium-heavy traffic conditions for each of the flooring products: Carpet — 12 years, Asphalt tile — 15 years, Vinyl asbestos — 18 years. Vinyl tile — 20 years, Terrazzo — 30 years. As determined by the study, although the initial cost of carpet is higher than most of the other flooring products, its maintenance cost is so much lower than any of the other materials, that over its wear-life, carpet becomes the most economical in terms of total use-cost. COMPARATIVE COST FIGURES For example, the annual maintenance labor cost per 1,000 square feet is $70.10 for carpet, $213.45 per year for vinyl, $230.97 per year for vinyl asbestos, $261.34 for asphalt tile and $214.40 for terrazzo. Outlay for maintenance equipment and expendable supplies is also correspondingly lower for carpet. Full details of the study have been published in the completely new version of the American Carpet Institute booklet: “Cutting Costs with Carpet.” The initial booklet, published in 1956, contained the results of a previous study conducted by Industrial Sanitation Counselors, which documented for the first time that the maintenance cost of carpeted floors in commercial installations was substantially lower than non-carpeted floors in all types of traffic conditions. The new study was initiated by the American Carpet Institute in response to the recognition by architects, builders and management of public and commercial buildings that data on total costs, including upkeep expenditures as well as initial purchases, was urgently needed in order to arrive at sound economical basis for selecting flooring materials. OPERATING COSTS VITAL FACTOR As pointed out in the new booklet: “Ownership is increasingly aware that initial construction costs are only one of several influences on the ultimate profitability of a property. Operating costs are often the decisive factor. And maintenance costs represent a substantial percentage of operating costs.” All cost figures and an explanation of the data developed in arriving at these figures are presented in the new booklet. The publication is fully illustrated with 15 charts and diagrams to clarify the data and comparative cost figures. Copies of the new version of “Cutting Costs with Carpet” can be obtained from the American Carpet Institute. (Use Readers’ Service Bureau Coupon, page 19.) 6 The MODERN THEATRE SECTION