Carpet is the one decorator item, along with a little paint, that can improve and completely change the entire appearance of the home, or business, interior. Carpet can move a home décor from Classic to Informal to Elegant in only a few days. The myriad of colors and styles available in today’s market place give decorators, architects, designers and consumers the opportunity to make living and commercial environments reflect the homeowner’s lifestyle and the commercial buildings business intent.
Carpet colors and styles are used in Retail Settings to stimulate customers. Elegant Retail Outlets, for example, design showrooms to reflect elegance to aid in price justification but also relax customers into moving slowly through the showroom increasing shopping time and a likely purchase.
The emphasis in marketing carpet is Color and Design. Decorators and Designers are taught the Science of Design at Universities, with little to no emphasis on durability or practicality of use. The purpose of this discussion is on durability and practicality of use.
Carpet manufactured for interior use is either woven or tufted. The Carpet and Rug Institute defines Woven and tufted Carpets as:
Woven carpet is created on looms by simultaneously interlacing face yarns and backing yarns into a complete product, thereby eliminating the need for a secondary backing. A small amount of latex-back coating is usually applied for bulk. Principal variations of woven carpet include velvet, Wilton and Axminster
Tufting is the process of creating textiles, especially carpet, on specialized multi-needle sewing machines. Several hundred needles stitch hundreds of rows of pile yarn tufts through a backing fabric called the primary backing. The needles push yarn through a primary backing fabric, where a loop holds the yarn in place to form a tuft as the needle is removed. The yarn is caught by loopers and held in place for loop-pile carpet or cut by blades for cut-pile carpet. Next, secondary backings of various types are applied to render a variety of performance properties.
Woven Carpet can be loomed using various colors producing a pattern without printing the pile surface and is considered more dimensionally stable than tufted carpet. Tufted carpet can produce patterned carpet and more styles but is not considered as structurally strong. Tufted carpet is less costly to produce due to the speed of the tufting, dying and printing equipment. Woven carpet is stronger in construction, dimensionally more stable (buckling and wrinkling resistant) than tufted carpet.
If the goal is to install carpet with either a long term goal or classic in construction and design, woven carpet is the right choice. Woven carpets are often on the floor 20 to 40 years.
If the durability goal is less than 15 years, tufted carpet is the right choice.
What Fiber is the most crush resistant?
The Carpet and Rug Institute defines crushing as: Crushing is the loss of pile thickness because of foot traffic.
Crushing is the “appearance” of wear. As the pile crushes, the carpet becomes worn in appearance, yet no fiber loss can be detected even after 15 years of use. This is true with all fibers and yarn systems in the construction of carpet.
What Yarn system is best?
Nylon is the most crush resistant synthetic fiber carpet yarns are made of. Nylon products have performed and proven themselves over and over again since the 1960’s.
Polypropylene and Polyester yarn systems are less crush resistant due to low fiber weight/density. In other words, there is more fiber per pound of yarn. The benefit with these fibers is you buy a “heavier appearing” carpet for less money. A 30 ounce face weight Polypropylene or Polyester carpet will look 30% to 50% heavier than a nylon product of the same weight. More Bang for the buck, in appearance, but not in performance.
Wool Carpets are resilient and able to retain its original appearance as well, if not better than Nylon. Wool is naturally shock resistant, stain resistant, soil resistant, flame retardant and crush resistant. Wool products possess these characteristics naturally compared to synthetics that require topical treatments to accomplish these same benefits.
Fade and stain resistance is the second most important issue concerning carpet. Carpet is placed
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on floors and floors are walked on, spilled on, improperly maintained and must survive human or pet related incidents. In other words, carpet is expected to be “Lived-On” without showing it.
The most fade and stain resistant fibers are polyester and polypropylene with polypropylene the superior of the two. The exception to this statement is oil contamination. Asphalt tracking from driveways, parking lots and streets comes into the home damaging these carpets, turning them a golden beige color. Polypropylene and Polyester fibers are oil loving with removal not reasonable to expect from Professional Cleaning Efforts. The right installation sites for carpets made of these fibers are areas with high humidity and homes with windows allowing direct sunlight onto the carpet surface.
NOTE: Solution dyed nylon found in commercial grades are also fade and stain resistant. Wool is naturally fade and stain resistant and both are without the unfortunate properties of being “oil loving”.
At this point we would conclude that nylon and wool are the best fibers and Solution dyed nylon and wool carpets the most stain resistant and crush resistant. But there is a little more to the story.
Pile Density is critical in crush resistance. If we were to take polyester and polypropylene fibers and manufacturer a carpet with lots of yarn packed into the pile we would have improved the crush resistance of that particular carpet and done so at less cost per sq. yard.
All things considered, when purchasing carpet there are several main factors to consider. Budget, crush resistance, stain/soil resistance and meeting of expectations.
Expectations by the purchaser should be met. Everybody is different and with different needs. If your purpose of the carpet installation is to fix up a house to sell or rent, Polypropylene or Polyester fabrics offer the benefits needed of “more bang for the buck”. If your home or business is located in areas of high humidity and the need to resist fading is required then polypropylene fabrics should be considered along with wool and solution dyed nylon. If you have short term goals, polyester, polypropylene and light weight nylon products are good choices. If the need is high performance and superior crush resistance then Nylon or Wool are the right choices to consider. If the goal is 30 years, or more, then woven wool or woven nylon products are the best choices to consider.
Loop Pile or Cut Pile? This is an easy question to answer. Loop pile carpet fabrics are more crush resistant than cup pile fabrics. The denser the loop pile construction, the more crush resistant. But there is the downside to loop pile products. The downside is Snags, Pulls, Raveling and clean-ability. Liquid spills penetrate the yarn and hide under the loop leaving spills and small soil particles difficult to remove resulting in the old saying “the stain came back”.
Cut Pile fabrics will perform if constructed with durability in mind.
Two main issues to investigate when purchasing cut pile carpets; (1) Density of Pile (2) Yarn Twist per inch. The denser the pile the more crush resistant and the tighter the twist of two ply yarn systems the better resiliency and ability to maintain tip configuration. Irreversible shading and crushing is directly related to the yarn tips blossoming and opening up, much like a blooming rose.
Color is the last property to visit concerning appearance retention and durability. Dark colors and light colors reflect soil and daily use more than neutral colors. Carpets made of more than one color are better at hiding soiling. Light colors reflect soiling while dark colors reflect shading characteristics and lint.
Carpet fibers also abrade (scratch). The abraded fibers collect microscopic dust particles and reflect light differently than non-abraded lending traffic lanes to a graying appearance. Traffic lane graying is characteristic of abraded surface fibers best hidden by neutral tones and highly visible on dark and light colors.
Selection of carpet is finalized by selecting the right retailer with a known reputation for customer service. The best carpet is only as good as the installation.
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