Carpet

Carpet Flooring

Choosing a new carpet you’d expect to be easy, but when you see the choice in our showrooms, it can quickly turn pretty bewildering! There is two major differences when choosing carpets and that is the choice between choosing MAN MADE FIBRES or WOOL. Both have excellent qualities but it really depends on what kind of area the flooring is intended for and the uses of that area.

Man-made – People have a lot of doubt in their minds when it comes to man-made fibre carpets because of the material they were made up of years gone by. They were generally built from nylon which caused a horrendous static problem. With technology now, man-made fibre carpets are general made from Polypropylene, a chemically dyed product making it stain free and anti-static! The downside to this, is that over time, its fibres will lose their structure and have a flatter appearance. You also get man-made fibre carpets made from Polyamide. Polyamide is a product that will NOT flatten, but cannot be chemically dyed, therefor like with the wool, you have to be careful as to what it is cleaned with. Polyamide also has a lot more of a luxurious and softer texture than any other carpet you will find. Polypropylene carpets are generally much cheaper than wool and heavier grades of polyamide simply because they usual do not have as lengthy wear guarantees attached.

Wool – Wool is an excellent material for keeping its appearance. More so with an 80/20 wool twist (80% wool & 20% synthetic). That 20% synthetic is the binding agent for the carpet to keep its fibres intact for years to come. Some wool carpets can come with quite a hefty price tag attached, but this is purely because once it’s down, the structure of the carpet will remain the same for a lengthy period of time. The main downside to wool is its clean ability, especially with a huge amount of the man-made fibre carpets now being ‘bleach cleanable’. You do have to be very careful as to what you use to clean any marks or stains that may have appeared and under no circumstances can harsh chemicals (such as bleach) be used. Wool also has a much more natural appearance and feel. Wool carpets comes in a number of different forms, and I really could be here all day explaining the differences to you. If you would like to find out more, please do not hesitate to pop us an email, give us a call or pop into one of our showrooms and our knowledgeable and friendly staff will be on hand to help you out.