Technical Article

Technical Information Page

Carpet Technical Information and Color/ Style Choice considerations:

Getting a close up look at Carpet and
understanding how to make the best purchase possible

Microscopic view of Dacron Polyester Picture Courtesy of Chemical Principles

Extrusion of nylon carpet fiber at the mill.


Chem-Nylon-Extrusion
Nylon as manufactured

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Strength of Polyester Fibers demonstrated in a Race Car!

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Three Types of Tan Carpets by Bigelow (™)


Berber styled Olefin carpet by Kairstan.

The cream color of this carpet is about 65-70% of residential carpet market. This color goes with just about any decor, but is a highly soil-visible carpet to install. It usually must be cleaned for appearance sake about 2 or 3 times as often to maintain an acceptable appearance level.

This is a sculptured pile carpet in light green. The green color is better for soil-invisibility, but the solid color is NOT. About 70% of all carpets come in a solid color, probably because they sell better. But solids, also, must be cleaned for appearance sake about 2 or 3 times as often to maintain an acceptable appearance level.

Burgundy is an even better color than the light green above, but some variation aids greatly in hiding the soil and dye damage that can occur in the average life of a carpet.

Darker colors become as troublesome as the lightest because they reveal white dusts and threads especially present in a bedroom as above. Choosing this color will require vacuuming every other day if not even daily!

Tips on selecting carpet.

Buying a Long and Satisfying Fabric /Pile

  • Some tips on buying textile that you will love for years to come:
  1. Buy for the environment. If, for example, you buy for a family room, get a durable fabric that will hold up with the anticipated use. This can be mostly nylon (carpet)  or cottons (upholstery), but, for upholstery, blends that use polyester or olefins are very good to consider as well. Make sure when you buy that the fabric is water-cleanable– Take along your spotting bottle and when you are ready to buy, pretest in the store!
     
  2. Buy for “qualified appearance” reasons.
    • Avoid Solid colors. They reveal everything! See THIS for More
    • Avoid Extremes of Colors: Very light colors show all the dirt instantaneously, and Very dark colors show all sheet and fabric dust and specks.
    • Incorporate Variation, which is done in various ways: Sculpturing either in length and/or style (multilevel cuts on the fabric, weave contours, etc.), and sculpturing in color schemes (plaids, prints, multicolor threading and or weaves as mentioned above. See THIS for More
  3. Buy the Best Carpet Padding You Can Buy– don’t skimp on it! If you must cut cost buy a middle style of carpet face fiber, but get the best pad. Make sure it is either crush proof or think felt.
     
  4. Prefer Nylon over Olefin for Most Carpet Applications. Olefin (or Polypropylene) has undesirable properties you may not wish to live with as listed below:


    Keeping these principles will go a long way in aiding the proper selection. By far the most popular color choice is the commonly called “cream” or buff or off-white. We recommend, if this color is your choice, that it only dominate a multi-use of the above principles. We believe you will find yourself very glad you did!

    • Low Dimensional Stability (It mats very badly) the pile will not return to its original height. This is why olefin is most always a LOW pile option.
    • Low Melting Point ( It is easily permanently damaged through friction, and furniture moves)
    • Hydrophobic – It hates water, and water will not quickly evaporate from it after it is cleaned.
    • Triexta (Mohawk Smartstrand®) type carpet is a third of five main kinds of synthetic type carpet: newer, so it’s best to realize it might have weaknesses. We are still seeing it being proven as a viable alternative carpet type.