CARPET 101

Carpet is traditionally the most popular choice of flooring in the home with good reason. It comes in numerous colors and designs to fit your home décor and lifestyle. It makes your home more comfortable because it is soft on your feet, provides insulation, and absorption of sound. It is generally priced less per square foot than other floor covering surfaces.

Carpets come in various fiber types, twist, colors, density, textures, and patterns. So many choices can be confusing. Before we get into specifics here are some things to keep in mind when selecting the right carpet:

Fiber Type	Nylon offers the best performance value, especially brands like Stainmaster
Carpet Type	Different carpet types match different lifestyles
Degree of Twist	More twist means better resistance against matting
Density	Carpets with higher face weights tend to perform better
Backing	A stronger backing provides more stability and comfort
Padding	Regardless of the carpet, better padding means more comfort underfoot

FIBER TYPES

Nylon – The most popular carpet fiber used today. It offers excellent value, performance, and ease of maintenance. It comes in brilliant colors and hides traffic well.

Nylon 66 – Nylon 66 is the best performing type of nylon out of the 200 varieties used in carpet fibers. It is fade resistant and wears better. Only Wear Dated, Stainmaster, and Tactesse use nylon 66.

Olefin/Polypropylene – Highly stain, static, mold, and mildew resistant. Commonly found in Berber and level-loop carpets.

Polyester – Similar to nylon, polyester offers great color and feels great under foot, however its resilience is generally not as strong as nylon.

Wool – The most luxurious fiber type around with an elegant look, soft wool feel, and great performance with a relatively expensive price point.

We recommend continuous filament fibers for the best performance.

CARPET TYPES

We recommend that you choose a carpet type that best matches your lifestyle and provides you maximum performance. Here is a brief description of the common carpet types we carry:

Textured Saxony		Great for casual rooms also due to its design possibilities and it shows fewer footprints. This highly popular carpet type performs well in moderate to medium traffic areas.
Saxony		Great for formal rooms because of its versatility in design and smooth cut-pile construction.
Frieze		Perfect for active rooms and high-traffic areas due to its durability.
Velvet		Makes your room more elegant through a fine-tip sheared signature surface.
Cut & Un-Cut		Works in a variety of room settings to provide warmth through a great textured feel and patterned design.
Multi Level Loop		Also works in a variety of room setting to provide a highly casual yet durable performance.
Level Loop		Works for highly active rooms and basements because of its durability.
Berbers		Provides a great look for active rooms with a high loop construction that more resembles wool with large bulky durable yarns.

DEGREE OF TWIST

All carpet yarns are twisted together to form lengths of yarn, but the degree of twisting varies. Carpets with a tighter twist perform better – hands down. Although the degree of twist is less critical with level loop and Berber carpet types because the fibers are looped in and can't unravel.

DENSITY

Traditionally, carpets with a higher face weight perform better and provide great comfort underfoot. Performance wise, it is density that matters. Advances in technology have increased the density of modern carpets so that face weight is not as important as it used to be. As far as comfort goes, it is the padding underneath the carpet that is the most important.

BACKING

Backing is the technical term for the bottom side of the carpet. It provides the carpet dimensional stability and allows it to be stretched over a backing. Higher quality carpets employ high pic packing, such as Lees for Living carpets. The better the backing, the more stable and comfortable a carpet is.

PADDING

Choosing the right padding is just like upgrading the quality of the carpet itself. Density is the most important factors in choosing the right padding. With modern technology, density matters more than the thickness of the padding. As such, most padding is measured by poundage. Watchout because many companies will describe rebond padding by the thickness, however again only density is of concern when it comes to padding.

Most padding is called Rebond padding. It is the most widely used padding in the floor covering consists of high density recycled foam and comes in various densities. The most typical are 6 lbs and 8 lbs padding. Although the best rebond padding is memory foam rebond padding which is as dense as 10lbs.

The top of the line rebond padding include antimicrobial product protection built-in during manufacturing to prohibit the growth of bacteria that cause stains, odors, and wear of your carpet cushion.