There are so many different things to know about owning a home. Not only maintenance of the exterior, but also maintaining everything on the inside! One of those items is something we use every day as well as all day….and that is our flooring. We need it to be comfortable as well as durable. Kathy from TriCity Furniture is here to talk you about carpet and the yarn structure for durability.
Kathy, in flooring is carpet still a popular option?
Yes, especially in the north where we have a lot of colder weather, having carpet is a good option for making our homes feel warmer. Even with hard surface, people will put down an area rug to help keep areas of our rooms feel warmer.
What do we need to know about the yarn structure?
One of the main things is to know that it is a heat set twist. When yarn is constructed, it is made up of single hair fibers and a bunch of those are twisted together. The step of heating that yarn once it is twisted, causes those hair fibers to stay together.
This eliminates the matting of fiber…just one of the things that a manufacturer can leave out….and you don’t find out about it until it is on your floor and starts to Matt! Too late! It is so important to have this heat set twist to keep our carpet looking great!
What about the yarn being longer or is shorter a better option?
If the yarn has a good construction, either will work….the importance of keeping it clean is really the question here. Longer yarns can allow dirt to hide within the fibers, so you need a good vacuum and need to clean more often to maintain it. A shorter pile is a bit easier to vacuum and soil tends to come out more readily as the fiber is not as long. Cleaning carpet is key to keeping it a long time! With Hard surface we would tend to clean multiple times in a week because we can see the dirt and feel it under our feet, but carpet can hide so we tend not to vacuum as often!
We have talked about the carpet structure and also the length of the fiber, but what about the thickness of the carpet? Does that make it last longer?
When we talk about thickness, we are speaking about how many pieces of yarn are on the face of the carpet. Saxony or plush carpet is very very thick…designed to almost have a solid top!
The yarns are woven in the backing to have the yarn stand straight up! You are then walking on the end of the cut yarn end!
Today, many carpets are woven where the fibers are farther apart…and these fibers can bend over a bit more. This type of carpet is known as a frieze. This allows the carpet to have a softer feel, but also you are walking on the side of the fiber which is much stronger. Remember Berber carpet….it was a very heavy looped carpet, and people felt it never wore out….mostly because you always walked on the side of the yarn and not the tip.
So, keep these variables in mind. They are different looks, and require a bit different Maintenance.
There are a lot of things to know about carpeting and the variables In Structure of yarns. We will continue our conversation on carpets next week so remember to tune in. Thank you for watching today’s DesignTime!