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Free Carpet Information and Buying Guide
Carpet Guide Pad Installation Best Stores By Alan Fletcher - 30 Yr Carpet Expert / Consumer Advocate - I do not sell carpet. ABC
The Best Carpet For Stairs?
Carpet On Stairs Get the Most Abuse. It’s because stairs are narrow and receive a constant pounding from foot-traffic focused right down the center and along the front leading-edge of every step.
Active children, dogs and cats and especially teenage boys and all their friends are one main reason why carpets installed on stairs tend to wear out much faster than other carpet installed in your home.
Kids and pets love to run up and down the stairs as fast as they can which is very damaging to the pile surface. Abrasion is the number one cause of carpet wear and tear.
How to Reduce Wear & Tear on Stairs?
To start with, you can choose a more durable "Grade of Carpet" that can better handle moderate to heavy foot-traffic. Selecting a padding with a lower height and a higher-density rating will provide better support for your carpet installed on stairs.
Here are a few style and fiber options that may help you choose the right grade and style of carpet and padding for your stairs and other high-traffic areas.
The Best Carpet Fiber for Stairs?
For stairs, you can choose almost any carpet style you like as long as the "grade of carpet" is designed to handle your level of foot traffic, but the most durable residential carpets are made from 100% Nylon.
There are various types of Nylon fibers available and some are more durable than others. The “soft” Nylon styles are not quite as durable as the standard Nylon carpet styles.
What do I mean by "Grade of Carpet?" Carpet specifications determine the grade of the carpet you select. That means fiber type, tuft twist, pile height, pile density and face weight. Learn More About Carpet Specs
Choosing the Right Carpet Fiber for StairsThe Carpet Fiber you select will determine how long it lasts, how soft it feels, what colors are available, how easily it cleans and how much it costs.
This is one of the most critical factors homeowners face when choosing and comparing carpet. There are several carpet fibers available today and they all have their own unique benefits and pitfalls:
You must compare apples to apples. For example, you cannot compare a NYLON carpet to a POLYESTER carpet, or a WOOL carpet to an OLEFIN carpet. This would be like comparing apples to oranges.
You have to compare similar carpets and narrow it down to the one that best meets your needs and lifestyle as well as your budget. Print up a few of my free Carpet Shopping Forms to help narrow down your choices.
No matter what, don't believe any salesperson that says a Polyester carpet is just as durable as a Nylon carpet. Nylon is the most durable fiber and the most resilient carpet fiber available today.
So if you want your new carpet to tolerate heavy foot-traffic and continue to look like-new for years to come, then nylon is a great choice.
Consider Nylon CarpetNylon is a generic name or designation for a family of synthetic polymers first produced in 1935 by the DuPont Company. As far as fibers go, Nylon is the most durable and the most resilient of all fibers.
Nylon resists matting and crushing of the pile because it is very resilient. A "Resilient" fiber is defined as having the ability to return to its original form or position after being bent, compressed, or stretched. Nylon is the most resilient fiber used to make carpet today.
Resiliency is what keeps a Nylon carpet looking like-new longer than any other fiber.
Nylon costs more than other fibers. Nylon is one of the more expensive fibers second only to wool. I would consider choosing a Nylon carpet if you have a lot of foot traffic and longevity was my biggest concern.
Q.
Do Tactesse, Caress, Lisse' and other "softer" Nylons hold up as well
as the "standard, non-soft" nylon fibers do?
The way they make a standard nylon fiber softer is to make the strand thinner. By doing so, I firmly believe that a lot of the fiber resiliency is compromised. This thinner strand creates a carpet that is much more softer to the touch but as a result may be more susceptible to matting and crushing of the pile.
Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not steering you away from buying a soft nylon, but if you want to have the absolute most durable and most resilient nylon for the money, I suggest you buy a carpet made with a standard denier Nylon fiber, and steer away from a softer nylon product.
What is Fiber Denier?
Denier is the measurement of the strand diameter. Fiber denier is easily understood for those who gone fishing and used a nylon filament fishing line. The thicker the line is, the stronger it is.
For example, when fishing for Trout, fishermen may use a thin 4-pound test line. For bigger fish like Steelhead or Salmon, a thicker 6, 8 or 10-pound nylon test line may be used.
Denier is the measurement of the diameter of the extruded fiber strand.
A carpet made with a standard (heavier) Denier Nylon fiber will be more durable and more resilient than a carpet made from a thinner strand as is commonly used in today's branded "Soft Nylons".
Read My Article: Lifestyle Often Dictates Best Carpet Choice
Sorona® or PTT (AKA Smartstrand® by Mohawk™)
If you want a carpet that is durable, soft and resist stains, Sorona® may be the fiber you are looking for. Sorona has permanent stain resistance that is engineered into the fiber and will never wear or wash off. But remember, no carpet is completely stain proof.
Sorona® also known as Triexta or PTT was developed by Dupont™. It is a polymer derived from corn. It is said to have the best anti-stain properties and cleans easier than any other fiber. They also say it is very durable. Sorona™ is clearly more durable than PET or Polyester, but is it as durable as Nylon? I don't think so.
I do believe that Sorona may resists stains and clean a little bit easier than Nylon, but the durability and resiliency of Nylon is hard to beat. Either way, Sorona may be the fiber you need for your busy home and lifestyle when stain resistance is the utmost priority.
Sorona® Not a New Fiber Triexta, or PTT was actually invented back in the 1940's but was deemed too expensive to manufacture at that time to be able to compete with other carpet fibers like Nylon. Carpet prices have increased enough over the past 20 years to allow Sorona™ to be manufactured at a comparable cost.
Mohawk™ has a line of carpet styles using the Sorona fiber and they have branded it and call it Smartstrand®. Dupont™ and Sorona® are a trademark and a registered trademark of E.I. DuPont de Nemours and Company.
Polyester and P.E.T.
Buyer Beware: Carpets made of Polyester or PET Polyester! Polyester is one of the least-costly fibers to manufacture... A thick polyester carpet may look nice and feel super soft to your hand, but the polyester fiber is not very resilient and it does not a make a long-lasting durable carpet.
Polyester carpets tend to mat down quickly, and that has always been the main problem with carpets made from this fiber. When you walk on a carpet, with each and every footstep you bend, stretch and compress the carpet fibers and with polyester, the tufts soon begin to fall over.
Once Polyester fibers are crushed, they don't spring back to their original upright position. This is why most new carpet warranties for polyester carpets do not cover ANY claims against matting or crushing of the pile.
Beware of False Claims about Polyester!Don’t be fooled by carpet salespeople who recommend carpets made from polyester and say it is just as durable as nylon. It may be acceptable for you to buy a carpet made of polyester as long as you know EXACTLY what to expect and not pay a lot of money for it.
In medium to heavy foot traffic applications, I wouldn't expect to get a life-span of more than 3 to 5 years from any residential grade of polyester carpet, regardless of its cost, specifications or warranty limits.
I might consider choosing a carpet made of polyester if I wanted to spend as little as possible on a carpet that is soft, looks nice for a short period of time, and expect less than 7 years of use in a low-traffic application.
Learn more: How much does new carpet cost?
Berber Carpets made from Olefin (also called Polypropylene)
Olefin is a very strong fiber. It is often used to make Berber carpets, commercial carpets and outdoor grass carpets. Olefin is a strong fiber. It wears well and has fair stain resistance when an anti-stain treatment is applied.
Olefin also has good anti-static properties. However, inexpensive Berbers made of Olefin are not as easy to keep clean and tend to look dingy when soiled. Olefin also has poor resiliency so smaller-looped Berber styles tend to tolerate wear much better than do larger-looped Berber styles.
Commercial looped carpets made of Olefin wear very well, as the loops tend to be very small which leaves little room for the loops to become matted or crushed.
Commercial grade cut pile styles are also very durable. There are no loops and the weave is very tight which helps prevent matting and crushing of the pile.
Wheelchairs roll easily over commercial grade carpets that are glued-down without padding, and may be a good choice for handicapped areas, hospitals and retirement home applications.
When comparing looped Berber carpets made of Olefin, choosing a style with smaller loops and a tighter weave will provide a much more durable carpet.
Learn more about Carpet Comparison
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