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Carpeting: A Brief Tour
If you're out shopping for high quality carpets for your new home, prepare yourself for a bit of sticker shock. Good carpet fetches a premium price tag, so making a decision on a carpet purchase deserves some thought. It's worthwhile to consider not only the color and style of carpet, but also to be familiar with the different types of carpet and their respective advantages.
Textured cut pile is the most popular type of carpeting. This type of floor covering is made up of a series of loops that have been sheared open to form a tightly cropped surface of cut yarn ends. These cut yarn ends are called pile. Pre-shearing cut pile several times creates a luxurious appearance. Cut pile is less resistant to crushing than other types of carpet. This carpet can offer a nice combination of quality and affordability.
Loop carpet is a more durable and expensive option. Loop carpet, also known as Berber, it is preferred in many homes that have high traffic areas. This carpet type is comprised of loops similar to textured cut pile, but in this case the loops are left intact. Using the same height loops and leaving them uncut creates a level, durable surface that is more resilient to tracking marks left my heavy walking or vacuuming. Loop carpet is often used in luxury hotels for its combination of plush appearance and durability.
Cut and loop carpeting is a combination of the above two types. Also known as "multi-level loop," cut and loop uses different heights of loops, selectively cutting some and leaving some as intact loops to create different textures and patterns. This carpet is preferred for lower traffic areas, as it is not as resistant to tracking marks but boasts a soft, luxurious appearance, making it perfect for living areas.
Saxony carpet is viewed as both a brand name and a style of carpet. It is technically a textured cut pile but the yarn is made on a special loom. The piles are then spaced very close together to form a very dense carpet surface. Saxony is generally regarded as being the softest carpet available on the market. The disadvantages of Saxony are its price and the fact that it shows track marks very easily, making it less suitable for high traffic areas. For luxury applications, however, Saxony is hard to beat.
Cable carpet is a thick pile type of carpet that is cut from thick yarn loops. It's relatively inexpensive but, surprise, it's not particularly durable. Since the carpet piles can move in any direction, it displays track marks very easily. It does have a plush, luxurious feel, however and can be used for TV rooms or places where people are doing more sitting than walking.
Frieze carpets are the most durable of the cut pile carpets. They have ends that are tightly twisted resulting a characteristic knobby appearance can hide spills and stains as well as stand up to heavy foot traffic. Frieze carpets usually get my vote for hallways and entrance areas.
Velvet carpet offers the highest pile density of all the carpet varieties. It also has a fairly short length of pile, which makes the carpet appear very sturdy and dense. Velvet, or velour carpet, has a density of up to 216 wires per inch. This is known as the "pitch" of the carpet. You know the phrase "roll out the red carpet?" This traditionally conjures up the image of a red velvet carpet, with all its connotations of pomp and celebrity. Like other luxury carpets such as Saxony, velvet shows tracking very readily. Carpet designers and sellers often use this as a selling point, as tracking marks can make the carpet almost appear iridescent. Some people go so far as to rake different patterns into velvet carpeting for different occasions. To put it more informally: hey, tracking marks are a part of life, might as well make them part of the aesthetic. Just watch out for muddy boots and pets.
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