Understand Carpets and carpet Qualities

Why choose carpet?

The look of a well fitted carpet will enhance your room. It is attractive to look at, and offers the natural feel of a luxury natural textile. Carpet has a natural built in insulation for maintaining warmth and reducing unwanted noise from around your home. A wide choice of fashionable colours and textures is available to suit individual tastes. If treated sensibly a carpet will stay looking attractive and give years of service.

Why choose a carpet from Wilton Carpets?

Wilton Carpets offer a wide selection of wool rich carpets in a range of plain, textured and woven designs. We offer quality carpet in various weights for all areas of your home. As a well known manufacturer of Wilton and Axminster carpet we have considerable experience in the carpet industry. With this sound background we are confident in offering our selection of carpet to our customers. You can be assured that the service you receive will encourage you to revisit us for future carpet purchases.

Choosing the right carpet for your needs.

Carpet durability is dependant on purchasing the correct carpet for the floor area you wish to cover. The carpet pile itself, the fibre, the weight of the fibre, and the density of the pile, will all contribute to the performance of the carpet. We have a great choice of carpets, available in various weights indicated as follows:

Medium Domestic Carpet
Medium Domestic quality carpet is suitable for light use areas of the home, for example, Bedrooms, Dining Rooms, and Studies etc.

Heavy Domestic Carpet
Heavy Domestic quality carpet is suitable for all areas of the home including Bedrooms, Dining Rooms and Studies.

Extra Heavy Domestic Carpet
Extra Heavy Domestic quality carpet is suitable for all areas of the home.

The carpet colour and texture is very much a personal choice. Whether you choose a plain or berber mixture, a loop pile or a patterned, you can be sure that it will give any room a great look.

Choosing your carpet by texture

The texture of carpet you require will affect the overall look of your room. This is entirely a personal choice so care should be taken to select the correct textured carpet for your requirements. As a guide, carpet textures are available in twist pile, loop pile, woven Axminster, velvet, saxony and shag pile.

Twist pile carpets are the most popular. The majority twist pile carpets have a high wool content which gives the carpet great durability. Plain, Berber, tweed and tonal carpets are all available as twist pile carpet.

Loop pile carpets give a contemporary look and are available in 100% wool and a mix of wool and other fibres. Like all carpets, a loop pile carpet will perform well if it is vacuumed regularly.

Choosing a woven Axminster carpet will create a real statement, with a pile finish that is easy on the eye and a finish that is pleasing to walk on.

Velvet pile carpet such as Wilton weave carpets, offer a degree of luxury in appearance. Due to the finish it can appear to be shady. This is however a natural characteristic of this carpet, which has a close construction with a short pile and smooth top.

Saxony carpet is a shorter length than shag pile and offer a different look, and more textured appearance.

Shag pile carpet by design, give a look of luxury and is great for decorative use in your plush home.

Choosing your carpet by colour

Carpets are on offer in a wide choice of colours and textures. It is always a good idea to obtain samples of paint colours and any other fabric finishes you are going to have in your room, together with samples of carpet. This will help you choose the colour of carpet most suitable for your home.

There are numerous plain colour carpets available for you to choose from, in a variety of textures including luxury Wilton weave carpets to suit the style of your home. If you can’t find the colour you are looking for, we can obtain the colour you need through our Choice Colours option. Details of this service is available by phoning our helpline.

Tonal carpet colours can be found in woven and tufted carpets. The process of using different shades of the same colour yarn creates small designs. This generates what the industry calls a tonal effect.

Heather, tweed and berber carpets give an ideal mix of yarn colours. Various colours can be found in the heather and tweed carpets giving a mottled appearance. Berber carpet offers different shades in neutral tones for a natural hand spun appearance.

Patterned Axminster carpets are available in rich and muted colour tones. The designs on offer are available in both traditional and modern. Alternatively you may want to be more adventurous and select one of our animal prints, or take advantage of our in house carpet design service. Details are available on request so please telephone our help line or alternatively email us by clicking on the email tab at the top of this page.

Colour Matching

Carpets are manufactured in batches and whilst the procedures and processes remain constant there will always be a small variation between batches produced at different times. Carpets made using blending yarns such as berbers or heathers will normally show a slightly larger degree of variation due to the processes involved. Where carpets are to be laid in more than one piece, or in several rooms it is advisable that a single width be used from the same batch to ensure the closest possible match.
Carpets which are laid with the pile travelling in different directions will, in most cases, appear not to match. Therefore it is always advisable to lay carpets with the pile travelling in one direction.

Samples

The samples on display may not be from the same batch as current production and therefore should be used as a guide and not an exact colour match.

Shedding

All cut pile carpets will lose short fibre, which is created during production when spun yarn is cut for tuft formation. These fibres fall onto the surface of the pile and appear as ‘fluff’.The effect varies with yarn type and may be removed without detrimental effect upon the carpet by vacuum cleaning. This excess fibre is only a small fraction of the total fibre contained in the carpet. There is no given time at which shedding will cease. This will depend on the traffic the installation receives and the frequency of vacuuming.

Sprouting

Occasionally an odd tuft or two can work its way to the surface and stand proud of the rest of the pile. This is probably due to one end of the tuft being longer than the other i.e. J shaped tuft instead of V shaped. Remedial action merely requires that the offending tufts be scissor trimmed level with the rest of the pile. They should never be pulled out.

Pulled Loops

Pulled loops occur only in looped pile carpet where one or more loops in the continuous pile is pulled through the primary backing of the carpet. This is usually due to some local condition, possibly some sharp object which has caught in a loop in situ and has resulted in a pull. Pulled loops are easily dealt with by trimming the offending end level with the rest of the pile. They should not be left as this could result in further loops being pulled and developing into a ladder.

Shading

Shading occurs because the pile of the carpet has become crushed, flattened or brushed in a different direction to the natural lie of the pile whilst in situ. This causes light reflection at differing angles resulting in the creation of light and dark patches on the carpet. This will occur on all pile fabrics but can be more noticeable on plainer carpets because the shadows created by pressure will not be disguised by a heavy pattern or design.

Static

Carpets do not produce static but like other household fabrics and objects have the capacity to store it. Static is caused by the build up of static electricity upon personnel in a dry environment and is discharged when a person makes contact with an object which can conduct electricity (i.e. door handle or filing cabinets, etc). The static charges will vary in intensity depending upon the individual, air humidity and the contact materials. Static is more usually associated with synthetic materials as they do not retain moisture very well but it can and does occur with wool in very dry room conditions. Preventative measures include the introduction of moisture into the room or in situ carpet treatment.

Pile Reversal (See Shading)

Like shading, this occurs when the pile or nap of the carpet changes direction and thus reflects light at different angles showing the effects of shading which can become permanent. It is also described as ‘watermarking’. This can happen to every carpet construction be it Axminster, Wilton, Tufted, Hand Woven, Persian, Chinese, Indian or even Coir Matting. Like shading it can be more apparent on plain carpet because heavy patterns can disguise the effects. It can occur quite quickly after installation. A tremendous amount of research has been carried out over many years by many institutes to determine the cause of this phenomenon but none of it has proved conclusive. There is no commonly known manufacturing process which can cause or cure this phenomenon and therefore it is not a manufacturing fault.

Fading on Wool

Carpets made from wool can and do fade in use. The degree of fade can vary depending on the colour chosen and the local conditions to which the carpet is subjected. Fading can be caused by exposure to ultra violet light which is found in daylight, but is accelerated when sunlight shines directly onto the carpet. This has the effect of lightening or “Bleaching” the colour just as exposure to sunlight will lighten human hair. Wool is after all animal hair. Protection should be given to carpets exposed to such conditions just as you would protect other furniture or fabrics.
A complaint on fading would be considered justified if it failed to meet the required shade standard when tested to the British Standard BS1006 (1990).

Flattening

Flattening will occur as a result of traffic which eventually flattens the pile particularly in the main areas of use. All pile fabrics will flatten to greater or lesser degree dependent on the amount of traffic to which it is subjected and the construction (tuft density / pile fibre / height / weight) of the product concerned.

Soiling

Soiling is usually the result of some local condition to which the carpet has been subjected to, or maintenance, or lack of maintenance programme. There are several types of soiling which are quite common:
Spillages - Whenever a spillage occurs it is important to blot as much of the liquid us as possible using a dry clean cloth or tissue. Never rub the pile as this will cause distortion and possibly alter the appearance of the carpet. It is very important to do this immediately after the spillage occurs, failure to remove the spillage quickly could lead to the stain becoming permanent and it may not be able to be removed at a later date, even with professional assistance.
Shampoo - if incorrectly applied, can leave sticky soap residues in the fibres which can result in the soiling reappearing quite rapidly.
Dust - which is carried on draughts can soil carpets in various ways, apart from the obvious soiled edges, at gaping skirting boards for instance, dark lines appearing on surface might suggest airborne dust vacuum-drawn through poorly fitted floorboards. Sometimes the shape of floorboards can be seen quite clearly. Airborne dust sometimes shows itself as spots on the carpet, this is due to the air carried on a draught under the carpet escaping through minute holes both in the underlay and the carpet, leaving dust deposited on the pile much like a filter action. In such installations, the use of a lining paper is essential as a preventative measure. It is important that prior to any installation of carpeting the floor is checked for levelness and any gaps in floorboards or cracks, or steps in concrete floors are repaired or levelled. Any poorly fitted doors or skirting boards may also need to be corrected.