A Quick Guide to Choosing the Best Carpeting for Your Home
Your home's carpeting is an investment that you want to last for years, so it's important that you take your time to shop the large carpet selection before you buy. Choosing carpeting based on price alone can mean winding up with a cheap material that easily shows stains or buying an expensive material that actually doesn't hold up so well under foot traffic. Consider a few quick but important tips for deciding on the best carpeting for your home.
Material
As with clothing and linens, the material of your carpet will affect its overall durability and feel. Nylon is very durable and it may be mixed with silk or cotton to make it soft. Wool is very durable, but it holds heat; this can be good during wintertime, but in the tropics or another warm area, wool carpeting can make your home feel warm and stuffy. Silk is very soft but doesn't hold up well under foot traffic and may also show stains very easily. Polyester is very durable; it may be the best choice for a home with children and pets, but it may not feel as soft under bare feet as nylon or a cotton blend.
Tuft twists
Tuft twists refers to how many times the tufts are twisted together for every one inch of carpeting. The higher the twist number, the stronger those tufts will be. Like spinning lengths of yarn together, more tufts means a stronger fabric. An average tuft twist might be 5 twists per inch, so look for this number or even higher if you have kids, pets or need the most durable carpet available.
Pile
Carpeting pile is usually loop or cut; these are self-explanatory, as a loop pile forms a loop around the carpet backing. A cut pile has those loops cut at the top. Cut pile is more durable and doesn't get matted down as easily, whereas loop pile may be softer underfoot.
There are also different styles of pile to consider. Saxony is a very deep cut pile that is soft but which easily shows footprints and vacuum marks. Textured pile is a type of cut pile where each thread is cut to a different size, so you feel the thick texture underfoot. This pile doesn't show footprints and other marks as easily. Sculptured refers to a carpet design that may use a combination of cut and loop piles; this can be done to create what resembles squares or other shapes in the carpet, giving it visual appeal as well as a unique feeling.
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