Browse Forums Flooring & Floor Covering 1 Apr 07, 2009 9:41 am Hi everyone, We are looking to re-carpet our 3 bedrooms. My nephew who is a sales rep for a carpet company came by yesterday with some New Zealand wool samples which were all really nice. He gave me a quote (with his discount through the store doing it) for around $3700 for the 3 rooms. Now this morning a friend of ours told my hubby that you can get a 'specially treated nylon' carpet that looks, feels and wears just as welll as a wool carpet and is half the price. This was told to him by an interior designer relative and apparently a lot of people are buying it. Now I'm of the belief that you get what you pay for and would probably tend to go with the wool but I was wanting to get people's thoughts on carpet choices and if anyone knows what this nylon carpet would be. We want a carpet that looks good, wears well and is great to clean and that's why I was tending towards the wool as it's a natural fibre. Any opinions are appreciated, thanks guys Fiona If at first you don't succeed.....skydiving is probably not for you ! Re: Carpet choices 2Apr 07, 2009 2:13 pm I'm probably biased because I'm a big wool fan. We are getting carpet from our builder as a promo.... it will be down for about 5 years then it will be gone for 100% wool. I think your key phrase was "you get what you pay for". For me there's no comparison, wool wins hands down. I leave you to fend for yourself, figure things out yourself. Terrence Malick Re: Carpet choices 3Apr 07, 2009 11:40 pm hi fiona, yes thats probably the first decision you need to make with your carpet, wool or nylon? just my thoughts, you can't really go wrong with a good quality wool carpet but wool is an expensive floor covering so if you look at a comparable quality of nylon carpet, the nylon will be cheaper. your friend may have been talking about the solution dyed nylon carpets available which according to the manufacturers are more stain and fade resistant. Wool is said to be better for asthmatics and allergy sufferers because it is a natural fibre, however it can be a problem with stains if you dont clean them up properly straight away because the fibre being natural can absorb the stain much better. nylon on the other hand is less likely to absorb stains making cleaning easier and also doesn't rot and is cheaper to buy. my personal preference is for nylon because i have pets, and nylon is less likely to absorb stains or trap smells than a natural fibre does so in my case i feel it's just a more suitable carpet than wool, and i can get a good quality nylon for the same money it would cost for an average quality wool carpet. I have had wool in the past but found that some stains can set very quickly and be almost impossible to completely remove and there are some good nylon carpets these days and some of them are very soft and good quality. But once you have decided on a carpet type, buy the best quality you can afford because cheap carpet is cheap for a reason and it wont feel good underfoot or last very long Re: Carpet choices 4Apr 09, 2009 8:59 pm Both wool and nylon actually have similar cleaning properties. Both are absorbent to water and oily soils and spills. Wool will absorb a bit more but will release it very easily as well. Both wool and nylon can be dyed with acid dyes. This is the same colouring stuff used in red cordials and other coloured beverages. The solution dyed nylon is a lot more fade resistant than the older "flood" dyed nylons ,but don't appear to be any more fade resistant than wool. They are however, despite the sales pitches, still prone to staining and bleaching. I've had a couple just recently that no matter what I used, I could not get rid of stains left behind from red wine vomit stains. This is not normally a problem for me on wool or flood dyed nylon carpets. Even when the customer has had a go at cleaning them, I can ususally rectify the damage with specialist treatments and or colour repair. But these latest two jobs on the SDNs have not worked entirely leaving a permanent brown mark in a situation that would normally be easily fixed. Which ever carpet you buy just remeber the few simple rules for spot cleaning. Blot, Dilute and Blot again. Blot up or scoop up the spill. dilute it with something similar (clean like with like) Blot up again and repeat untill you get no more change. "Clean like with like." I'll explain that a bit more. If it is a water based spill, (beer wine soft drink urine etc)then clean it with water . Do not add detergents as this will only carry the stain into the fibre. If the stain was fatty, like icecream or gravy, then clean that with a detergent because detergents are like soap and soaps are made from fats. Preferably use a Woolsafe approved detergent as these have been tested and approved for use on wool, and are safe on other fibres as well. If the spill is oily then we use a solvent like "dry cleaning fluid" because it was made from oils. Clean like with like. Easy. cheers Col Nation For information on caring for wool and other carpet and upholstery go to www.woolsafe.com.au Re: Carpet choices 5Apr 10, 2009 1:27 am interesting info col! particularly about the solution dyed nylons. im not convinced that the SDN's are "all that" so it's good to get some feedback on them. Do you have many dealings with nylon carpets in general? just wondering if you have any thoughts on stainmaster nylon carpets? good and bad? Re: Carpet choices 6Apr 15, 2009 8:07 pm The Stainmaster treatment uses dye blocker technology as well as flourochemical protection (as in Scotchgard brand protector and Teflon brand protector). The flourochemical works by repelling the spills in the first place to buy you time to blot up the spill. If anything does happen to get thorugh the protector, the dye blocker will then protect against the acid dyes. The red in red cordial is an acid dye as is the dye that dyes both wool and nylon. They are particualraly good with cordial spills when new. To make a Stainmaster fibre, they start of with a "6.6" nylon (has a smaller molecular structure that inhibits some stain entry). Normal nylon is a "6" nylon. They dye the fibre to the colour they want and then add dye blocker and then put the flourochemical protector over the top. They are very good at resisting acid dyes, but many other things can still get through. Disperse dyes like currys, and tannins in hot tea and coffee will still get in. They do still tend to fade a bit though. Unfortunately there is no perfect carpet. cheers Col Nation For information on caring for wool and other carpet and upholstery go to www.woolsafe.com.au 1 11004 1 15753 they can, it's a fairly standard solution when the slab isn't recessed. the falls need to be in the main floor, if it hasn't been done then you need to ask them to redo… 4 6581 |