When you buy a carpet for your home, looking for the best quality is a priority due to how pricey carpet is. You wouldn’t want to have to replace your carpet just after a year of buying a new one, right? Learn the factors that affect a carpet’s quality before you set out to buy one.

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Density

Density describes the amount of pile in the carpet and how close the tufts are to one another. In general, the more dense the carpet the better the quality. Check density by pressing your fingers on the carpet and trying to reach the backing. It will be difficult to reach the backing of a very dense carpet. With the tufts facing outward, bend the carpet into a U shape to see how much of the carpet backing shows. The less backing you see, the more dense the carpet. Source: DIYNetwork

Fiber Twist

The twist of the fiber is often one of the most overlooked aspects of a carpet, and yet it is one of the best indicators of carpet quality. The fiber twist refers to the number of times that the strands of fiber are twisted together, as measured to within a one-inch length of fiber. The result is known as a carpet’s twist number; it is sometimes referred to as turns-per-inch (TPI).

This is easy to calculate yourself. Measure a one-inch length of the carpet fiber, and count how many turns you see in it. If the fiber is shorter than one inch, measure a half-inch and then double the number of twists you count, to get the twist number. Source: TheSpruce

Continuous Filament vs Staple

Carpet fibers can be either “continuous filament” (aka BCF – Bulked Continuous Filament) or “staple”. Staple fibers, aka spun fibers, have short fibers that are spun together to create yarn. All natural fibers and some synthetic fibers are spun into yarn. Wool is an example of a staple fiber. Because of the many, short fibers, staple fibers have more initial shedding than filament fibers. However, after the early shedding, both fibers perform about equally, with no clear advantage to either. Continuous fibers are also woven into yarn, but they are made up of long fibers and so do not tend to shed. Source: AcmeHowTo

One of the factors that contribute to how long a carpet will last is the way it was installed. Leave it to the experts. Call today!