One of the most frequently asked questions we hear from our customers is ‘why should I consider wool carpet’?Â
At Home Carpet One, more than half of our customers opt for wool carpet. Why?Â
Wool is the most desirable carpet fiber from a performance, environmental and design standpoint.
But what about the price? Contrary to common misperceptions, wool carpeting is also affordable especially if the showroom you shop at carries the carpet in stock, like Home Carpet One.Â
Read on to learn more about the benefits of wool!
The Advantages of wool carpet
What makes wool a more desirable carpet fiber than nylon carpet, polyester carpet or polypropylene carpet? The advantages of wool carpet start with its natural resiliency. What that means is that it will bounce back quicker than synthetic fibers like nylon and polyester.Â
Have you ever noticed carpeting in a heavy traffic area matted down?Â
Well, the natural spring in wool carpeting makes that less likely to happen after you have wool carpeting installed.
Wool vs synthetic carpet
The softness and natural feel of wool carpeting separates it from synthetic fibers. Manufacturers that develop synthetic carpet that looks like woolstrive to imitate the feel of wool fibers but cannot quite get there. Ask your sales associate to let you compare wool carpets to the softest synthetics and be the judge yourself.
What are some of the benefits of wool carpet?
Natural stain resistance is yet another advantage of wool carpeting. The wool from the sheep features a natural grease called lanolin that allows wool to naturally resist stains. In those instances where the installed carpet does stain, wool responds incredibly well to professional cleaning.
One of the distinguishing characteristics of wool carpet versus synthetic carpet is how long wool retains its original appearance. Most people think wool carpeting looks brand new after being cleaned. On the other hand, synthetic carpet loses a little bit of its appearance with each cleaning.
If staining is your primary concern, there is now added protection available for wool carpeting installed. Fabric sealing has long been offered for furniture; we are now utilizing that same technology to seal wool carpet after installation.Â
For a minimal charge, one of our carpet cleaning partners will come to your home to spray on a solvent that adds extra stain resistance to your wool carpeting. The same process can be used for viscose and sisal carpets as well.
Eco-Friendly Carpeting
Wool carpet's insulating properties provide added energy efficiency to your home. Wool carpet can reduce energy costs from heating and cooling and feels more comfortable to walk on as the heat radiating from the human body is not absorbed into the floor.
Wool is the greenest flooring product on the market today both because of its natural properties and its long-life cycle. Simply put wool is the hair of the sheep and takes less energy to turn into carpeting than any other flooring product. It is made almost entirely from renewable resources. On the other end of the spectrum, wool will break down easily without leaving harmful chemicals as it decomposes into the soil.
Aside from its natural qualities, wool carpeting is the ultimate eco-friendly flooring product because of its long lasting quality and everlasting beauty. Simply put, if you buy a quality product like wool carpeting you are far less likely to replace it in a few years. There is no better way to care for our environment than buying quality products that last.Â
The founder of Patogonia expressed his commitment to sustainability in the following way:Â
"We want people to feel like that jacket [purchased from Patagonia] is something that they are going to have the rest of their lives. . . We want to close the loop between consuming and discarding."Â
March 2013 Inc. Magazine. Likewise, promoting quality wool carpeting products is our commitment at Home Carpet One to preserving our planet.
Styling Options
All the great qualities of wool carpeting wouldn't matter if it didn't offer the perfect characteristics to produce unique textures, styling and vibrant colors as compared to other carpet fibers.Â
The range of styling available in wool products is immense. From the undyed wool Berbers featuring natural heathered yarns to intricate wool Wiltons for the most design conscious of consumers.Â
Designers often turn to wool carpeting because of the depth of color that wool can achieve. For the same reason the vast majority of custom carpeting options utilize wool rather than synthetic fibers.
In short, the best answer to "why wool" is why not!