Carpet is a kind of floor covering which is very
comfortable and extremely fashionable as well.
Usually, it consists
of a cushion made with rubber latex, jute or synthetic material,
with natural or man made yarns inserted in it.
Before choosing a carpet, it’s important to consider which
kind of covering is best and to check if the floor is suited to
receive it or if, otherwise, a dressing job is necessary.
The other important thing to do is to choose the proper carpet,
depending on the end use location. So, for example, you will prefer
a hardwearing type for heavy traffic areas or a 100% synthetic
carpet, which does not retain moisture, for places like bathrooms
or boats. |
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
Click
on any picture to get further information about the chosen
topic. |
|
|
 |
|
 |
The word carpet has a doubtful etymology and defines
a wool or synthetic fabric, totally fixed to the floor surface.And
this is the most important difference with a rug, of which carpet
is the natural evolution.
Carpet is a textile floor covering and is particularly used for
the insides of hotels and offices. Surely, it has merits and faults,
just as all other kinds of floor covering.
It’s important to discredit some clichés, pointing
out that carpets and rugs absolutely do not favour mites, provided
that they are correctly fixed and preserved. On the contrary, it’s
proved that in a room with textile floor covering dust is reduced
up to 80%, compared with hard flooring. |
Carpets provide a greater thermal insulation
than other kinds of floor covering (above all, those with thick
hair and lower pile density offer better results speaking of energy
saving). American surveys confirm that a carpet about 0,39 in tick
has the same insulation power of a 5,91 in cement floor, resulting
in a considerable reduction in the use of heating and an energy
saving which goes from 5 to 13%.
Usually carpet is chosen for decorative purpose. But also because
of the great number of benefits it provides: the warmth, the comfort,
the noise reduction. Besides, with a small expense and excellence
results, carpet can help us hide a ruined floor.
Often, carpet floors are unfairly blamed for being a breeding-ground
for dust, insects and mites, as well as for a strong electrostatic
charge.
It’s all absolutely untrue. We shall see in the section about “carpet
cleaning”, that the maintenance of carpet is really simple
and low cost, provided that it is done daily and with perseverance.
A study made by the American Carpet Institute revealed that the
maintenance of carpet costs about 40% less than other floorings.
On the whole, carpets are placed over a cushion made with rubber
latex, jute or synthetic material, with natural or man made yarns
inserted in it.
Nowadays, carpet is offered in a wide variety of choices in colours
and patterns, in fibre compositions and thickness. The surface
of a carpet can be plain or patterned and is suited to be personalized
in case of special image demands.
The new carpets have no problems of electrostatic charge. Carpet
is known to be a bad conductor of electricity but the manufacturing
companies have solved the problem in the new models with some antistatic
expedients, such as the insertion into the carpet pile of small
quantities of electret fibres.
Carpet costs are the most various and, just as happens in other
matters, the quality increases together with the price. The market
offers a wide range of carpet types that can be classified in three
groups: Bouclé, Velvet and woven carpets. |
 |
Bouclé carpets have a hardwearing underlay
made of latex or jute and curved tufts extremely soft and elastic.
This kind of carpeting is not very tough and durable but looks
really great, therefore it’s recommended for areas with low
foot traffic such as bedrooms.
Velvet carpets also have a tough cushion of latex or jute and they
have a pile of varying density made of straight tufts, either natural
or synthetic.
Depending on the pile density and the kind of fibre, this carpet
is very durable and fairly wear-resistant. As its composition is
lightly more rigid than Bouclé, this carpet tends to keep
the dirt; consequently it needs a careful maintenance. |
Woven carpets have a high pile density
and do not fear the wear and tear of time, thanks to their composition
which is less soft and elastic than other kind of carpets. Devoid
of a backing, they have a pile that can be either flat or cut and
a plain or patterned surface. This kind of carpet is recommended
for heavy traffic locations, such as corridors, hallways and offices.
There are two major manufacturing methods for woven carpets: knotted
weave and flat weave.
The knotting weave technique is completely hand-made and is very
expensive but gives excellent results. It consists in the manual
creation of knots, tuft after tuft, on the surface of a canvas.
On the contrary, with the flat weave technique the strands are
interlaced together at right angle, with two different methods:
Wilton and Axminster.
The Wilton technique offers a limited range of colours but consents
the creation of various kind of styles, from Bouclé to Velvet,
and makes the carpet highly resistant. Wilton carpet can be plain
or mix more colours to add a decorative note.
Plain Wilton is named, mostly by English: Velvet.
The Axminster technique, on the contrary, offers a wide range of
patterns and colours.
There are two distinct methods of weaving an Axminster carpet,
these being Axminster gripper, with a range of eight colours, and
Axminster spool, which offers the use of an unlimited number of
colours.
Axminster carpet requires the pile to be cut at a 3cm width before
being laid on the carpet’s back where it will be fixed by
the weft-strands.
It consents to use yarns of all thickness and produces cut-pile
carpets. |
|
|
| CMO Group di Oreste Rizzo - Via di le Prata, 120 - 50041 Calenzano (FI)- Phone +39.055.88.39.955 - Fax +39.055.88.10.375 |
|
