Carpeting

Where comfort underfoot is key, carpet is the floor covering of choice. It's relatively affordable, quick to install, soft and warm to walk on and sound deadening.

A close look reveals that carpeting is like a heavy fabric made from face yarns and backing. Most carpets today are tufted on huge machines that stitch face yarn to a synthetic backing with hundreds of high-speed needles working simultaneously. Once completely stitched, the backing is usually coated with latex adhesive and reinforced with a second backing of jute, polypropylene, urethane foam or rubber. Depending upon how the face yarns are finished, the carpet may be a loop carpet, cut pile, cut loop or tip-sheared.

Face yarns are made from both synthetic fibers and natural wool. Wool is generally considered to be the ultimate fiber, though it costs two to three times the price of synthetics. It's particularly durable and natural in appearance.

Synthetic fibers are made from several materials. Though these are given trade names, generically they are either nylon, olefin, polyester or acrylic. Nylon is the most popular because of its durability. Olefin is an easy-care material that's used outdoors and in basements. Polyesters are softer but a bit less durable than nylon. Acrylics resemble wool more than other fibers, resist static electricity and fading, but are more expensive than nylon.

Carpeting is applied over padding most of the time. Dense (not necessarily thick) padding prolongs carpet life, reduces noise and cushions the floor.

Before a carpet is laid, tackless stripping, also called "tack strips" for short are nailed around the perimeter of the floor. These thin strips of wood have short tack points that stick upward to grab onto the carpet's backing. One edge of the carpet is hooked onto the protruding points of the stripping, then the carpeting is stretched tight, hooked onto the tackless strips at the opposite wall, and trimmed. Seams between widths are joined from behind with fiberglass adhesive seaming tape or a thermal plastic seam tape that is applied with a special iron.


MORE ABOUT:
/ Wood floors / / Solid wood floors / / Vinyl floors / / Tile & stone floors /
/ Carpet cuts & loops / / Stairs / / Stair shapes /

BACK TO:
Interior Surfaces Main Page > How Your House Works Main Page > RemodelGuide HOME PAGE