How should a carpet perform, that is how should it look after being walked on repeatedly, in the same traffic lanes, over a given period of time? What significance does the construction of the product have on the overall performance, that is actually the appearance retention of the product? After all, if the product looks bad after a short period of time the end user immediately thinks there’s something wrong with it.

You would normally think that a loop pile product should perform better than a cut pile product and for the most part you’d be correct. Cut pile carpet, standing straight up, will most often compress or mat down much sooner than a loop pile carpet. However, there are a multitude of variables which will influence the performance of the carpet in cut or loop pile configuration.

A cut pile carpet constructed with a yarn that is very tightly twisted with a high degree of heat set, good crimp and a very defined tip will perform extraordinarily well. A frieze style would be an example of this. This style of carpet is almost impossible to “ugly out.” Add to this the fiber type and you’ll exponentially increase the performance simply with the inherent resiliency of the fiber. Nylon fiber, for example, constructed in the configuration just explained, will give maximum performance to the carpet. Polypropylene, with the lowest resiliency of any synthetic fiber used in carpet, will perform worst in cut pile constructions. Take any fiber and twist it, heat set it and add special features, such as a nylon fiber component and the performance of that fiber in cut pile construction will be enhanced. Many commercial wool carpets are actually 80 percent wool and 20 percent nylon. The nylon will enhance the performance of the wool by adding resiliency, abrasion resistance and appearance retention.

Loop pile carpets, because of their configuration offer increased resiliency and good appearance retention. Instead of one yarn left to stand on its own, like a cut pile, the loops function as a team sharing the brunt of the foot traffic load. To improve the performance of loop pile carpets the yarn ends can be plyed, twisted and heat set; a feature of the highest performing commercial grade carpets. This type of carpet will most often wear like iron. It has so much performance built into it that it’s near impossible to make it fail to perform unless some other factor, such as color, compromises its overall appearance retention. Loop pile carpets made with any synthetic fiber will almost always perform better than their cut pile cousins of the same fiber.

A combination of cut and loop yarns in the same carpet allows for some styling flexibility but it can also create some performance nightmares. This type of style is usually achieved by tufting the carpet with all loop pile yarns and then tip shearing, that is shaving the looped tops, off the pre-selected higher protruding yarns to create a cut and loop design. Most carpets that are designed for cut and loop styling are not plyed and heat set. Once the tops of the loop pile yarns are sheared the cut pile yarns now become “singles” yarns. That is, there is no twist to the yarn and it just blossoms like a flower. Once this occurs the performance of the product changes. If the cut pile yarns are higher than the loop pile yarns they can fall over, or compress, onto their loop pile neighbor and significantly alter the appearance of the product. Also, the cut pile singles yarn, if there are a great many of them, can make the carpet look worn out prematurely because they will mat and crush greatly diminishing the carpets appearance.

The simple explanations just given to contrast cut pile and loop pile, and a combination of both styles, is the reason it is so important to understand carpet performance. I’ve said this many times, installation is not the number one problem in the industry, not understanding the product, its characteristics and performance capabilities and putting it in the wrong place, is.

When you work with carpet long enough you can look at a piece and tell whether or not it will perform as well as the end user would expect it to, whether cut or loop pile. We can also test any product to determine if, in fact, it actually will perform well. We do this for many of our corporate clients to let them know if they’re getting what they want or if it has to be constructed special for them. The carpet will always tell you what you want to know if you understand it, listen to it, can interpret what it’s saying and believe it.

We’ve got several products that will help you learn more and avoid problems, check them out on our web site at www.lgmtechnicalcarpetservices.com.