I want to make you aware of some issues which may start to plague you and cost you a bunch of money. They are related to fiber performance, particularly of polyester and polypropylene.

LIMITATIONS OF POLYESTER AND POLYPROPYLENE

You should know by now, both these fibers have limitations in performance relative to the construction of carpet made with them. To make this point clear, we’ll cite two recent cases.

The first is in a home in which polyester cut-pile carpet was installed in the toddler’s bedroom and in a spare bedroom used as an office. The product was installed in May 1998.

Upon moving the crib one day, the client noticed the area next to the bed was matted and its appearance and color had changed dramatically. This condition progressed to the traffic areas of both rooms. In the spare room, the carpet just next to the pad under the desk chair had indentations from the chair rolling off the pad.

This carpet, purchased at The Home Depot, had a performance rating of four and-a-half out of five. Not that where the product was purchased matters, but the rating system is an issue, since a four-and-a-half would instill a high level of consumer expectation.

The second case was a large looped, tip-sheared, polypropylene product installed in July 1998. The consumer, who had three children, felt this particular product would perform very well, since it was “Kid Carpet.”

Within a short time, the carpet was matted, the color had changed dramatically and the consumer was disenchanted. The dealer looked at the broadloom and agreed, it looked terrible after such a short time.

Why did both of these carpets fail to perform to expectations? Both polyester and polypropylene have limitations in performance. This is primarily associated with the lower resiliency inherent in both yarn systems, especially in polypropylene. When constructed in cut-pile configurations and high pile height, there is a natural propensity of the yarn to compact.

In the case of polyester, the product would have worked far better had it been constructed with a lower pile height and much higher twist level. This way, you engineer in more resiliency and limit the amount of compression to which the yarn will succumb under normal wear.

A bedroom would certainly be considered a low traffic area, and with a high performance rating, consumer expectations would be high. Therefore, the consumer deemed the product defective when in fact, it was performing up to the standards to which it was constructed.

In the case of the polypropylene carpet, why would anyone construct a product with a high open loop and a cut-pile, almost singles yarn knowing this fiber has the lowest resiliency known to man, especially this type of configuration?

In a tight-looped berber, the fiber will perform when constructed with very dense characteristics. It will still crush, but it won’t look so bad doing it. But in this type of construction in the home using it, the product was destined to fail, as it was perceived to have done.

So, in this case, both the mill and the salesperson failed to understand how the product would perform and let the consumer down. This carpet, too, was just performing up to the standards to which it was designed.

In both these cases, someone tried to push the performance envelope too far. The limitations of these yarn systems were usurped by the marketing and styling departments of both manufacturers. They forgot what both these yarn systems were capable of doing.

No argument will change the laws of nature, physics, or structure. Polypropylene and polyester will mat and crush, and both like oily soil and will ugly out rapidly when constructed or styled improperly and over-marketed, as these products were. If these carpets were nylon, I wouldn’t be writing this right now.

And, so no one feels I’m picking on them, both these yarn systems will perform when constructed and marketed properly. But, as the sayings go, “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it must be a duck.” Denying this will not change the fact, it is a duck.

And, secondly, as Clint Eastwood said, “A carpet man has got to know his limitations.” In both these cases, those limitations were ignored, and the industry pays a price for not recognizing this reality.