I want to thank all of you who responded to my recent column in which I showed you a photo of a mysterious condition and asked for your help in determining the cause.

The initial evaluation of the condition - compressed, matted circles a couple inches from the wall running the entire length of a hallway, about three inches in diameter - was that the cat did it.

Well, it ended up actually getting the most votes. One reader even had a sample of a carpet he had taken out of a house with these marks in it and supplied photos. Another said he was at the house looking at a complaint like this and actually witnessed the family's cat walking on the spots. Apparently, I have to brush up on the behavior and travel habits of cats in domestic habitats.

At any rate, it got a lot of you thinking, and I sincerely appreciate your feedback. It prompted me to start including more photos in the column to actually show you, when appropriate, the condition being discussed.

Moving on, we've been getting quite a few calls from dealers on complaints for higher-end products, especially woven goods. Unless you are very familiar with them, and not very many of you are, such products have completely different characteristics from tufted carpet. They require a high level of expertise. Older members of the industry should be more familiar with woven products.

And, what you have to know is if you have a problem with these products, call us and ask us to help you. Often we find manufacturers' employees you would talk to regarding a claim or question on these carpets don't know the answers either.

Some tips I will give you though are to make sure you don't oversell these carpets. They may be expensive but so is a Rolls Royce, and they need special care and don't perform like a truck. You can't use an aggressive vacuum cleaner on them, especially if they are wool because you will literally fuzz the surface beyond recognition.

Woven goods have to be installed by skilled craftsman who know how to work with them. You can't take a good carpet installer with no exposure to woven goods and expect him to automatically know what to do. These carpets handle, cut, stretch and fit differently. They require a low profile, firm and dense cushion, again different than what you may already carry. They can be damaged more easily by carelessness.

If nothing else, go online and learn more about woven goods and how to install them.

Woven wool carpets will also fuzz forever, so don't tell customers that it will stop in a couple of weeks. You'll by lying to them, and they'll hold your feet to the fire. Wool is a staple fiber, spun into a yarn. It comes from sheep from different parts of the world. Some wool is very high quality and some isn't. Since it is a staple and it varies, it will slough off continually, that's what it does naturally - it is not a defect or a problem.

Cut pile woven goods are also prone to shading, pile reversal, pooling and watermarking. These are not defects. We have tons of information on this subject if you should need help with it, and I've written several articles on the topic over the years.

This was a very concise expose on woven goods. There is a lot more to know, but what's here should help you a great deal. If you want to know more about carpet in general, attend the LGM Carpet Seminar in Dalton on Oct.1 to 3.