Recently, two dealers submitted samples of carpets they received complaints on a very short time after having been installed. The concern was for poor appearance, matting, crushing and color change. Both products were expensive.

One was a beautiful woven product; a very thick cut-pile with an intricate and delicate floral pattern containing wide, open spaces with very light-colored yarn. It was installed in hallways, on stairs and in a living room.

The other broadloom was a cut-and-loop, solid-colored, geometric patterned product also installed in hallways and a living room. Since both of these were highly styled and costly, the expectations of the end-user and retailer were high.

There’s no question when looking at these products that they possess the ability and capabilities to perform well. You can imagine the dismay experienced by the consumers when, after only a matter of a few months, the carpets’ appearance started to change.

With the woven goods, the surface was matted in the traffic lanes and high use and pivotal areas. The pattern basically disappeared. The color appeared to have lightened and washed out. In all the traffic areas the broadloom had exhausted its original, beautiful appearance.

Naturally, the consumer believed the carpet was defective, or else why would it look so bad. The dealer interpreted the complaint condition in the same way. How else could a product that cost him so much look so bad in such a short period of time?

In the case of the second broadloom, it too looked lighter in color and the pattern had virtually disappeared in the most concentrated use areas. This was a low-profile, more densely constructed product you’d anticipate would perform well.

You should not expect it to lose so much of its original appearance after such a short period of time. Neither of these styles was what you would typically think of a polypropylene carpet to look like—the first one looked like wool and the second like nylon.

This was part of the reason the retailer and consumer thought the carpets would perform far better than they did. These two products looked bad after use and after testing, especially the first one.

Both of these broadlooms were constructed of polypropylene yarn which is the least resilient of any fiber or yarn used in the construction of carpet. No matter how beautiful it is made to look you still have to understand that it will mat and crush and create appearance problems, especially when used in cut-pile styles.

This is an inherent characteristic of this fiber that has not changed. Polypropylene can be made to perform well if it is constructed in a low, dense, loop-pile construction. We just installed a gorgeous woven polypropylene carpet in my wife’s home office.

It has low areas of tightly twisted loop-pile yarn and grids of low, dense cut-pile fiber. Because of the pattern and density of the construction and because this space gets very light traffic overall, it will perform well and look good for years.

It was installed in an area suitable for the use of this particular product and it was chosen for how beautiful it would make this room look, not how well it would perform. The broadlooms generating the claims in these two cases were destined to create the complaints they did.

They are not defective, they are performing just as should be expected using poly-propylene yarn in the configuration and styles employed. Just because they are expensive, primarily because of their styling and construction, doesn’t change the fact they are still polypropylene.

In each case, both the dealer and buyer were oversold on them. To settle both claims, the retailers will have to replace each broadloom with something of equal value that looks as good and performs as originally expected, which is going to cost a great deal of money in each case.

It’s nice to think that something which looks so good will perform very well, but don’t delude yourself or mislead the consumer into believing you can change the spots on a leopard, you can’t.

This fiber can be made to perform well but not in the styles used in these two products and certainly not in the areas they were installed. These are products whose use and location has to be limited and targeted very carefully. Don’t oversell them or you will pay a very dear price.