The following question was asked of a dealer recently. “Why is the carpet industry able to set their own standards when anyone that can set their own standards would set them LOW!” He goes on to say; “I’ve been an installer and now a retailer for about 21 years. Hearing that standards are at 3lb for a tuft test (sic) seems absurd to me. That is so low; there might as well not be a test.” Let me explain this, there are a number of ASTM tests for the structural integrity of carpet which include tuft bind, laminate strength, breaking load (relative to stretch in), and dimensional stability. Other tests for pile height, twist, stitch rate, gauge, weight, yarn content, colorfastness, etc. serve as checks and balances to insure carpet lives up to what it is supposed to be relative to the specs it is constructed to and strengths it should have. Our dealer goes on to ask; “if it is true the tuft bind is 3 pounds, who set the standard?” There are actually two tuft bind standards three pounds is for cut pile carpet and 6.25 pounds for loop pile carpet. These are minimums carpet should meet. Space does not allow us to detail the specifics. He also asks what is considered to be high.
We have to look at two types of carpet for the answer. Residential carpet is constructed to the minimum standards; 3 pounds of tuft bind for cut pile, 6.25 pounds for loop pile and 2.5 for backing laminate strength. Commercial carpet has to meet the same requirements but can and often is modified to increase tuft bind to meet or exceed 10 pounds and laminate strengths to exceed 4 pounds. Very often commercial carpet will exceed the minimums but there is nothing mandating that they do other than the specification requiring greater physical strengths. An airport for example would require a stronger carpet than a living room. Let’s compare this to automobile and truck tires. All styles of automobiles will require tires meeting certain ratings as will all 10 wheel dump trucks but you can’t use car tires on a dump truck just as you can use cut pile residential carpet in an airport. So in essence where the carpet is used and the category of use will dictate the criteria of construction. Three pounds of tuft bind for a cut pile carpet is actually pretty strong and if you try to pull a single tuft from the middle of a cut pile carpet it is going to offer some stiff resistance. So the numbers really aren’t low as the dealer suggests.
Who sets the standards? Industry participants, including manufacturers do that. Especially for ASTM standards which include nearly everyone who has anything to do with the product be it carpet or hard surface flooring. Manufacturers don’t want their carpet falling apart on the floor, which it usually doesn’t do and if there is a defect it’s because they messed something up or someone did something to cause the problem. No manufacturer intentionally produces defective products and if they do the defect can be traced back to the origin.
Which brings us to the next point; there’s a product for every application. If you buy an inexpensive flooring product to sell into a high performance area it’s going to fail because the product is incapable of doing what you or the end user expects it to. Just like cheap tires. You can put them on your car but don’t expect them to perform like an expensive Michelin. What we find most often is that expectations are greater than the product is capable of delivering. The reason for this is ignorance on the part of the people selling the product or a builder for example using a cheap product in an expensive house. Ignorance because most people selling floor covering don’t understand the products. And just because the house or condo is expensive doesn’t mean the flooring is. All industries set the standards for their products and why not? Who knows the products best? There are no conspiracies or nothing sinister about this. They make a product for every application and use, you have to know which of them to use and why.
Author: Lewis G. Migliore
LGM and Associates – The Floorcovering Experts