Recently two carpet 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. This carpet was installed in hallways, on stairs and in a living room. The other carpet was a cut and loop, solid colored geometric patterned product also installed in hall¬ways and a living room. Since both of these carpet products were highly styled and costly the expectations of the end user and the dealer were high.
There’s no question that looking at these products the perception would be that they possess the ability and capabilities to perform well; that is look good for a long time. You can imagine the dismay experienced by the consumer when after only a matter of a few months the carpets ap-pearance started to change. In the case of the woven goods, the surface was matted in the traf¬fic lanes and high use and pivotal areas. The pattern, which is light and delicate, basically dis-appeared. The color appeared to have lightened and washed out. In all of the traffic areas the carpet 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 carpet that cost him so much look so bad in such a short period of time?
In the case of the second carpet, it too looked lighter in color and the pattern had virtually disap-peared in the most concentrated use areas. This was a low profile more densely constructed carpet that one would anticipate would perform well. At least one should not expect it to loose so much of its original appearance after such a short period of time – again within months of having been installed.
Neither of these carpet 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 rea¬son I believe the dealer and the consumer thought the carpets would perform far better than they did. In addition, neither of these carpets was inexpensive. The fact that one was woven and beautifully styled would evoke more belief in higher quality than the product actually pos¬sessed. The second was also beautifully styled, was fairly low and dense and a dark color, which would again lead one to expect greater performance than the carpet was actually capable of. These two products really did look bad after use and after testing, especially the first one, the fine pattern wasn’t even distinguishable in the most adversely affected areas.
Both of these carpets were constructed of polypropylene yarn. Polypropylene is the least resil-ient 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 it is 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 yarn. Because of the pattern and the density of the construction and because this space gets very light traffic overall, this carpet will perform well and look good for years. It was put in an area that is suitable for the use of this particular carpet and it was chosen for how beautiful it would make this room look, not how well it would perform.
The carpets generating the claims in these two cases were destined to create the complaints they did. These two carpets are not defective they are performing just as should be expected using polypropylene yarn in the configuration and styles employed. Just because these two high styled carpets are expensive, primarily because of their styling and construction, doesn’t change the fact that they are still polypropylene. Both the dealer and the consumer were oversold on these products. To settle both claims the dealer will have to replace the carpet with something of equal value that looks as good and performs as originally expected, which is going to cost each a lot of money. It’s nice to think that something that 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’ll pay a very dear price.
706-370-5888
lgmtcs@optilink.us
