I am re-carpeting a lot of my house and i have done some basic research before going to a carpet shop. ( Chain) I asked about carpet density and the chap said he had never heard of that term he also phoned the carpet manufacturer and they also don’t give that information. They gave gauge, weight and pile height in Millimetres. I ended up calculating the density number myself, and it did show that the carpet was manufactured to the correct density, but there was no information about the twist number. Are these terms not used anymore? I was told in the shop that the weight was the indicator for quality. But my re-search shows that not to be the case. Is my experience in that shop likely to be replicated in other shops? Any views would be welcome Also if that’s OK I was attracted to the shop for a complete service, old up and away, heavy furniture to be moved, doors to be trimmed and so on. Would small flooring companies offer a similar type of service? We are retired and this set of carpets will see us out as it were, so we would like it done as well as it can be.
Most smaller flooring companies will provide the full service you require, the main difference will likely be, that they will be more transparent about the charges involved, some chains may offer services for free, but that usually just means it's not itemized, the cost is usually just added to another product
I tend to find density isn’t a commonly used term. A lot of people say weight is the indicator for quality as you found but I’d agree that it can be misleading. I try not to use any of the numbers as solid indicators as it can all depend on too many other factors. Better to find someone who knows the products and can explain why that carpet is better than another and you will have more luck finding people like that in smaller shops/independent fitters. They will also tend to offer all the services (most do but not all so would need to check) and price wise are usually more transparent and cost effective. A word of caution on the bigger chains as they (like most) use sub contracted fitters so just because the store offers all the services doesn’t mean their fitter will... Smaller shops will be far more honest. Good luck. There are lots of fitters/shops on here. If you say where you are we can recommend some places to look.
Thanks for the replies, interesting that the density thing isn’t commonly used, the articles i read said it was essential. Easy enough to work it out though. I am off to see an independent who has been trading for over 50 years later today so it will be good to see what they say. I used a small independent for my windows twice in the last 30 years, same people working there, great service ,their own fitters and fantastic follow up for catches to be fixed and so on. They told me the name of the manufacturer of the windows so i could check them out. Also one price quote, no special sales/deals that make you wonder what is actually a fair price. The carpet chain i was in had ’sales’ going on, and as a consumer I didn’t know if they were taking an inflated price down to around what it should be or it was genuine reduction. I suspect the former, as they were quoting 50% reduction plus 10 or 20% off if you bought their underlay. I live in Bournemouth so any suggestions for a company that share the same approach as the window company would be very helpful.
Saw the independent today and was very happy with them. The owners son spent some time with us and was knowledgeable and helpful, he did know about density ( Didn't explain it completely), he told us about carpet manufacturing and how Belgium was a key player. He also explained how they went about ordering the carpet if we agree to go forward. He provides the full service, carpets were priced without gimmicks, interestingly Door trimming was 20% cheaper then the chain, uplift and dispose 60% cheaper, Underlay 2.00 SQ metre cheaper. Carpets seemed on a par. We were able to get the manufactures names, the carpets we are looking at are Adams and Penthouse. They have arrangements with self employed carpet fitters , they have worked together for years and they will stand behind their work. The store wasn’t as well laid out as the chain, it had a more ‘woking type feel’ than a 'sales feel’, we spent some time with another person and he was also knowledgeable and helpful. So we are going with them , thanks for the replies. I will update again after we have done the deal and carpets laid.
Both good carpets. The weight is misleading. The gauge is similar to density. It’s how much carpet is tufted per square inch I think? So a tighter gauge will give a denser pile and will wear better. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Before i retired i was heavily involved in creating and running training programmes for companies in all sectors and staff at all levels. including in retail. so over the last couple of days i have treated buying our carpets as if i was training someone to work with a customer. ( I’ve got time on my hands and i like learning new stuff). So without talking about interacting with the customer or how carpets are fitted and so on , i have learned the following. i will just focus on tufted, wool mix, and i will reference the two carpets we are looking at. Googling ‘what makes a good quality carpet’ all articles i came across talked about density. Other factors mentioned were pile height, weight of the yarn, gauge, stitch rate and twist number. So Density is a number generally between 3,000 and 7,000 and is calculated by, multiplying the weight of the yarn by the number 36 and dividng it by the height of the pile in inches. 7,00 is commercial grade 5,000 is heavy domestic. So Adams pure brit supreme is 55oz and has pile height of approach 10ml (I say approx because it doesn’t tell you and so i had to measure it, neither does the Penthouse) so the density is 5029 Penthouse Esprit is 60 oz with a pile height of 8ml so destiny is 6286 I converted the pile height from Ml to inches. IF you look at the gauge Adams is 5/32 which is 6.5 stitches across an inch, and the Penthouse is 10 per inch, but that alone is no good, you need the stitch rate, how many stitches are put in lengthways governed by how fast does the carpet go through the stitching machine., I tried to count the stitches but its difficult. The penthouse definitely has more, BUT the yarn on the Adams is visibly thicker than the yarn on the penthouse. So its bit apple and pears. Another factor commonly talked about was Twist number , the number of times the Yarn has been twisted. the more the better. No information on either. But i saw in their blurb on one carpet from Adams that they claim to twist their yarn 33% more than others. Very high quality carpets have twist rate of around 7 to 9 twists an inch whilst lower quality is 3 to 4 an inch. We are going to go with the Penthouse, they both look and feel very good although the Penthouse is over specified for our use, but what decided us was that we did the claw test on both. In both shops the people we talked to said ’this is a good carpet’ at the same time brushing their hand across the top of the pile, we of course did the same and indeed they felt like nice carpet. But on reading up one article said make you hand into a claw and push down on the pile, how easy is it to touch the backing material and how quickly does the pile come back to rest. The penthouse was much better on this. Finally ( if you are still reading!!), this Imo is all down to manufactures confusing use of terms and omitting information that is needed to make a judgement on a carpet, before talking to the experts. Thanks again...
