Most people use carpets to cover their floors in homes because they add warmth to living spaces and bedrooms, making them feel comfortable and cozy. While the decision of getting a carpet for your home may be easy, it can get a bit confusing when you start shopping for one.
Besides looking at the color and size of the carpet, you’ll come across woven and nonwoven carpets in the market. At that point, you’ll need to decide which of these will suit your needs best, so it’s important to know the features of both options.
Carpet 101
Carpets are manufactured either by weaving or tufting. Those that are made through tufting are commonly referred to as nonwoven carpets. Nonwoven carpets are made by bonding web or sheet structures by entangling fiber chemically or mechanically. Unlike woven carpets, no knitting or weaving is required to make nonwoven carpets. Meanwhile, woven carpets are made by interlacing face and back yarns.
One of the most common questions people ask when they go shopping for carpets is whether a durable nonwoven carpet is better than a woven one. The reality is each of these has its merits and demerits, as explored below.
Woven Carpets And Their Benefits
Woven carpets are high-quality carpets largely made from wool or a blend of yarn that’s predominantly wool. These are made using looms similar to traditional methods where carpet fibers are woven onto backings to create a strong, durable product.
Woven carpets can be made using a machine or by hand. Both processes involve weaving yarn around vertical carpet fibers known as warps and locking them in place using horizontal strands. This makes woven carpets three times more durable than nonwoven carpets. Even so, the former takes much longer to make than the latter. This is understandable because the process involves interweaving wefts and warps to produce patterns.
Despite this downside, woven carpets offer several benefits to users. The weaving process makes it possible to produce carpets that have distinct designs and color matches. Woven carpets are also effective at reducing noise and preventing falls or slips.
They’re easy to maintain and they offer more comfort to the feet. Since they allow air to pass through, woven carpets are an excellent choice for anyone who wants to improve indoor air quality.
Nonwoven Carpets And Their Benefits
Nonwoven carpets are made by stitching yarns on backings made from synthetic materials. The backings are similar to fish netting, and in some instances, the synthetic material is replaced with jute. Small pieces of looped or cut yarn are poked through to form the primary backing. The secondary backing is made from heavy cotton material that resembles canvas. The adhesive is then used to attach the primary backing to the secondary backing.
Nonwoven carpets can be made by hand or using a machine. If you decide to buy one, you’ll enjoy a wide range of benefits. These include reliability as the carpets are sturdy and hardwearing.
The versatility of nonwoven carpets doesn’t end with color, size, and shape as it extends to the surface. The carpets are available in varying surface options, texture, and finishing. They come with intricate design details and the final product has no seams.
Conclusion
There are different elements one must consider when choosing between nonwoven and woven carpets. When it comes to durability and quality, woven carpets are more superior to nonwoven ones. But with the advancing technology, nonwoven carpets follow closely.
While nonwoven carpets come in limitless colors and designs, they fade and wear easily. On the contrary, woven carpets are made from pre-dyed yarns. This means their color has full penetration, which gives it a deeper texture. Nonwoven carpets also delaminate as time goes by. Since the adhesive is used to join the secondary and primary backings, its strength deteriorates with time and the layers start to separate. This isn’t the case with woven carpets because they don’t require secondary backing.
But when it comes to shape and size, nonwoven carpets offer more benefits than woven ones. There are no limits to the sizes or shapes nonwoven carpets offer. This means they’re available in different surface options including shearing, beveling, carving, embossing, and others. This isn’t the case with woven carpets.
As such, each carpet type has its own merits and demerits. This means woven and nonwoven carpets are made to fit for different scenarios, and it’s up to the buyer to determine which meets their needs best. Consider the ideas mentioned here as you make a decision as to what kind of carpet to buy.
