Wool can be a great choice for carpet. Wool is a natural fiber and can last a long time outlasting several other natural and synthetic fibers if treated properly. There are a few draw back of owning a wool carpet as well. Lets first look at why someone might choose to have a wool carpet by examining the fibers characteristics.
Wool, the natural super fiber:
Wool insulates against heat and cold:
Wool can be used as an insulation, and when it comes to covering your floor with a wool carpet, it effectively insulates your flooring. it will keep a room warmer in the winter, and keep heat from entering through the flooring in the summer. All Carpet does this to some effect, but wool is especially good at this.
Wool insulates against noise:
Wool carpets not only insulate against heat and cold, but is also a great noise barrier. Wool carpeting can help give a room a quiet peaceful feeling.
Wool rugs and carpet wears longer:
Because of the strong natural structure of wool, it wears very slowly. Wool carpet can stay looking nice for a long time.
Wool is fire resistant:
Wool unlike many other fibers both natural and synthetic will not burn. Okay so it will burn, but once you lite it on fire, it will self extinguish itself. Other fibers will not only burn but will produce a large flame catching everything else on fire too. Wool is naturally fire retardant.
Wool resists static:
Ever drag your feet across the carpet and then get a ZAP! when you touch something? not with wool. Wool absorbs moisture and will reduce the amount of static electricity that can be created by friction while walking on it.
Wool is green:
Cotton is green too. But cotton doesn't make good carpet. Wool is a practical choice for carpeting if you want a natural fiber and have the want for any of it's fine attributes.
Wools Downside:
Price. Wool is not a cheap fiber. because of it's many great qualities, and it's supply, demand for wool is high, and so is the price.
Wool carpet can loose it's color and be damaged if not treated properly. Wool is very absorbent and can be dyed easily to many brilliant colors, but this same quality that allows it to be easily dyed, means that it can be easily stained as well. Wool has a very strong outer layer protecting the fiber as a whole but can be damaged by high ph or by high heat.
The preceding types of damage that wool carpets often experience occur not only from owners and guests that are walking on the carpet, but many times from untrained or under-trained individuals attempting to clean the carpet. Sometimes damage is unnoticeable and will simply decrease the over life of the carpet, but not when color has been taken out like on this wool rug where oxiclean (not wool safe) was used by a maid to remove a food stain.
There are guidelines for temperature and PH to maintain a safe cleaning of wool, but even with the correct PH level, a cleaning agent can still damage wool if it has too much buffering agent in it. The best way to make sure you don't damage your wool carpet is to make sure "wool safe" is printed on the label of whatever product you are going to use on the wool. These products have undergone extensive testing to make sure that they will not harm your wool.
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Big Rug
Along with all natural fibers there is a chance of damage from insects. Moths and carpet beetle larva will eat wool:
Carpet beetle Damage
If you do have wool rugs, be on the lookout for this common pest found in Bellingham:
The varied carpet beetle is about the same size as a ladybug won't eat wool as an adult, but will lay eggs, the larva shown right will eat wool. Unsure if it's a carpet beetle or something else, give us a call and we'll check it out for you. We not only clean wool the right way, we protect it from pests too.