Carpet Materials: Wool or Synthetic?

If you’re looking at installing new carpet at your home or office, at some point you’ll be faced with the decision of wool carpet or synthetic carpet. Both options have their own benefits, but much of the choice will guided by your lifestyle and current situation.

Today, we’ll look at the various influencing factors behind both options, including price, durability, safety, and aesthetics, so you can decide which type of carpet is best for you.

The benefits of synthetic carpet

Synthetic carpet is durable, cost-effective, and resistant to stains and fading. Depending on the type of synthetic fibres used in the carpet itself, you’ll receive similar but slightly varying benefits:

• Nylon is a durable, easy-to-clean, and resilient material, and the most sustainable of the synthetics fibres. Nylon fibre helps carpet retain its shape, offers good abrasion resistance, and both holds colour and resists stains well.

• Polyester is available in a wide range of colours, and provides great fade- and stain-resistance qualities.

• Polypropylene is inexpensive, provides superior stain resistance, and is highly effective for resisting sun fading.

Choosing synthetic carpet will largely come down to cost and application. If you’re looking at installing carpet in a high-traffic office area, or at home where children and pets are present, synthetic carpet can be an excellent choice to guard against stains and resist fading.

Modern synthetic carpet is often just as appealing in softness and aesthetics as wool carpet, which makes it a great choice for residential or commercial flooring that will see regular foot traffic but won’t be occupied on a constant basis.

The benefits of wool carpet

Wool carpet is slightly more expensive than synthetic options, but offers a more complete range of benefits for living spaces and family home, including:

• Soft and natural fibres
• Environmentally friendly natural wool
• Natural moisture absorption and sound insulation.
• Fibres resistant to crushing or squashing.
• Resistance to dirt while retaining colour.
• High fire-resistance.

With the correct amount of care, wool carpet can last a lifetime. It’s equally as resilient to heavy foot traffic as its synthetic counterparts, and returns to its natural state quickly following heavy compression by desks or furniture. The downside of wool carpet is that the natural fibres absorb colour easily – which makes them great to dye, but susceptible to stains in an active area.

However, wool carpet is highly resistant to dirt, and is the perfect option for occupied spaces in winter due to its breathability. When humidity is high, wool fibres naturally absorb moisture without becoming damp, releasing this again when humidity drops. This makes wool carpet a fantastic insulator in winter, and keeps a space cool in the heat of summer.

The other benefit of natural wool fibres is their ability to absorb pollutants in the air, which is ideal for a house that requires greater protection against allergies and toxins.

Calbeni Flooring – trusted flooring experts in Wellington

Choosing the best carpet for your home or office is an important, lasting decision. Whichever option you decide, the team at Calbeni Flooring are here to help. Our office is based in Wellington, New Zealand, and we feature an excellent range of NZ-made flooring products, including synthetic and wool carpet, garage carpet, and vinyl flooring.

If you’d like to learn more about our carpet laying services in Wellington speak to one of the Calbeni Flooring team today. As trusted flooring experts in the Wellington region, we offer competitive pricing and assistance throughout the decision-making and installation process, so you can make an informed decision on the carpet you’d like, and have peace of mind that it’ll last long into the future.