Best Carpet Yarn 3.....

Solution Dyed Carpet Yarn. Simply The Best....

We finish up our discussion on best carpet yarns this week with this blog on solution dyed nylon. The solution dying process is mainly used in commercial grade carpet. You don't see this process used very often in the manufacture of residential carpet but one of the big three carpet mills, Beaulieu, has a new line of carpet using this dying process.

Simply put, solution dying is the process of injecting the dye into the carpet yarn while it is still in liquid (solution) form. When the yarn is extruded the color (dye) is all the way through the yarn. Most carpets are made with greige goods and then dyed to a specific color. In this process the carpet is made with greyish/white colored yarn and then run through a dyer where the yarn is dyed. If you were to cut a carpet yarn in half that is dyed in the conventional method, the inside of the yarn would still be the greyish/white color. If you were to cut  a solution dyed nylon carpet yarn in half, you would see that the yarn is colored completely through. Inside and out.

Because of the way solution dyed yarn is dyed, it is very stain resistant, extremely fade resistant and still wears like a nylon yarn (because it is a nylon yarn). So you get all of the benefits of nylon yarn (wear resistance, resiliency and softness) along with the fantastic stain resistance that you would normally see in olefin yarns or polyester carpet yarns.

Some of the best warranties in the business are attached to this style of carpet (and I mean actual warranties, unlike some of the warranties that mills put on their carpets that have so many restrictions and limits that they will almost never pay off on any of their warranties!!).

You can even clean some of the toughest stains using a mixture of half water and half bleach! Try that with any other type of carpet yarn and see what happens........large whiteish blotches will form on your carpet if you were to try this cleaning solution with just about any other type of carpet.

So in our humble opinion, solution dyed nylon is the best carpet yarn to use for residential carpet. Really no need to say anything else....







Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Best Carpet Yarn 2

So now that we've discussed the value of wear and resilience in carpet yarn, this week we will touch on stain resistance.

Stain resistance has taken on added importance these days as family's lifestyles are getting busier and more hectic. There was a time that most family's wouldn't let you eat in the family room much less the living room. Do you remember as a kid how if you tried to take some food into the family room to watch TV while you ate, your mother would let you know about it. Food and drink just weren't allowed in carpeted rooms. Because of this, wear and resiliency were more important than stain resistance.

These days, everybody eats in the family room. They eat in the living room. And in our bedrooms. And the basement (which are mostly carpeted these days). We pretty much eat everywhere in the house. Because of this (and the resultant spillage. Yikes) carpet has to be stain resistant. What good is carpet that will wear forever if it stains up like crazy.

Scotchgard was one of the first stain protections developed. It was a topical treatment that provided a barrier between dirt, stains etc and the carpet yarn. This barrier stopped stains from penetrating into the carpet as long as you cleaned up the spill relatively fast. Dirt also cleaned off of the carpet. One of the drawbacks to this topical treatment was that after a couple of cleanings, most of the topical treatment was gone leaving the carpet yarn exposed to future spills.

Along came the built in stain protection. Stainmaster, Anso, Weardated and Scotchgard Stain Release were the top brands in built in stain protection applied to mostly nylon carpet yarns. Basically how this worked was that the yarns were treated with a fluorocarbon system. Most carpet yarns when they are extruded will have very fine pores. These pores will absorb spills and are hard to clean out. This is the idea behind hot steam extraction. Hot steam penetrates the yarn and cleans as the steam is extracted out of the yarn. The built in stain protection basically filled these tiny pores thereby creating essentially a solid yarn. This solid yarn won't absorb spills. The stain will stay on the surface of the yarn and is easily cleaned off with a good carpet cleaning solution. Most nylon yarns are treated for stain resistance in this way.

Polyester on the other hand is inherently stain resistant. PET polyester is made with recycled pop bottles. A form of plastic. This yarn is extremely hard to stain. Because of polyesters superior stain resistant properties, this yarn is starting to take market share away from nylon (the fact that polyester costs less than nylon doesn't hurt either).

Olefin yarn (used mainly in Berbers and commercial grade carpet) is also extremely stain resistant because of it's hydrophobic properties (it doesn't absorb water so it won't absorb stains). This is why olefin carpet is solution dyed (the yarns are dyed while they are still in liquid form so the color goes throughout the yarn). Not only does olefin not absorb water or stains but it also doesn't absorb the dye very well during the dying process. So the carpet mills will dye the carpet before extruding the yarn. More on solution dying later (hint: solution dyed nylon, probably the best yarn period as it combines wear ability, resilience and stain resistance in one yarn......)

Wool, since it's a natural yarn and hence porous, will absorb stains and is probably the worst yarn for stain resistance.

Rankings of carpet yarn for stain resistance

1.  Solution dyed nylon
2.  Olefin
3.  Polyester
4.  Nylon
5.  Wool

The top three are considered extremely stain resistant and will suffice for most carpet installations where stain resistance is the top priority. Next week more on solution dyed nylon.........the best carpet yarn period (in our humble opinion).

Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering

http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Best Carpet Yarn??

Best carpet yarn??

Today we explore the heat set in carpet yarn!

With the proliferation of polyester carpet yarns we want to set the record straight today about which carpet yarn is best (in our humble opinion).

While every carpet yarn has pros and cons, there is still a yarn system that we feel outperforms all others. The mainstream carpet yarns are nylon, wool, polyester, triexta (a form of polyester, more on this later) and olefin.

Nylon is still the best wearing yarn out there. It is almost impossible to wear out with normal residential wear and it has great resilience. Most carpets never wear out but they will "ugly" out. The carpet mills consider wear out as carpet fiber worn away. This can only happen with abrasive wear and is the main reason why you should clean your carpets every 12 to 18 months. To get rid of all of the dirt particles which can act like sandpaper to your carpet.

Even though nylon yarn is the hardest to wear out, it's nylon's resiliency that is it's greatest feature. Most carpet yarns are heat set. What is this? When you separate the carpet yarns in your carpet you will see that each individual yarn has been twisted. Kind of like a rope. The carpet mills have determined that the yarns are so much stronger when they are twisted together. This is great as long as they stay twisted together and this is wear nylon yarn shines and heat set comes into play.

To keep the yarns tightly twisted together, the mills have heat set the yarns. As you know, if you cut a rope that is intertwined, it will fray at the ends. The more it frays the more it starts to unwind and pretty soon your rope isn't worth anything. The same with carpet yarns. In a cut pile carpet, each yarn end (like in the rope example) is cut. So the yarn wants to unwind and fray with normal foot traffic. As they unwind and fray, the carpet starts to ugly out. It will look worn and just plain ugly. No way to fix this. You will have to replace the carpet.

Now, with heat set, the mills have "set" the twist in the yarn with heat. The higher the heat, the longer the yarn wants to stay twisted. So the higher the heat, the longer the yarn stays twisted, the longer a carpet holds up to foot traffic, the longer the carpet will look good and longer the carpet will last for you.

As you may have guessed by now, nylon yarn can withstand the highest heat levels and so will keep it's twist level longer than other yarns. If you were to set the heat level the same for a polyester carpet, the yarn would melt. So even though polyester carpet yarns are heat set, they are heat set at a lower heat level than the nylon yarns and hence will not stand up to higher foot traffic when it comes to maintaining it's look. And because nylon carpet yarn stands up better to higher wear (keeps it's look longer, doesn't ugly out as fast) it will last longer than other types of carpet. The longer a carpet wears, the longer it will last for you and the less often you will have to replace it, thus saving you money in the long haul.

So when it comes to longevity and what type of carpet will stand up best to wear and look good the longest, nylon yarn is still king of the heap.

Carpet yarn wear and resiliency rankings:
1. Nylon
2. Wool
3. Triexta
4. Polyester
5. Olefin

So if wear and resiliency are the most important factors for you when buying a new carpet then nylon should be your choice!

Next week we discuss stain resistance as another important factor in determining the best carpet yarn.




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Humidity Levels and Wood Flooring...

Why are humidity levels important for a wood flooring installation job and for the wood flooring itself going forward?

Wood flooring is made of wood (duh!). The wood in the hardwood flooring was once a living and breathing tree. During the tree's lifespan, the wood constantly had moisture flowing through it to feed the tree. So, while the term "wood flooring and water don't mix" is accurate, the fact is hardwood flooring still needs some moisture to keep from drying out and remaining viable.

Gapping caused by low humidity levels

If your home is allowed to become too dry, your hardwood flooring will contract (shrink). If the surrounding air remains too dry for an extended period of time, then the wood flooring (and your furniture and pretty much anything in your home made of wood) could start to crack. When you see cracking in a hardwood floor or in your wood furniture it will almost always be from lack of moisture. Just as your skin will start to crack when it's dry so will your hardwood floor. And just as this is bad for your skin it's also bad for your hardwood flooring. Expansion and contraction in your hardwood flooring is fairly normal but cracking is not and really can't be fixed. A cracked board will remain cracked. Replacement is really the only option to get rid of a cracked floor board.

Cupping of hardwood flooring

Now, too much moisture is also bad for wood. Too much moisture can cause the hardwood flooring to expand so much that it can actually cup or buckle. As each individual board making up a hardwood flooring installation absorbs moisture out of the air they will start expanding. Each hardwood flooring job should have adequate expansion gaps around the edge of the room allowing for this normal expansion. Without adequate expansion gaps (and too much moisture in the air) the hardwood flooring will cup (the edges of the boards will raise while the middle stays down). With extreme moisture absorption the flooring will start to buckle.

Cupping caused from too much moisture

So you can see that too much moisture or too little moisture can really damage your hardwood flooring. Just the right amount of moisture is ideal. Keeping your home with a relative humidity level between 35% and 55% will keep the wood flooring from gapping in the dry months and cupping or buckling during the humid months. You can purchase a humidistat from your local hardware store to monitor the health (humidity levels) of your home.

If your home is too dry, you may need to purchase a whole house humidification system that attaches to your furnace (as a matter of fact, if you have hardwood floors in your home you should definitely have a whole house humidification system) or smaller 1 room humidifiers set up in or near the areas that you have wood floors. With a humidistat and some type of humidification system you should be able to keep your home within the required humidity levels for optimal hardwood flooring performance. This will minimize the fooring's expansion and contraction cycles. If you kept your home at a constant humidity level of let's say 41%, you really shouldn't have any floor movement at all (theoretically).

Wood and water don't mix but hardwood and some moisture is critical for a healthy hardwood floor that will last for years and years and years......

Next week we'll talk about the differences between an engineered floor and solid hardwood as it pertains to expansion and contraction. How wider width planks also affect performance when it comes to expansion and contraction. Also, dimensional stability. How it's different between solid hardwood flooring and engineered hardwood flooring and how different species are affected by similar moisture levels......

Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Flooring Installation.....

Stuff About Flooring Installation...

Well, it seems like the average consumer assumes that all installations are the same. That the installation crew that you get from the big box stores (and you know who you are!!) are of the same quality as you will get from a dedicated flooring company. The consumer feels that the installation you get for $97 for the whole house (or $37 or free for that matter) is of the same exact quality that the mom and pop store will provide. And you can't be farther from the truth!!!

This Baby Loves The Carpet Installation!

While the big box stores will negotiate the price of their labor down to the bare minimum with their installation crews, the mom and pop stores are busy finding the absolute best installation contractors they can and are willing to pay top dollar for them. After all, we know that a botched installation can follow us through non referrals for a long time. We know that the new flooring job is only as good as the installation of that new floor.

We can be the absolute best when it comes to the flooring products we carry, the flooring knowledge we have and the prices we offer but if our installation crew botches the job then we are nothing. Nobody will ever come back to us if we screw up the job at the installation level.

So it is imperative for us smaller flooring companies to have the absolute best, knowledgeable and reliable flooring installers we can find. Trust me, you get what you pay for when it comes to good, honest, capable, reliable and high quality flooring installers. And when you're paying $97 for installation (or less) "THAT'S WHAT YOU'RE GETTING"! A $97 installation company!

Good flooring companies will value their installation crews and pay them accordingly. Not so good flooring companies will try to find the cheapest installation crews around and pay them accordingly. Now, who would you rather have installing new flooring in your home?

All flooring installations are NOT the same. Nuff said.......




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

What's The Best Carpet for a Rental?

So what is the best carpet for a rental?

Well, cheap of course!!!!!  I guess that goes without being said but there are differing reasons for certain types of carpet. This will be based mainly on what type of perspective renters you will have living in your house, condo or apartment.

There are mainly 4 types of renters.

1. Low risk people that will be staying for years (long term renters)
2. Low risk people that will be staying for a short time (short time renters)
3. High risk people that will be staying for a long time (long term renters)
4. High risk people that normally don't stay long at all (short time renters)

Most styles of carpet will not wear out. They will ugly out (mat down, untwisting of the yarns, tip blossom etc) long before they will wear out. And in the case of rentals, most carpet will get stained, ripped or torn long before they wear out. These are general statements that will vary depending on the quality of carpet you have installed and the type of renter you have.

Okay, let's take each scenario one at a time shall we?

1. Low risk long term renter: You can usually spend a little more in this instance because most low risk, long term renters will treat your rental unit like their very own. They know that they are going to stay for a long time and want to live in a nice place so they will normally take very good care of your carpet. In this case what you want is a carpet that has stain protection (accidents still happen!) and can withstand years of wear. So a medium grade/medium priced carpet that is a great value with built in stain protection is the best in this case.

2. Low risk short term renter: These people, even though they won't be staying long, still will take very good care of your carpet. They are inherently clean people that want to live in a nice place! With these folks you will hopefully be able to reuse the carpet after they move out. So you will get more than one use out of your carpet. So again, a medium grade/ medium priced carpet should do the trick. You will get years of use out of your carpet and shouldn't have to change it for a long time.

Rental Unit Carpet Abuse

3. High risk long term renter: Putting in a medium grade/ medium priced carpet in this instance may or may not pan out for you. They make stain, mutilate and otherwise destroy this carpet in a relatively short time and since they are staying for a long time they will want the carpet replaced as a condition for them to stay. You know as well as I do that sometimes renters can be hard to find. A rental sitting empty is just money lost. So you may find yourself replacing carpet long before you should have to. So in this case a low quality/ low priced carpet with great stain resistance is a must (probably a polyester carpet in varying degrees of quality). That way the carpet may ugly out fast but at least it won't be stained. In these instances you can usually avoid having to replace the carpet early.

4. High risk short term renter: This type of renter knows they aren't staying long and don't really care if they mess up the existing carpet. These instances usually call for constant carpet replacements. The carpet doesn't wear out, mat down, ugly out or anything like that but it will usually be abused badly. Stains, rips, tears etc. Since you will never get the wear out of the carpet in this situation, the quality of carpet is irrelevant. Stain protection is still a must but if you buy a polyester carpet or olefin carpet, you can get high stain resistance at a low cost.

So not all rental situations are created equal and each specific instance has different solutions. Carpet is not rocket science but there are sound reasons behind every different scenario. With rentals you want to make money and keeping your floor replacement costs low will help insure this. Going cheap is not always the best way. Matching up the flooring to each different rental scenario will help insure that you make the right choice.

Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Solid Wood Treads or Wood Flooring on Stairs?

Solid Wood Treads or Wood Flooring on Stairs?

We are currently working on a large solid hardwood job and we will be replacing the carpet on the steps with hardwood. There are a few ways to do this but the main two ways of turning your stairs into a hardwood staircase is to install solid wood treads or install hardwood flooring on the steps.

What's the best way? It depends on what type of steps you currently have, the overall look desired and the construction of the stair itself.

Oak Treads

The staircase in question is an open ended stairwell where both of the step ends are open and do not have a stringer (the stringer is the side of the stairwell that each individual step ends at. Only enclosed stairwells will have stringers). These steps currently have a railing with spindles that are attached at the edges of the step. In this case, 7 steps have both sides open ended and 7 more steps that butt up to a stringer on one side and are open ended on the other side.

Now normally the best way to turn these carpeted steps into a wood stairway would be to disassemble the hand railing, remove the carpet and install solid wood treads (removing and replacing the current tread is a job for a finish carpenter). Then you would need to sand down, stain and finish the treads with an oil base or water based finish. You can also install a wood riser to be stained or painted depending on your preference.

The second option is used when you are installing a new hardwood floor in other rooms of the house that lead up to the stairs. If you are purchasing a pre-finished hardwood floor and you want the stairs to match, then 1 good option would be to install the pre-finished hardwood flooring on the stairs also.
With enclosed steps this is no big deal. We do it all the time. On an opened ended staircase then the best method becomes more murky.

Hardwood Flooring Installed on Steps

To install pre-finished hardwood flooring on an open ended stair case, you will have to frame each step with a stair nose. Then install the pre-finished hard wood flooring within that frame. You will cut off the overhang on the current tread. Your new stair noses will become the new overhang. Your riser can be covered with the hardwood flooring also or you can install birch plywood to be painted.

This method will insure that your flooring is an exact match with your stairs. Also, not to be overlooked is the importance of the finish itself also matching. With the job we are working on right now, the hardwood flooring finish is Mohawk's Armor Max which is an extremely hard finish with a 50 year finish warranty. Nothing compares to the wearability of this finish. So if we were to put solid hardwood treads on the stairs and sand, stain and finish them with the best on site finishing products available there would be a huge performance difference between the two floorings.

To sum up; the best method for creating a hardwood staircase is probably using solid wood stair treads but in certain circumstances that will not be the case. Color match and finish match are two very important considerations. So in our example, installing a pre-finished hardwood flooring product onto the existing stairs is the better choice.








Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Do You Need To Acclimate Your Hardwood Before Installation?

Do You Need To Acclimate Your Hardwood Before Installation? No!

The hardwood manufacturers would have you believe that you MUST acclimate your wood before the installation. There are good reasons for that but it really isn't a necessity.

Installing hardwood in your home adds beauty, durability and value. So you want to install it the right way. Hardwood, being a natural product, used to be a living thing. But now that the tree has been cut down and milled into a flooring product, it still breathes. Hardwood will adsorb the moisture from the air and expand. Or in cold weather climates, hardwood will dry out when the air in the home is dry. With a forced air furnace running during the colder months, the air in the home can become very dry. Without adequate moisture in the air the wood will contract (shrink). With prolonged bouts of dryness (dry air) the wood can actually start to crack (this will be a discussion for another day: the importance of keeping the relative humidity in your home at a somewhat constant rate and the benefits of it).

But our blog today is on acclimating the wood. Acclimating the wood means having the wood delivered a few days before the actual installation so that it can sit in the home and "acclimate" to the humidity levels in the home.

Why is this important? Well, if you bring out the wood to the job site and the moisture content of the wood is over 2% higher than the base floor then this can cause issues. Issues that the hardwood flooring manufacturer know can and will happen. The most common problem associated with non acclimation is this: let's say that the new hardwood flooring that is to be installed in your home has a moisture content of 6.7%. The plywood subfloor that the hardwood is to be installed over has a moisture content of 9.2% (it's been a humid summer). Now when we install the wood flooring, the higher moisture content will wick up into the new flooring. The new hardwood will start to absorb the moisture out of the subfloor. The new hardwood remember has a moisture content of 6.7% and we are installing it tight together on your substrate.

In a fairly short time frame the moisture levels of the two floorings (the new hardwood and existing plywood subfloor) will become somewhat equal. The subfloor will lose moisture and the new hardwood will gain moisture. So the new hardwood will now expand. Remember earlier in this blog we explained how wood will expand and contract with differing humidity levels.

So now the wood is installed and expanding. There is really no room for the wood to expand. Because we've installed it with a 6.7% moisture level and now it's closer to 8% after installation, you can get buckling of the floor. Remember, the wood is expanding with no place for it to go. This can and will cause flooring failure and the hardwood flooring manufacturers will not honor ANY warranty claims if the wood was not acclimated properly!

So why do I say that acclimation is not always necessary? Well basically, if the moisture content of the new hardwood and the existing substrate is within 2% then no acclimation is necessary. For example: the hardwood has a moisture content of 7% and the plywood subfloor has a moisture content of 7.5%. This would be okay. The new hardwood floor can tolerate a 2% variance without any installation issues in most cases.

I've always wondered why the hardwood flooring manufacturers would insist on acclimation. My thoughts behind this were based on installing hardwood in the humid summer months here in Michigan. If I brought out the new hardwood to acclimate and the relative humidity in the home/air was extremely high (like over 90%), then why would I want to acclimate the wood. The wood sitting in the home would start to absorb all this moisture and start expanding. Now my 5' wide boards are actually 5.1" wide or more upon installation. This is fine during the humid summer months but in the dry air of winter months, the floor will shrink and gaps will start to form in the flooring between planks. This is especially true on wide boards made of hickory or maple!

The secret is to have the new hardwood flooring be within 2% moisture content of the subfloor (thus avoiding any installation issues) AND have the relative humidity in the air to be between 35% and 55%. This is the optimal situation for hardwood flooring installation. I would rather not bring out and acclimate the new hardwood flooring in a home where the humidity is sky high. Rather, we need to bring down the humidity level in the home become acclimation. Running your air conditioner for about a week before installation of your new hardwood will sufficiently dehumidify your home for optimal installation conditions.

Now, I'm not saying don't acclimate your hardwood flooring because the fact is the flooring manufacturers will not warranty your flooring if it isn't acclimated. They have found it safer to just say acclimate everything. Whether it's needed or not is irrelevant. Most hardwood flooring retailers won't educate the consumers about the requirements of whole house humidity levels and take the easy way out. Acclimate everything....(if you have shrinking during dry months and gaps between planks, the hardwood flooring manufacturers will just say it's normal but is that what you, the consumer, want?).

Acclimate everything. But is it needed everytime? No. If the moisture content in the new hardwood is within 2% of the basefloor then no acclimation is really needed.

What about engineered flooring? Does it need to be acclimated since it is much more dimensionally stable compared to solid hardwood? Now that's a blog for another day.......




Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Solid Wood VS Engineered Wood

Wood flooring.

Most people in the Midwest seem to think that solid hardwood is better than engineered hardwood. Why is that? Engineered wood flooring has been the preferred wood flooring on both coasts. The right coast and the left coast have been buying engineered for a long time now. Throughout my 37 years in the flooring business I've almost exclusively sold solid hardwood. Just about every job is solid. But is it better? Now that's the question......

Of course there are always pros and cons to every product and some products work better in certain situations.

Solid hardwood is of course solid wood. One big chunk of oak or maple or hickory or whatever species of wood you would prefer milled to a certain width and length (almost always 3/4" thick). People think a solid chunk of wood would be better than engineered which is a number of ply of wood glued and compressed together. Well, engineered wood is also an all wood floor, just not one big chunk of wood.

They make engineered wood flooring with anywhere from 3 to 7 ply (sometimes more). Each layer has the grain turned 90 degrees. This gives engineered wood unrivaled stability compared to solid wood. This is probably the biggest asset for engineered wood flooring (stability is the attribute where wood will expand and contract with differing humidity levels. Like during the winter when the furnace is running all the time your solid wood flooring will shrink as it loses moisture. This will cause gaps in your floor between planks especially in the wider planks. In the summer when the humidity returns your wood will expand and close those gaps. Engineered wood because of the way it is constructed will not have this problem). You can install engineered wood flooring below grade on a concrete floor (you can't do this with solid wood unless you first add a plywood base floor over the cement which will greatly increase the expense of the overall job). Plus, the higher humidity levels you will encounter below grade may wreak havoc with a solid wood floor, especially with wider planks.

So below grade and/or on a cement substrate, engineered wood flooring is the way to go. Above grade you can easily use either option.

Also, engineered flooring is considered a "green" product because you are using much less of the featured hardwood (such as maple) in the final product. The top layer will be maple whereas the other ply will feature a softer wood such as spruce. This saves on the number of premium trees that have to be cut down to make a maple floor. Which is good, isn't it?  No problem cutting down them spruce trees......lol. Way to many of them around anyways......JK



Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Stainmaster is Polyester???

Since when is Stainmaster a polyester?

Maybe it's been out for a while but I just came across a carpet that was Stainmaster brand but wasn't a nylon! Huh?

Stainmaster has always been a nylon carpet. Stainmaster had exacting standards that included: it must be a nylon fiber, at least 28 oz face weight and was made with nylon 6.6 (which is a certain type of nylon yarn that would clean easier)! So I was flabbergasted to see a Stainmaster that was polyester. Plainly they are using the Stainmaster brand to generate more sales since polyester yarn is cheaper than nylon and they were probably losing market share.

So out comes Stainmaster polyester. Hmmmm.....it probably won't wear as good or be as resilient as the original Stainmaster but why let those facts get in the way of more sustained future sales, eh?

Nuff said I guess.......



Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
www.doverfloorcovering.com

Are All Flooring Installations Created Equal?

A common misconception in the flooring industry is that all floor companies are created equal and the thing that sets them apart is price.

Price is important but is it the most important? Of course not. I've run across people that assume when you are comparing flooring that the price should dictate where they buy their floors. They assume if the floors are the same (same brand) that everything else is equal. Nothing could be further from the truth.

Good installers are hard to find. They need to have 3 traits that will make them good installers.

• They must be reliable and show up when they are supposed to

• They must be great at actually installing the flooring

• They must be good with the customers. After all, they are in their house

You can find plenty of flooring installation contractors that have one or two of those traits but finding installation crews with all three traits is rare indeed. I've been in the floor covering business for over 37 years now and I've probably met 6 carpet installers that I would hire or use in my own home.

Beware the low cost flooring retailers and big box stores. They DO NOT hire the best. They hire by cost structure only. Is that who you really want in your home installing your new flooring. The lowest cost installation crews available?

Just something to think about......



Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
www.doverfloorcovering.com

Stuff About Vinyl Plank Flooring

Stuff About Vinyl Plank Flooring

Vinyl Plank Flooring is all the rage right now. But why?

Vinyl plank flooring has been around for a long time but just recently seems to have found it's niche. It has become a very popular flooring for basements. But surprisingly is being found even in kitchens.

So why is vinyl plank flooring so popular? In days gone past, people used to put peel and stick vinyl tiles in their kitchens. They were cheap, impervious to water and worked great for a kitchen. But people didn't like the fact that every 12" there was a seam. After the original 9" tiles, 12" tiles became the norm. So for every floor installed, there was a seam every 12" in both directions. People didn't like the fact that dirt would get into the seams and became hard to clean well.

So people started to buy linoleum. One of the main factors was that fact that it came in 6' and 12' widths. Almost no seams at all. So vinyl tile lost most of it's market share to linoleum which morphed into sheet vinyl goods. Sheet vinyl took over the lion's share of the market for years and years. So why now is vinyl plank flooring so popular when there are again seams every 4' long and maybe 6" to 8" wide?

Vinyl plank flooring is impervious to water, comes in individual pieces and is not very cheap. So it seems (no pun intended) like we are reverting back to the days of peel and stick vinyl tile except that it's not a cheap alternative as was old peel and stick vinyl tiles......

So again we ask, why is vinyl plank flooring so popular? Beats me!!  LOL


Jeff Dean
Owner of Dover Floor Covering
www.doverfloorcovering.com
248-889-4253

Polyester vs Nylon

Polyester yarn versus nylon yarn. What's the true scoop on carpet yarn systems.

Nylon was at one time the king of carpet fibers (of course before that wool was the king but times change, eh?). Now you are seeing more and more polyester yarn being used in the manufacturing process. Why?

Well, price of course, silly! Polyester yarn is cheaper than nylon. So you will get a thicker feeling carpet, more luxurious, for less money than it's nylon counterpart. Of course you do lose performance with polyester but let's not confuse things with facts.

Nylon carpet will hold up better to wear! Period! Nylon is more resilient than polyester so it stands up better to higher wear. Most carpets don't wear out. They ugly out! People think because carpet is matting down that it is wearing out but that simply is not true. All carpet will mat down but nylon carpet will resist matting better and will recover and stand up with a good vacuuming.

Polyester on the other hand will mat faster and will not recover as easily. So potentially polyester carpet will "look" worn out faster than a nylon carpet will (all other things being equal such as construction, pile height, pile density, brand of nylon used etc).

Polyester yarn also can't heatset as well as nylon carpet. What is heatset? That's the process of heating up the yarn so it will retain it's shape. When a carpet fiber is made it will be twisted together with a number of yarns (like a rope is made by twisting together its fibers thereby creating strength). When the required amount of fibers are twisted together to make the carpet yarn, they are set with high heat to "set in" it's shape. This creates it's strength.

Unfortunately, polyester yarn cannot be heated with as high a temperature as nylon yarn can (because if it was it would melt). Because of this fact, the lower temperature used in the heatset of polyester yarn will cause it to be "not as strong" as nylon which can take a higher heatset level. Hence, nylon yarn is "stronger" than polyester yarn and will not unwind with repeated use as polyester can. This is the main factor in nylon's superiority when it pertains to wear and matting.

Remember when I said that carpets don't wear out as much as they ugly out? Because nylon doesn't unwind as much in the pivot points of the wear patterns it will perform better from an appearance standpoint.

So, nylon carpet yarn wins out on the performance scale when it comes to wearability, appearance retention and matting resistance.

To be fair, polyester does have stainability attributes that we will discuss on our next blog. Stay tuned!


Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://doverfloorcovering.com

Save Money on Vinyl Short Rolls

Vinyl flooring is enjoying a resurgence these days! Taking market share from hardwood flooring, laminate flooring and ceramic tile. Even though flooring in general is picking up the increased sales in vinyl flooring is out stripping them all.

New vinyl flooring is not your mother's vinyl flooring. With stunning new visuals that are computer generated, vinyl flooring has a very realistic look compared to the old days (back in the 70's and 80's). Stone and tile looks. Even the wood patterns look awesome.

Most vinyl flooring manufacturers have no rip, tear or gouge warranties so they are much more durable than they used to be. Vinyl flooring is probably the best option for areas that you need flooring to be impervious to moisture.

Right now Congoleum short rolls are available for $10.00 per yard (that's $1.11 per sq. ft). These are first quality roll balances of Congoleum vinyl flooring. Vinyl that sells for as much as $40.00 and up are discounted to $10.00 per yard.

So if you were thinking of replacing your flooring in your kitchen, bathroom, laundry room, entry way or just about any other floor in your home and you need just a smallish area covered, then vinyl short rolls are by far the best value going. So look for vinyl short rolls, vinyl remnants and discontinued pieces that you can get for well below normal cost.....



Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
http://doverfloorcovering.com

A Little Something About Pad

So what's the deal about carpet cushion? I've have people tell me for years that the padding is more important than the carpet. Now, how can that be true?

Are you trying to tell me that you can buy the lousiest carpet out there but purchase the very best pad and you will have a great job? I don't think so! If you buy the lousiest carpet out there, no matter what type of carpet cushion you buy, you will still have lousy carpet. And one that won't stand up to the wear and tear of everyday use.

At the same time, if you buy great carpet and install low grade padding underneath, the performance of your great, brand new carpet will be compromised. A low grade pad will cause your carpet to wear prematurely. You will also get more matting issues. A low grade pad does not allow the new carpet to perform the way it was  intended to perform.

So is the grade of carpet cushion important? Of course it is but not more important than the grade of carpet that you select. A good grade of padding will allow the new carpet to perform in a way that it was intended to perform.

So the most important criteria will be the quality of carpet that you choose but almost as important will be the quality of pad that is installed under it. A good quality pad acts like a shock absorber and will take the wear off the tips of the new carpet. This will ensure uniform performance and predicable wearability.




Jeff Dean
Owner of Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Okay, Lets talk Vinyl Flooring.....

Vinyl flooring. Is this flooring the ugly sister of all other flooring? Why would consumers buy vinyl flooring?

For the last bunch of years vinyl flooring has been losing market share to all other hard surface flooring options. Hardwood, ceramic tile and even laminate has been taking market share from the vinyl flooring segment. Until recently.....

Vinyl flooring is making a comeback! With new lifelike stunning visuals in the vinyl flooring space, vinyl flooring is not your grandmas linoleum.......far from it.  New improvements in the finish has made vinyl flooring durable, soft and very resistant to tearing, scratching and gouging.

No longer do you see the old white and black squares with the shiny finish. Now you will see realistic wood grain patterns, lifelike stone looks with matte finishes. New fiberglass backings allow vinyl to be laid without full spread adhesive so installation is becoming much easier. Less muss and fuss.

Another advantage to vinyl is the fact that overall it costs less than most all other hard surface choices. Vinyl flooring is said to have the best value in the business when it comes to hard surface flooring. Plus it is impervious to water. Vinyl flooring comes in 12 ft wide sheets and hence has less issues with seaming. You can cover a relatively large area with one sheet of vinyl flooring without having a seam. No seams means no water gets through to the subfloor underneath.

Vinyl flooring great for laundry rooms, kitchens, foyers, entry ways and mud rooms and will cost a fraction of what hard wood flooring would cost or ceramic tile.

So, to sum up, vinyl flooring has price advantages, resistance to water advantages and softness of flooring advantages. All reasons why vinyl flooring is starting to make a comeback.




Jeff Dean
Owner of Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Carpet, Soft Carpet and Ultra Soft Carpet.......

Soft yarn! The consumers love it. But is it the best yarn for the consumer.

First off; how it's made. The fiber manufacturers have worked with the yarn to get smaller and smaller deniers. The smaller the denier the softer the yarn. But how does it perform?

Nylon yarn is naturally a high wearing fiber. Very resilient. It will stand up to even the toughest of wear patterns. The smaller deniered yarn is still nylon but because of the inherent softness it will start to mush (is that a technical term? LOL) down and kind of pack together like snow. Because it can do this the appearance can take a hit if the denier is too small (hence softer yarn).

Also, there have been complaints industry wide of vacuuming problems with the ultra soft yarns. The fiber manufacturers and the carpet mills have gone to great lengths to educate the flooring sales people and the consumer of the requirement that ultra soft yarns require in a vacuum cleaner. Most vacuum cleaners just don't perform on ultra soft yarns because the yarns are mushing down (not matting). Matting down is quite different from mushing down. A matted carpet can be pulled up and pileated with a good vacuum cleaner whereas the same vacuum cleaner will not pull up the ultra soft yarns.

So, what about soft yarns. Overall they are a good product. Soft to the touch, resilient and high wear. Where the jury is still out is in the ultra soft yarns. They don't have the test of time on their side and with the fact that you will probably have to buy a new vacuum cleaner along with the high cost of the ultra soft carpet your initial outlay will be pretty hefty. In our opinion the ultra soft yarns are probably not worth the money you spend on them, the buying a new vacuum factor and the fact that performance is still in question, we prefer to stick with the mid deniered soft yarn systems that will give you higher performance and won't break the bank on a new high end vacuum.








Jeff Dean
Owner of Dover Floor Covering
http://www.doverfloorcovering.com

Trends in Ceramic Tile

Well, here we are in January in Michigan. So it's cold. I mean really cold. So naturally we start thinking of ceramic tile (huh??). Okay, not really. We are doing a beautiful ceramic job so I thought I would expound on some of the newer trends in ceramic tile.

It looks like the 12' x12" tile may be going the way of the dodo bird. Well, maybe not right away but a lot of the ceramic tile manufacturers are starting to discontinue producing the 12x12 tile. We are seeing so much of the 12" x 24" ceramic tile these days and also seeing a trend to the large ceramic slabs that will sell like a slab of granite that you would use for your counter tops.

So bigger and bigger goes the ceramic tile industry.

One of the advantages of course is that you will have less and less grout lines as ceramic tile pieces get larger and larger. 16x16, 24x24 tiles are becoming common place.

You are also seeing a lot more porcelain tiles being manufactured these days. As the process gets more refined, you are now seeing porcelain tiles that can be manufactured for a price very close to regular ceramic tiles. Advantages of porcelain are many but the biggest advantage is the fact that porcelain tiles are harder than your garden variety of ceramic tile. Porcelain also is much denser than ceramic tile so they are harder. This allows them to be used outside since the density of the tile won't absorb water and so will not crack in the winter time. Porcelain also, because of hardness, is harder to chip or break when something gets dropped on it.

Ceramic tile is still a fantastic flooring choice and is meant to be a permanent floor that you should get a lifetime of enjoyment out of.




Your friends at Dover Floor Covering
Jeff Dean-Owner
http://doverfloorcovering.com

Okay, as we head deep into winter (yuck) I think it may be time to give you some tips for your hardwood flooring. Winter can be trying for your solid hardwood flooring because the humidity levels in your home tend to dip below what is optimal for hardwood flooring. As the humidity level drops your hardwood flooring will shrink as moisture is wicked out of the pores of the floor. That's when you will start seeing gaps forming in your hard wood. This is not a defect but a natural response to low humidity levels.

Keeping your home humidified is critical for the health of all the wood furnishings in your home. Items such as flooring, furniture, casings and just about anything in your home that is made with wood will benefit from correct humidity levels.

Keeping your home between 45% and 55% humidity is optimal for all wood flooring. If your home stays above 45% humidity it will prevent the wood from drying out to the extent that gaps will form. Constant changes in humidity is very hard on the wood itself.

It is a good idea to have a humidistat installed in your home if you don't have one already. You can purchase one online for about $20 to $25. Your home centers will have them also (even though I don't recommend ever going to a home center for anything. :)

Okay, nuff said about humidity levels and hard wood flooring!







Jeff Dean
Dover Floor Covering
www.doverfloorcovering.com