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