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Abrasive wear
Wear or texture change to an area of carpet that has been damaged by friction caused by rubbing or foot traffic.
Aesthetics
Properties perceived by touch and sight, such as the hand, color, luster and texture of carpet.
Antimicrobial
A chemical treatment added to carpet to reduce the growth of common bacteria, fungi, yeast, mold and mildew.
Antistatic
A carpet's ability to dissipate an electrostatic charge before it reaches a level that a person can feel.
Average pile density
The weight of pile yarn in a unit volume of carpet. It is expressed in ounces per cubic yard in the formula: Density = pile yarn Weight (in ounces per square yard) times 36 divided by pile Thickness or pile Height (in inches). Average pile density factors for commercial carpets range from 4200 to 8000. D = W x 36 / T or H
Axminster Carpet
A machine-woven carpet where an enormous variety of colors are used to produce colorful patterns.
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Backing
The fabric and yarns that make up the side of the carpet that lays next to the floor. In tufted carpets there are two types of backing.
Primary backing
a woven or nonwoven fabric through which the yarn is inserted by the tufting needles.
Secondary backing
Fabric that is laminated to the back of the carpet to reinforce it.
Berber
A loop-pile carpet that offers great durability, a full comfortable texture and a casual, informal look. Often, these carpets incorporate flecks of color that contrast with the primary hue. The term Berber has expanded to include many level and multi-level loop carpet styles.
Binding
A special stitch, band, or strip sewn over a carpet edge to protect and/or decorate it.
Bulked Continuous Filament (BCF)
Strands of synthetic fiber (such as nylon or olefin) that have been formed into bundles of yarn. The fibers have undergone a texturizing procedure that makes the formerly straight filaments either kinked or curled.
Bulking
Also known as crimping or texturizing. Bulking imparts texture/fullness to the fiber or yarn during production. Bulking is done to increase the coverage and bloom the yarn will have in the carpet face. Bulking also adds to fiber resiliency ("spring back"). (See "Texturizing.")
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Cable
Carpet with casual cut pile construction featuring chunky tufts and long pile height.
Carpet
The general designation for the textiles used as floor coverings.
Ceramic Tile
Made from clay or a mixture of organic materials, ceramic tile is finished by kiln firing. The common types are mosaic and quarry. Made in many shapes and sizes, it is glazed or unglazed. For floors, it is set in a cement or mortar type mixture.
Cork Flooring
One of the easiest of modern resilient floor coverings, the flooring is made from the bark of cork oak trees, a renewable material. Cork flooring is available in tiles and sheet goods in natural unfinished cork, waxed cork, resin-reinforced waxed and vinyl impregnated cork in many colors including natural shades.
Crushing
Crushing is irreparable loss of pile height caused by traffic or weight.
Cushion
The material placed under a carpet for softness and support. It helps reduce noise, increase insulation benefits, and contributes to a softer feel underfoot. Purchasing an incorrect type of cushion may invalidate your warranty. Also known as padding or underlay.
Cut pile
A carpet in which the yarn loops are cut to create a textured look and feel.
Pattern Cut Pile Made from saxony yarn, this carpet features a sophisticated look created by running cut pile and loop pile on a level pile height.
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Denier
Denier is the amount of yarn per area of carpet.
Density
This describes the amount of fiber or yarn in a carpet and how close the tufts of fiber are to each other. In general, the denser the pile, the better the performance.
Dhurrie
Dhurrie rugs and carpets flat woven items traditional to India, made of cotton or silk. They are noted for soft colorations and varied patterns.
Double-Glued Seams
Double-glued seams attach carpet to bare floor to prevent delamination and edge ravel. Installers should double-glue seams to prevent fuzzing.
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Flocked
Flocked carpet is made of tufts of wool or cotton fiber
Fluffing
Loose fiber fragments remaining from the manufacturing process that appear on a carpet surface. This condition is remedied by vacuuming and carpet use. Also known as "fuzzing" or "shedding".
Frieze
Tightly curled or twisted yarn that gives carpet a textured appearance good for hiding footprints. Pronounced free-zay.
Fuzzing
Occurs when fibers from the carpet slip out of the yarn with use or sometimes after wet cleaning.
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Gauge
The distance between two needle points in knitted or tufted carpet. It is usually expressed in fractions of an inch.
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Hand
How a carpet feels.
Heat setting
A process that sets the twist in a carpet pile with heat or steam. This process allows fibers to hold their twist over time, allowing them to bounce back with great resilience whenever they are stepped on.
Hooked Rug
Rugs made by pulling yarns or fabric strips through a mesh backing. Many are designed in various colors to create a scene or design.
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Kilim or Kelim
A flat woven rug - usually reversible
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Laminate Flooring
Relatively new to North America, laminates have a dense fiberboard core with a paper pattern layer sealed under high pressure both top and bottom with a plastic-like substance. Sold as planks and panels in wood, stone, tile and other looks.
Level loop
The fiber in the carpet is stitched in uncut loops of the same size. It creates a smooth, level surface.
Loop pile
The fiber in the carpet is looped and uncut. Can be either level loop or multi-level loop.
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Marble
Limestone flooring known for its elegant appearance created by polishing its very hard surface. Now available in tiles.
Mosaic Tile
Small ceramic tile - hard porcelain or glass, glazed or unglazed - mounted on a backing for ease of installation. Often mosaic tiles are used to create designs for walls and floors.
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Needle Punched
Needle punched carpet is stitched into backing material.
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Oriental Rug
Handwoven or hand knotted rugs native to the Middle or Far East available in many patterns and known for their colorations. Many machine-made rugs, made using Oriental rug designs, are also referred to as Oriental rugs.
Outdoor Carpet
Carpet designed to be used outdoors on patios, walks and decks. Usually made of polypropylene to withstand the weather and ultra-violet rays of the sun, most outdoor carpet is designed for glue-down installation.
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Parquet Floors
Flooring made up of wood that is laid or inlaid to create patterns, most often geometric ones.
Pickled Floors
The result of rubbing white paint into previously stained and finished wood flooring for an informal or more casual look.
Pile
The visible surface of a carpet, consisting of yarn or fiber tufts in loops that can be either cut or uncut. Also known as the "face" or "nap" of a carpet.
Pilling
A condition, often caused by heavy use, in which fibers from different tufts of carpet become entangled in one another forming hard fiber masses or "pills." These pills can be cut off with scissors.
Plush
A cut pile carpet in which the individual carpet fibers appear to be cut the same length. The carpet offers a smooth, luxurious surface.
Power Stretcher
A tool used to install residential carpet that prevents wrinkles and ripples.
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Rag Rug
A sturdy, colorful rug handwoven from cotton scraps.
Remnant
A short piece of carpet from a roll of carpet that usually measures less than nine feet long. Smooth surfaced flooring (tiles, strips or sheet goods) manufactured by combining a plastic material with filler and pigments, then processed into sheets of different thicknesses. If a backing material is used, the plastic sheet is joined to the backing. Types include solid vinyl, backed or cushioned vinyl, rubber, cork and linoleum.
Resilience
The ability of carpet pile or cushion to recover its original appearance and thickness after continued use.
Rippling
Heat and humidity can cause ruffles or waves in wall-to-wall carpet. A professional carpet retailer or installer can re-stretch the carpet with a power stretcher.
Rubber Flooring
Today rubber flooring - tiles and sheet goods - is made from synthetic rubber. It comes in ribbed, coin and other raised patterns.
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Saxony
The carpet fiber loops are cut and twisted to create a relatively dense, consistent look. Saxony carpet presents a smooth, luxurious surface and is generally for formal settings.
Seams
The line formed by joining two pieces of carpet. The pieces can be sewn together, or fastened with various seaming tapes or other adhesives.
Shading
A change in the appearance of a carpet due to distortions in the orientation of fibers, tufts or loops that make up the carpet pile. This is not an actual change in the color of the carpet, but a difference in light reflection.
Sisal
A type of woven floor covering originally made of vegetable fibers such as grass and jute. Now synthetic alternatives are available that offer a more comfortable feel as well as interesting textures, patterns and prints.
Sisal Flooring
Rugs, mats and matting made from sisal, a natural plant material. Available woven and dyed in various colors, as well as machine and hand painted. Similar flooring is made of jute, coconut and seagrass.
Soil retardant
A chemical finish applied to carpet fibers or surfaces that inhibits the attachment of soil.
Soiling
Soiling occurs when dirt particles build up in carpet fibers. Regular vacuuming and cleaning will prevent this problem.
Sprouting
The raising up of an individual tuft or fiber above the level of the pile. These may be cut with scissors.
Stain Resistant
A chemical finish applied to or inherent in carpet fibers which inhibit specific stains from adhering to or dying (staining) carpet and fabrics.
Stitches
The number of yarn tufts per running inch of a single row in a tufted carpet.
Stitches per inch (SPI)
Number of yarn tufts per running inch along the length of the carpet (as opposed to the gauge which is the number of stitches across the width of the carpet).
Stretch
A carpet installation term for the give in carpet when it is pulled over pad onto tackless strips.
Stretch-in
The procedure for installing residential carpet over a separate cushion using a tackless strip with a power-stretcher.
Strip Flooring
The most popular wood flooring, it is made of long, narrow - about 3 inches wide - tongue - and - groove boards that are end-matched. Strip flooring wider than 3 inches is called plank flooring.The most popular wood flooring, it is made of long, narrow - about 3 inches wide - tongue - and - groove boards that are end-matched. Strip flooring wider than 3 inches is called plank flooring.
Surface area
The perimeter of an individual fiber filament or multiple filaments.
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Tackless trip
Wood or metal strips fastened to the floor near the walls. The strips have two or three rows of pins angled up toward the walls on which carpet backing is fastened during a stretch-in installation.
Tensile strength
The strength along the length of a fiber.
Terrazzo
A smooth multicolored floor made of marble or stone chips embedded in a cement binder, then highly polished. Traditionally terrazzo floors are poured and set on site, but manufactured terrazzo tiles are also available.
Texture
Visual and tactile surface characteristics of carpet pile including such aesthetic and structural elements as high-low and cut-and-loop patterning, yarn twist, pile erectness or lay-over, harshness or softness to the touch, luster, and yarn dimensions.
Tuft
A cluster of yarns drawn through a fabric and projecting from the surface in the form of cut yarns or loops.
Tuft bind
The force required to pull a tuft from a carpet.
Tufted
A method of manufacturing carpet. Tufts of fiber are inserted through a carpet backing to create a pile of cut and/or loop ends.
Twist
Winding the fiber around itself to strengthen a fiber's resistance to crushing.
Twist Level
Twist level is the number of turns per inch of yarn.
Two-ply
Most common yarn ply. Two single yarns are twisted together, then heatset to maintain their twisted configuration. Can be used in either cut or loop pile carpet.
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Underlay
The cushion or padding that lays underneath rugs.
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Wood Flooring
Most wood flooring is made of hardwoods, such as oak, maple, pecan, beech and birch. There is solid wood flooring and laminated, which combines wood layered in different directions for strength and to inhibit warping. Most wood flooring today is prefinished at the factory to ease of installation and uniformity of finish.
Woven
Carpet that is manufactured on a weaving loom in which the lengthwise yarns and widthwise yarns are interlocked to form a fabric.
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Yarn
Yarn is made of fibers that are twisted together to form a continuous strand.
Yarn Count
Yarn count reflects the amount of yarn packed into a given area.
Yarn Ply
The number of single fibers twisted together to form a plied yarn.
Yarn Count
Yarn count reflects the amount of yarn packed into a given area.
Yarn Ply
The number of single fibers twisted together to form a plied yarn.
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