Shedding
All cut pile carpets will lose short fibre, which is created during production when spun yarn is cut for tuft formation these fibres fall onto the surface of the pile and appear as fluff,
The effect vanes with yearn type and may be removed without detrimental effect upon the carpet by vacuum cleaning. This excess fibre is only a small fraction of the total fibre contained in the carpet
Indentations
When a carpet is subjected to a heavy point load, such as under the legs of furniture, it is unreasonable to expect the carpet bot to indent. Usually, the longer the load is in place, the longer will be the time for the pile to recover in case of very heavy loads in place for considerable time, the recovery time can be very considerable.
It must be remembered that it is not only the only the pile of the carpet that come indented. The underlay will also indent and the backing of the carpet may also distort into the indentation in the underlay. Some underlays will recover well and some less well depending upon their composition thickness density ect. The use of cups below furniture legs can spread the load and the rest result is a larger area of less deeply indents carpet.
The ability of a carpet to recover from a heavy static loads can be measure ed in the laboratory, using the test method described in BS 4939 and m,any manufactures will have data on this aspect of carpet performance in the tes the carpet is loaded for 24 hours and the degree of recovery is measured after 1 hour and 24 hours. Since there are so many different underlay's however, it is very rare for the recovery from a heavy static load to be evaluated on carpet and underlay.
Often normal maintenance (vacuum cleaning with a roaring brush machine ) will speed up recovery but in the case of serious indentations the use of a iron and damp cloth or a steam iron together with a blunt darning needle to carefully tease up the pile can be beneficial. Care must be taken not to over wet the carpet of course
Samples
The samples held by individual retailers may not be from the same batch as current production and there fore should be used as a guide and not an exact colour match
Installation
Telephone national institute of carpet fitter (NICF) for furether information - 0115 958 3077