Why is it a good idea to have wool in carpets?

[minkah]

Why not just have cheaper polypropylene ones?

I need to carpet my living room and am bit puzzled by choices.

It's fatiguing my brain cell.

so they get eaten by moths and you get to replace them regularly, obvs

Hard wearing.
Poly ones will look awful in a couple of years. High wool
Content will look good after 10 or more.

Good quality wool will still look good 20 yrs down the line.

This is a good thing in my book, as I don't want to be replacing carpets regularly.
However, there are people who like to redecorate, or give the room a fresh look every couple of years. If you are doing this, then you'd be wasting your money putting down a carpet that would last 20 yrs.

What do you think of 50/50 mixes?

I saw some Berber style carpets in this mix which looked nice and weren't high end price.

Is that a good proportion?

I don't know how long I need this carpet to last..I definitely don't play around with buying carpets as a hobby.

Helenmirren, nooooooooooooooooooooo

80/20 wool to synthetic is supposed to be the optimum ratio for hard wearing carpets. I've always thought wool carpets were better - in the same way leather shoes are better than plastic IYSWIM.

Never had an issue with moths.

Moths are awful. I know more and more people who have them. I would NEVER get a wool carpet, no matter how lovely they are.

The wool carpets I inherited when I moved into my flat have been eaten to destruction by moths and desperately need replacing. I'm guessing that even an 80/20 mix would be a bad idea.

Like the OP I'm feeling baffled by the choices - does anyone have any tips for buying nice non-wool carpets?

We have never had anything except 100% wool or 80/20 downstairs and cheaper synthetic in the DCs rooms, which we knew would need replacing at some point.

wool wears better, doesn't flatten, isn't static, ( which attracts the dirt) and cleans better.

Don't understand moths in carpets

never seen or heard of them in carpets - except this thread.

We re carpeted out lounge diner and hallway last year with 2 different 100% artificial bleach able carpets - cats and small child proof! Wool wasn't even in the running due to cost and need to be scrubbed regularly.

Both carpets still look as good as new 18 months on but the lounge one which was more expensive and has much better underlay under it will do better in the long run I reckon.

Moths have eaten our carpet under the log basket in the hall which means we will have to replace the entire hall stairs carpet running into £1000s.

Moths do exist and they snack on carpet. Grrr.

Agree nothing more boring than carpet buying.

I never heard of moths in carpets before except at MN. Sounds terrible.

I wonder if we sprinkled lavender and cedar wood oil around regularly it'd be a deterrent.

Or used shake n vac type stuff.

Most insects go away if there are strong aromas, don't they.

Moths are incredibly hard to get rid of. If only it were as easy as cedar!!!

Moths love wool. If carpets are wool, then those nice, quiet bits under beds and behind sofas are moth heaven. Land once you have them, every corner and every wardrobe is snack-tactic. There is a bit of a moth plague in the south east I believe.

That's interesting, as I've never come across carpet moths either.

Is it actually possible to get rid of them?

I'm about to buy a new living room carpet and am looking at a 50/50 mix....seriously don't know now wether to go ahead with it.

I'm going to buy a roomba to go under sofas.

I've just ordered a stair carpet that's 80/20... So now feeling ultra vulnerable about moth invasion!

Actually, there's something on amazon called 'carpet moth killer' which has 55 good reviews!

Good quality synthetic lasts and wears really well. We've had ours down 3 years and it looks good as new whereas our neighbours wool carpets looked worn after a year.
The one we have throughout upstairs is Cormar and is very practical with children.
I have a wool rug in the lounge and it sheds constantly and is looking worm at 2 years old.

The difference of opinion about carpets is radically contradictory.

Well, I've ordered some now, and just hope for the best!

I can't even remember what my current soon to be taken away carpets are made of, it was so long ago that I bought them.

To me, then they were just 'carpet'.,,,

Surely quality carpets made from wool are mothproofed in manufacture?
We've had wool carpets for 30 years in all the houses we've owned and never ever heard of moths. If they aren't mothproofed then doesn't vacuuming get the moths and eggs out? We've got 15+ years out of wool (80/20) carpets with only one or two professional cleans during that time. My mum has a wool hall carpet which is now almost threadbare in places but she's had it for around 30 years and it's still 'ok'.

Our current stair carpet is cream wool and gets a hammering and looks almost new after about 10 years- a lot depends on the type of carpet- ours is a type of berber which is a heavier wearing carpet, not a smooth velvet-pile.

Synthetic carpets attract every bit of hair, dust, and soon look shabby imo.

If you pay around £35m then you get a quality carpet that lasts longer than 2 cheaper ones IME.

Just watch that wool does not trigger any allergies. I never had sinus problems until I stayed in my parents place for a year, about 12 years ago. They'd just laid a wool carpet in my childhood bedroom. I was in the box room, with synthetic carpet, for the first 6 months with no such thing as a runny nose...

We have carpet moths. We're going to have to replace the 80/20 berber in the living room. Its only five years old. Its synthetic all the way from now on.

Our stair and landing carpet is made from recycled coke bottles. Its lovely.

Warmed up, moths eat wool. Moths love wool. They don't care how much you paid for it. And do you think if it was easy as a bit of vacuuming people would have such a problem? I can assure you they don't just exist in dirty houses with cheap carpet

Yep my dad's place which he can no longer maintain, so it's fallen on me to do a lot of the housework, has had its living room carpet munched by moths. Conditions are ideal for them there, cluttered space, stuff put on the carpet such as piles of books, heavy furniture and not regularly shifted and hoovered under. Was there a couple of weeks ago, and every time I lifted an item I saw the tell tale off-white casings of hatched moths, surrounded by areas of devoured carpet. Moths also destroyed my late mother's collection of North African rugs, it was heartbreaking.
I have 80% wool, but lift furniture and hoover around regularly. I also kill the little fuckers whenever I see them on the wall. I'm in London, some areas of the country are affected worse than others.

Something has eaten our dinning room carpet, no idea what or even if its wool, but we did have clothes moths upstairs.

DD1 is allegic to wool and wants a bedroom carpet she can sit on, so wool ones keep getting dirty looks in shops.