Help! Carpet advice- wool or polypropylene???

[dipsymummy]

Carpet advice please!!!!!
Went into carpet showroom with the full intention of choosing a wool blend carpet for our new house. Was completely thrown by the very nice sales guys highly recommended polypropylene option which I had never even considered. It felt just as good as the 80/10/10 wool blend and an attractive option for easy clean etc.
Seems like a win- win option but keep trying to find reasons not to go for it in my head.
Has anyone had the polypropylene carpets and any advice? It's a big expense to carpet the whole house and just don't want to regret making the wrong choice...

Bump

Think you might get static off a polypropylene carpet.

I was in a carpet showroom yesterday and the sales guy there was also pushing these. But at around £12 a m compared to a nice wool mix at around £24 the difference isn't that great for the areas we're doing.

The key is to get good underlay but you probably already know that.

Polypropylene carpet looks worn out, flat and nasty after abyear. Wool blend wil last about 20 years.

Definitely agree with BikeRunSki. We got a cheap polypropylene for ds1's bedroom and then a wool blend one for Ds2's room (had a bit more money at that point, not favouring children!!)
Two years on and the polypropylene one looks awful, flat and bobbly whilst the wool mix one is still smart and soft.
A decent wool blend doesn't have to be ridiculously expensive, even over the whole house, and is really worth it, imo.

Gosh I'm glad I didn't get carried away. He showed me some pretty decent and higher priced compared to the wool mix so got really confused.

Thanks ladies for your advice- May end up paying more for wool but am relieved that there's no more uncertainty

Carpet retailer/fitter here,
GOOD manmade, less fading/no static/ easy to clean/ little or no pile shedding,moths, silver fish don't like eating them, great with kids and or pets

GOOD 80/20, Keeps pile retention longer, nicer look to some people. But
Likely to fade in strong light areas, can shed fluff for up to a year, retains moisture more than a man made carpet.

Personally I have both in my house (8o/20 on the stairs)

Whatever you go for choose a firm 9mm underlay, best not to go thicker, I would avoid cloud nine unless contract or super contract

I was all set on wool but now have switched to Vorwerk manmade, having lived in a house with silver fish, mould and damp. I want underfloor heating which works better with manmade. Wool is v insulating.

We moved into our house in 2002. There was a lovely carpet in the living room through to the dining room. We re-did the living room in 2004 and replaced the carpet (which still looked new) with a 80/20 wool mix one. We moved the old living room carpet to the DC's nursery as it still looked just like new.

Ten years later the wool mix living room carpet is sun-faded and has some permanent stains. The dining room carpet STILL looks new, as does the bit that we moved to the DC's nursery. The dining room and nursery carpets have survived all that two small kids can possibly throw/drop at/on them very admirably. This carpet is 100% polypropylene.

It was obviously an expensive carpet to begin with. Other 100% polypropylene carpets (cheap) that we have fitted in bedrooms look crap now. I think you get what you pay for.

We will always go for expensive 100% polypropylene carpets from now on.

We have a polypropylene carpet in our lounge and are really happy with it so far. We did get quite a thick underlay too, which I know makes a difference. We have found that the odd stain (ie bit of soot down the chimney / splash of coffee) has come out fairly easily, which is good since it's cream! Early next year we're planning on having upstairs carpeted and would definitely consider polypropylene again.

My whole house is done in cream polyprop. I adore it. The house looks huge, light and airy and I can clean it with bleach. Yes it gets grubby (3 kids, 2 cats) but cleans up brilliantly.

We just put polypropylene carpets throughout upstairs. It's a good quality one with the best insulation we could get and its lovely! I'm so happy with it, and we will do the same in our next house

When we were recarpeting upstairs after renovations I was all set on getting 80/20 and initially dismissed manmade.

The carpet shop (local independent) suggested I look at the latest polyprops as they were in a different league to manmade carpets of 10 years ago.

So I went for a polyprop (Rutland I think). OMG, it'sbeen fabulous which is more than I can say for the 80/20. It was laid 5 years ago. No fading, no grubbiness, no marks, no pile shading, very durable, super easy to clean off marks (baby wipes). And importantly, it doesn't shed. It looks like new. The dirt/dust doesn't get trapped in the fibres.

When the 80/20 was fitted I had to hoover it every second day because of the fibres shedding. It was horrible. I could pull up handfuls of the stuff. It actually made me cry as my Dd was only a year old and I felt worn out. By a bloody carpet. When the sun shone you could see all the fibres in the sunlight, wafting around. My 80/20 has become stretched as well and really needs to be relaid. It was expensive too.

I think I'm unlikely to buy 80/20 again. The polyprop was a quarter of the cost of the 80/20. Good underlay and great fitting.

We've got polypropylene upstairs but again an expensive one still looks like new after several years and you can clean anything off it

Can anyone recommend their brand of carpet? Especially if you have it above underfloor heating, thank you!

Apatite1
Look at Lano, (Heathertwist Supreme/elite)(Startwist)

or Higher end Balta or Condor as manufacturers, all reasonable quality for the price.

Avoid Cormar, the backing isn't great and likely to crumble with UFH.

Careful with the underlay too, you will need one with a low tog rating, Heatflow is the recommended one, but is quite thin, alternately use a rubber one, slightly higher tog but within limits and will feel better underfoot. Avoid all PU underlays.

Twrch, great stuff thank you so much!

We went for good 80/20 wool in the living room. Unfortunately it has been eaten by carpet moths so we're changing it for a good manmade in the new year.

Thank you all- really appreciate such great feedback.
Crossroads still with my husband who is still hot on the wool mix whereas I'm tethering strongly for a good manmade.
Any opinions on culpeck eg primo excellence?
Or recommended man mades?

take it you mean Cormar Primo Excellence? not culpeck.
Cormar have ongoing issues with the secondary backing, wool or manmade, so personally would stay away from Cormar.
I did list man-made I would recommend in a post above.

Twrch62- really grateful for your advice.
We are moving into a new house and the developers were doing the cormar new Oakland carpets (with a big mark up!) so I am so glad we didn't go for them!

It's a culpeck for sure as I took a picture of the specs on the back of the sample.

We have a good man made in the front room/dining room. Bloody brilliant, so glad we did. We have young dc and being able to clean it easily has been a godsend. (You can literally pour neat bleach on it if you needed too...) I am always amazed how any spill/mark comes off easily.
No static.