'Textured' carpets - what do you think of them?

[linspins]

I'm trying to pick a new carpet to go up the stairs and in all four bedrooms. In our previous house we had a textured sort of carpet, but I've gone off it now! Husband would like similar still. I'm veering more towards a twist carpet ...
I can't decide which looks smarter, which will wear better, which is softest to play on, which will show marks least, etc
Photo one shows previous carpet, picture two what DH wants, picture three what I'm considering too.
Any thoughts?

Definitely like your choices more. The others are fine and practical, but I think yours is smarter and probably more comfy for playing on. We have similar to the one you prefer in our lounge (where the kids play), and it's very easy for giving a spot clean when a blueberry gets trodden in ;) I imagine the textured one might hold dirt in the 'creases' more? I'd go with your choice :)

The Berber style carpet in the first photo can go fluffy if you need to clean something up from it and aren't careful. The cord carpet in the second photo is generally a hard wearing option for a high foot traffic area. The third one would be my preferred option. Ease of cleaning can depend on the composition.

The first one looked good in our last house, and was soft to crawl on (though the kids are past that age now) but it's true that dust and dirt did settle in the low bits. That's why I now fancy a smoother look. I'm thinking 80 % wool and 20% other material.

I'm not a fan of the first one. I lived in a rented house a few years ago and the dimples used to collect dirt and fluff very easily. It could still look grubby after a thorough vacuuming. I much prefer your choices. The one your DH likes looks like something you might find in an office IMO.

Looped carpets are most hard wearing followed by twists. However, they are also the hardest to clean.
They are all very pale though, maybe you are not as mucky as us but when we moved into this house ( no DC but 3 cats) we had similar in all the bedrooms. We had to replace them within 3 years with something darker and now have wood.

I rhink whoever does most of the vacuuming should get to choose! I prefer your choices purely because I find textured carpet takes more effort to keep clean, and they are decent practical colours.

I have heard serious warnings about Berber type carpets if you have a cat!

Apparently they really like scratching them to bits.

Yep, cats love the berber. Beats any scratching post. We had bald patches, fluffy patches and long unravelling bits.

High wool content is lovely but not always easy to clean.

Funnily enough, our cat preferred cut pile. I think catching her claws in looped pile wasn't her thing!

Berber carpets hold on to the dust. I'd never have one again.

I've got looped on stairs & various tufted elsewhere. Cats aren't bothered & happily scratch all of them (gits)

Damage is more permanent (well, less fudgeable) with looped I think.

I do prefer looped on the stairs though - bits etc just sit on top & it's much easier to hoove. (Mine is striped.)

We have wool carpet like 1 in the bedroom and it is lovely and soft underfoot. I am sure it will go fluffy in heavy use though.

We have had tufted carpet on the stairs for 16 years now. It is the same as the downstairs and landing. It is wool and the highest tuft count I could afford. It is still ok, clean and vacuums well. In the bedrooms, we had a polypropelene carpet in the same colour. They really need changing as the kids have dropped stuff all over them over the years.

In my opinion, if anything drops on them, they are very difficult to clean as the particles get stuck inside the texture.

My heart sinks at the posts about cats loving to scratch carpets, as we've promised the children a kitten ( our first pet, and never been able to have one before). We will have hard floors downstairs, but carpet on stairs and upwards. I'd be so dismayed to have it scratched and pulled, when all brand new! Yikes!

The ribbed style carpets look nice on stairs (are they Malabar?), but i have seen some complaints that the pile opens up too much when going over the stair nosing. I haven't had any complaints myself, but thought it was worth a mention. If you bend the sample over you will see what i mean.

Don't worry linspins, our mogs prefer to scratch the sofas . They mainly save the carpets for weeing on...

We were advised to avoid looped pile and give them properly big, sisal/rope scratching posts. A lot are too small and don't give an adult cat enough height to stretch up and scratch. And carpet covered scratching posts can encourage scratching on other carpets, so avoid. Have fun with your kittens!

Thanks plotter, good kitten advice!