Carpet: 100% wool or 50% wool/polyester?

[MeMeMeow85]

Went to the carpet shop earlier to buy wool carpets for the bedrooms. The sales guy asked if I’d considered a mix. Both made by the same company. They look the same. About £6 a square metre cheaper for the mix.

Any pros or cons please?

Wool is longer lasting, easier to clean and doesn't get matted with heavy use. If that's worth £6/metre for you, go for it. We've always waited to redo carpet until we could afford wool :) Currently building up the cash to re-do the lounge.

Wool is a nightmare to clean!

The poly wool mixes are far better than they used to be, and designed to be easily maintained. I'll be switching from wool to a mix next time.

A carpet moth infestation has made me resolve never to buy wool carpet again.

I have 60/40 mix. It cost quite a lot but worth it because I've just had the whole house cleaned and it looks like new. Im dead chuffed Apart from DC3's room which is beyond saving

Wool alone isn’t as hard wearing as a but if a mix. Wool alone is also a haven to moths! We have a 80(wool)/20 mix. Looks brand new 4 years later.

After moths ate our v expensive pure wool carpet I vowed never again. Now have a mix and it's not as lovely on bare feet but much more durable and easy to clean.

I've always chosen a wool mix 80/20 until now because my last wool carpet was impossible to keep clean. We have a cat prone to coughing up fur balls and even though I cleaned them up immediately and the carpet looked clean, within days a stained area was showing through, and kept coming back regardless how many times I cleaned the area.

Also I've read a lot of horror stories recently about carpet moth which has put me off wool. Sad that because I love a good quality wool carpet.

We've recently had bedrooms done in polypropylene which has apparently improved a lot in recent years. It used to track very quickly but is very easy to clean. I hope the tracking problem really has been eliminated like they said in the shop.

For the sitting room yet to be done I might be tempted back to wool. I hope I don't regret it.

We are carpetting our first home. Both sets of parents advised 80/20 wool. We had an independent carpet guy out (who my parents actually used) who, despite wool carpets more, advised that the poly carpets have come on leaps and bounds and are far easier to clean etc.

I bought on that was all polyester with a teflon coting, so easy to clean.

I've got an 80/20 wool mix in a holiday let and it's fab. Had guests tread sheep poo all the way up the stairs and into the bedroom the other week, which I only found when they'd left a few days later, and it cleaned out with no problems.

We had some gorgeous wool carpets which were then completely decimated by carpet moths. When we moved a book case there was a perfect rectangle of completely eaten carpet!

Never ever again!

We replaced them with 100% Polypropylene (stainfree Amore) and it's lovely, fluffy and soft and like the name suggests, all marks clean off completely.

Will NEVER go for wool again.

One question - do moths not eat it at all if it's a mix?

Poly carpets are useless if you drop the iron on them as often as I do!

Yes they do eat wool mix carpets - ours has chomp marks in corners and under furniture.

Never had carpet moths in 40 years of having wool carpets! Never heard of them until I read this thread. My wool bedroom carpets are lovely. Velvet pile and luxurious. What you have depends on the value of your home and your style. However the vast majority of us don’t have carpet moths, have never seen them and don’t give them a second thought. Just buy what you like.

having been out to flooring shops today I asked the chap about wool carpets and moths because we'd like a stair runner. He said most of them are treated nowadays.

I spent today cleaning behind bookcases and spraying insecticide because of carpet moth. The carpets also haven't been very hardwearing and are difficult to keep clean (but they are cream!). I now hate wool carpets!

I think case bearing moths are more prevalent in certain areas (London for sure, and apparently Glasgow). So maybe it depends on where you are as to whether you risk it?

Carpet moths left patches and holes in our wool. So recently had to replace. Man said carpet moths have been more common in last few years and now every carpet shop should recommend going for a lot less wool content.

@FridayThirteenth - do you have any problems with static buildup and shock? I get this a lot with certain types of carpet. We need to update some of ours and I don;t want to choose something that gives an electric shock every time I hug DC!

@MinaPaws no I've never had any kind of static electricity and didn't even know that was a thing?!

Thanks Friday. That's good to know.

I am the worst person for static shock, I get it from the car, shops, escalators but never from my carpet which is 100% polyprop.

Really soft to walk on, easy to remove stains as it is bleach cleanable and I iron in the boy's playroom which has laminate flooring so no risk from the iron but then again I have never dropped it

It also hoovers beautifully. We have Associated Weavers Inviticus range. My Dad used to work in carpet manufacturing many years ago, he swears by polyprop these days.

My moth infestation is so bad I’m getting rid of all my carpet completely

Thanks all. Sorry to hear about the moth issues!! I’ve ordered the wool carpet from Cormar that has “moth protection” on it and a 3 year guarantee. Hopefully it won’t be an issue