Carpet

A brief history of the origins of textile floor coverings

In the middle of the last century, technical progress made it possible to produce textile floor coverings as roll goods for "wall-to-wall laying". The sophisticated weaving and knotting techniques of the carpet artists of past millennia certainly served as inspiration for the non-slip floor coverings of modern times. Warmth and comfort have always been important in the home. That is why thick woollen carpets were laid on wooden or stone floors in this country too. Only the development of synthetic fibres such as polyamide and nylon made large-scale carpet production possible. The forerunners of the textile floors we use today were first produced in Germany in 1952 in a former velvet weaving mill. Gradually, carpet production was perfected and warm and hard-wearing floor coverings were created for a wide range of uses. Even though laminate, cork and parquet flooring have somewhat outstripped carpeting in the last two decades, innovative textile flooring is likely to experience a real revival in the near future. The wide range of colours and different tactile qualities allow plenty of creative freedom when furnishing cosy rooms for living, sleeping, working and feeling good!

What are the practical advantages of carpet in living rooms?

Anyone who likes to walk barefoot will immediately mention the cosy feeling of walking on it. Cold feet have no chance on this type of floor. This is not just a subjective feeling but objective reality. Textile floor coverings

• retain the foot warmth that flows off unhindered on smooth floor coverings
• increase the perceived room temperature by 1 to 2 degrees compared to hard floor coverings
• effectively save heating costs
• improve the room acoustics
• increase the walking comfort
• effectively prevent slipping.

In addition, the pimple structure acts as a pleasant foot massage. Especially in regions with cold winters, carpeting has a beneficial effect on your heating bill.

How are modern textile floors constructed?

Carpeting consists of several layers, which are responsible for the quality and durability of the carpeting. The top layer, also called the pile layer or wear layer, is made of yarn. Whether synthetic or natural fibres or a clever mixture of both are used in this process later determines the look, feel and practical properties of the installed textile floor. The bottom layer, which is also called the backing layer, uses fleece and textile backing. Those who still remember carpeting with foam backing may be surprised to learn that this backing material has long been a thing of the past in innovative flooring. Today, modern textile flooring is preferably manufactured using the tufting process. With this technique, the floor is produced quickly and economically. The yarn used is inserted into the carpet backing from below using a large number of needles, similar to the technique used in a classic sewing machine. This creates the typical loop structure of the loop pile fabric on the surface, which is also known as bouclé. For velour or cut pile carpeting, the tuft loops are cut open from above in a second operation.

What types of carpet can be distinguished?

• Loop pile (Bouclé)
• Velours (cut pile)
• Cut loop or relief (cut loop)
• Crimped velour/long pile carpeting
• Needle felt

Depending on the manufacturing technique and processing, one of the above mentioned carpet types is created. Each type of textile flooring has its own distinctive character and area of application. Consider in advance what your everyday family or business life is like. Do your children always take their shoes off anyway and race barefoot through the rooms? Is your floor subjected to excessive wear and tear due to frequent moving or rolling of chairs? Do you like it elegant and classy or striking and rustic? Each type of carpet has its own character:

• With the so-called looped fabric (bouclé), the pile yarn is "needled" into the back of the carpet in loop form. This popular structure is convincing due to its good price/performance ratio and diverse application possibilities in the residential and commercial sector.
• Velour carpeting or cut pile inspires with its typical velvet feel! This is created by unravelling the yarn loops of the looped fabric in a second operation and opening them at the top. Depending on the resulting loop height, velour flooring is also divided into Saxony (over 10 mm) or Shaggy (over 40 mm) pile height. In bedrooms, guest rooms and hotel rooms, this cosy carpet variant is an extremely popular floor covering with a high cuddle factor.
• With cut-loop, loop pile and velour are combined in one carpet. This creates attractive relief patterns that add texture and depth to the floor.
• Crimped velour carpeting is a special form that is particularly fluffy, noise-absorbing and hard-wearing at the same time. The cut loops are additionally twisted into small twists. Anyone who has experienced the tactile pleasure of an ankle-high crimped velour carpet in a luxury hotel may wish to have the same comfort in their bedroom at home.
• Hard-wearing needle felt with its smooth surface structure is a textile floor covering for heavily frequented areas. Needlefelt floors are robust and extremely dirt-repellent. This is why they are often used in public buildings, offices and shops. This type of textile flooring does not require a pile layer.

High-quality textile floors for a warm and homely atmosphere within your four walls!

For barefoot runners and small children, fluffy and soft carpets are often a pleasant alternative to other common floor variants. Where a lot of the playing and crawling takes place on the floor, warmth and comfort are a strong point! If you want to do without additional play rugs and mats, chic carpeting is an uncomplicated guarantee of comfort. In children's rooms, bedrooms and living areas, the trend is therefore often back to fluffy, warm and easy-care textile floor coverings. The inevitable falls of toddlers are gently cushioned, and older children can romp safely through the home without slipper socks. Gymnastics or yoga classes in the living room are uncomplicated, effective and comfortable even without an additional mat. Carpets convince with their wide range of attractive colours and qualities. You can easily achieve your favourite look with it! Do you prefer light and natural shades? Are you attracted to extravagant eye-catchers in striking colours? Since cocooning, hygge and lagom have come to define our attitude to life, we appreciate the homely benefits of cosy warm floor coverings all the more. Because this type of flooring allows for many individual variations, you always give your rooms a large portion of individual charisma and personality.

Enjoy the variety of colours and textures!

With almost no other floor covering is the variety of colour shades so great. Neutral, sand-coloured variations such as "Congo Crater del Inca", "Congo Atacama" or "Congo Squirrel" compete with strong anthracite, attractive blue tones or striking earthy brown. There is a harmonious complement for every interior style. The palette of possibilities ranges from soft beige to extravagant lilac tones. Click through the different textile floors from Skaben. If you are looking for a new floor for a rarely used guest room, a simpler quality will suffice. In the heavily used living room and office area you should not compromise. Here, outstanding quality really pays off in the long run. Are you inspired by the variety of possibilities? Perhaps your red designer couch will suddenly look even more attractive on a fluffy, elegant carpet than on the ageing laminate. Something new every now and then is good for you! With a textile floor you invest in warmth and comfort.

Carpeting for hotels, offices and conference rooms!

It is not for nothing that hotels, exhibition centres and boutiques often rely on hard-wearing textile floor coverings for their interiors. High-quality carpeting quickly conjures up a feel-good atmosphere and a lot of cosiness even in rooms furnished in a minimalist style. Fluffy carpets are an attractive counterpart to the purist furnishing style in modern designer hotels and boutiques. Added to this are the wonderfully sound-absorbing qualities of high-pile carpeting. Room acoustics are a lot more pleasant for many people in sparsely furnished areas with a homely textile floor! No wonder that we always feel a touch more relaxed and secure in conference rooms, offices and waiting rooms with fluffy carpeting. In the office, a soft textile floor can even promote creativity at work! The sound-absorbing and insulating properties of modern carpeting also qualify it as a sensible and energy-saving floor covering for light-hearted rented flats. Those who have so far refrained from doing so for reasons of hygiene should know: Modern carpets with the GUT test seal are now much more hygienic and easy to clean than many people think.

How can I tell the quality of my carpet?

As a rule of thumb: "The higher the number of pile studs on the square meter, the more durable and high-quality the carpet is". An important quality characteristic is the pile weight of the carpet per square meter. A particularly heavy backing layer does not normally say much about the carpet quality as a whole. So when choosing your textile floor, always pay attention to the stated weight of the backing layer (= pile layer) in addition to the attractive appearance and a pleasant feel. Furthermore, PRODIS, the uniform European product information system for textile floor coverings, gives you important information about the quality of your new floor. The GUT test system of the Gemeinschaft umweltfreundlicher Teppichboden e.V. (Association for Environmentally Friendly Carpeting ) tests every textile floor for environmental friendliness and any harmful emissions. Only textile floors that pass the demanding GUT standards receive a GUT test number. This ensures that the floor meets the high environmental standards of the independent test institutes and is completely healthy to live on. The FCSS pictograms show you the usage and wear classes at a glance. This allows you to see at a glance whether your desired floor is intended for private use or commercial use.

The different usage classes serve as a recommendation for the appropriate area of use for your selected floor covering. An interesting parameter for the classification of textile floors is the indicated luxury class. The scale from one to five crowns shows you at a glance how comfortable and high-quality your new floor covering is for everyday use. Especially in living rooms, this indication is of essential interest for living comfort and cosiness. By the way, if you would like to get to know a desired floor a little better, you can conveniently requestone or more different floor samples for the visual and haptic test at parkettkaiser.de.

What distinguishes particularly high-quality textile floors in practice?

Of course, the yarn used for the pile layer also plays an important role for the textile floor quality! High-quality polyamide fibres with outstanding properties distinguish high-quality luxury carpets from conventional carpeting. Today, particularly durable high-tech carpets are 100% UV-resistant, extremely easy to clean and resistant to chlorine bleach. The pile yarn for luxury carpets is usually dyed throughout and not just on the surface. This ensures that there are no permanent colour differences in the textile flooring. Particularly high-quality carpeting is resistant to everyday dirt thanks to a dirt-repellent protective layer and is especially easy to clean. Pay attention to environmentally friendly and pollutant-free production! This way you are sure to choose a sustainable and future-proof floor covering for you and your family, which will enrich your home in the long term and in a healthy way. At parkettkaiser.de we only have quality floors with the GUT label for tested quality in our range. Whether you opt for classic grey, subtle natural tones or extravagant eye-catchers is a matter of taste. If required, you are welcome to request your personal colour sample from us. Just give us a call!

Overview of the usage classes for carpeting

Similar to laminate or vinyl flooring, the seven usage classes say a lot about the durability of a modern carpet:

• Use class 21: suitable for living areas with low usage (e.g. sheep rooms or guest rooms)
• Use class 22: suitable for living areas with normal use (e.g. living rooms and children's rooms)
• Use class 22+: suitable for living areas with normal to intensive use (e.g. frequently used walkways, living rooms and children's rooms)
• Use class 23: Suitable for living areas with predominantly intensive use

How intensive the respective use turns out to be depends, of course, very much on your respective living conditions. The larger your family and the circle of friends who regularly visit, the more intensive the use of your floor will be, even in normal living areas. People who move around a lot will wear the floor out more than more leisurely contemporaries. In order to enjoy your new floor for a long time, it is worth choosing a higher usage class if in doubt. If you have any questions, our experts will be happy to advise you. Just send us an email or call parkettkaiser.de directly!

For heavily used properties and commercial areas, you should opt for textile floors in use classes 31, 32 and 33. Again, the rule is: the higher the number, the more intensive the use. Especially in the office area, where high heels and chair castors can put a lot of wear and tear on the floor, a high usage class is essential for the long-term attractiveness of heavily frequented textile floors in commercial areas. Make sure that the cleaning company you hire professionally vacuums and maintains the high-quality textile floor on a regular basis.

The material determines the luxury class

Two types of yarn are used for carpeting in this country: polypropylene (PP) and polyamide (PA). Polypropylene is the less expensive and less robust type of material. Polyamide fibres are much more resistant and durable. Polyamide fibre 6.6 is a particularly high-quality variant with a high gloss and attractive appearance. Lightfast yarns are useful for rooms with strong sunlight. This effectively prevents fading and shading of floor carpets. Not everywhere the same materials are used in the production of floor carpets. In England one uses already frequently natural fibers. Also pure new wool and the hair of the cashmere goat are partly processed to particularly exclusive floor coverings. parkettkaiser.de is always at the pulse of the current floor trends. If you do not find the carpet you are looking for in our current range, please do not hesitate to contact us! We focus on sustainability and innovative floors! Because there is a lot going on, especially with soft textile floors, we are constantly expanding our product range. Take a look at our website from time to time!

How do I install my new textile floor?

Basically, innovative textile floors can be installed in three different ways. A distinction is made between

• loose laying
• full-area fixing
• full-surface bonding

Decide for yourself which of these is the ideal installation method in your individual case. If you have any questions, our parkettkaiser.de experts will be happy to help you with practical accessory tips and tried and tested installation ideas! In general, as with any new task, "Only practice makes perfect." On our homepage you will find practical installation videos that will give you a hands-on demonstration of the correct procedure.

How do I go about laying carpet?

The be-all and end-all when laying a floor is a clean and smooth subfloor. For full-surface bonding, the adhesive is now applied to the floor with a notched trowel and the textile floor is placed in the adhesive bed. To ensure that this task is a perfect success, beginners should follow the steps below:

• Measure your rooms exactly! Most of the time, the walls do not run completely parallel. Professionals therefore always measure the room at different points. Because roll material is available in 4 or 5 metres width, it is worth calculating: Depending on the direction of installation, you can save quite a bit of material. If in doubt, we can help you with practical tips on how to avoid unnecessary waste and save material.
• Prepare the subfloor carefully! For this purpose, you should treat the screed with levelling compound in the case of larger unevenness or any cracks. Smooth subfloors and hard floor coverings such as laminate, parquet or vinyl must be thoroughly cleaned and completely free of dust beforehand. Old carpeting should never be used as a subfloor for a new textile floor. The risk of developing moisture, mould, harmful micro-organisms and bacteria is definitely too great. Always remove adhesive residues from loosened old flooring of any kind very carefully!
• Cut the flooring to size! The easiest way to do this is to unroll the carpet completely and press the material firmly against the wall. Now roughly pre-cut the carpeting with the carpet knife. It is essential to leave three to four centimetres of clearance. To prevent ripples from forming later, trim again precisely after you have fixed the carpeting. If your room is wider than one carpet roll, you should lay the second roll over it with an overlap of about 5 cm. When you now cut the two overlapping webs, a seamless and clean transition is automatically created. The more exactly the room size corresponds to your track, the easier the installation will be.
• Fix the textile floor covering professionally! If you can lay the carpet loosely in a small guest room of about 3 x 4 metres, you can achieve good results with double-sided adhesive tape. For fleece-backed floors, special Velcro tapes are ideal. Tape the tapes to the edge of the room and to the door sill. Only pull off the protection just before laying the carpet. If wrinkles or ripples form in the carpet, you can gently smooth them outwards from the centre of the room and re-fix the floor. For the gluing variant with dispersion adhesive, you should fold the exactly cut and spread out carpet strip in half. Now apply the adhesive evenly over the free area. Then fold the floor covering onto the adhesive and smooth it out from the inside to the outside. Do the same with the other half later. As soon as the textile floor lies undulating in the room, you can take care of the finishing touches and attach the desired skirting boards and end profiles to the wall and door opening.

Further practical installation tips for textile floor coverings

• You should only do without adhesive completely in very small rooms with a maximum area of 20 square metres. Make sure that the width or length of the room does not exceed the width of the roll material used. As soon as there are many corners and edges in the room, there is an increased risk of waves appearing later. The more you use the floor, the more important it is to fix it well
• If you are laying a textile floor for the first time, you should prepare well! The right, functional tools and accessories are half the battle for a good result. Pay attention to good quality and consult a professional in case of doubt. Our experts at parkettkaiser.de will of course be happy to answer any questions you may have.
• Especially in the cold season you should spread out the carpet roll in the room after delivery and let it acclimatise for about 24 hours. Only when you have fixed the carpet position the following day, you should cut the floor as described above. A carpet knife with a hooked blade is always preferable to a cutter knife because you avoid damaging the subfloor. If the room has a lot of angles, you will need a lot of experience, patience and skill when cutting the floor! For particularly large and complicated areas, an experienced flooring professional or do-it-yourselfer is recommended to assist you

How do I care for my carpet on a daily basis?

Anyone who thinks that a textile floor covering is high-maintenance and delicate will be amazed. Thanks to special production techniques and materials, innovative textile floors today are extremely easy to care for and resistant to dirt. Therefore, depending on the variant, they are also suitable for more heavily used areas such as corridors, foyers and entrance areas. If you vacuum your carpet once a week and shampoo it from time to time with the recommended products, it will remain attractive for a long time! Even stains on light-coloured textile floors can usually be removed easily and without leaving any residue if you work the stain gently inwards with a little washing-up liquid or water and vacuum it up after it has dried. You should never rub intensively as this could damage the unique structure of the floor.

Specific care tips for high-quality textile floors

For most high-quality textile floor variants, you can conveniently download the exact care instructions in the detailed view of the product. Regular vacuuming not only removes dust and dirt residues, but also straightens out flattened pile yarn and thus ensures a more attractive floor appearance. Unlike laminate or designer flooring, you obviously cannot mop your carpeting regularly. Therefore, it is advisable to take your shoes off at the front door. Less street dirt makes maintenance noticeably easier. In the commercial sector, of course, this is not an issue. Regular intensive vacuuming and immediate stain removal will help maintain the quality of your new luxury floor. Not everyone knows that sand is a major enemy of soft textile flooring. The tiny grains can damage the high-quality yarn in the long run. A sturdy scraper in combination with a soft door mat removes the harmful dirt particles already at the front door. In addition, periodic maintenance by a specialist is recommended. With normal use, basic cleaning every two to three years is perfectly adequate. Depending on the type of textile floor, a different cleaning method is recommended. A distinction is made between

• Dry spray method
• Spray extraction method
• Powder cleaning
• Pad cleaning

Apart from the full-surface basic cleaning, you should always take the time to remove stains immediately. This will decisively prolong the attractiveness and life of your textile floor. The quicker you treat a stain, the more residue-free it can be removed. Damp dirt and wet sand should always be allowed to dry first and then carefully vacuumed away. Food residues should first be removed with a spoon and then dabbed with white kitchen paper or a white, lint-free and absorbent cloth from the outside to the inside. Please do not rub intensively! Place a dampened white cloth on the stain and let it dry. Usually, as the stain evaporates, it will move from the floor directly into the cloth. If the stain cannot be removed with water alone, special cleaning agents are available. Before you treat your floor with commercial detergent or soap, you should take a closer look at the specific care tips for its textile floor variant. Some home remedies are too aggressive for delicate carpets and may even set the stain. You should also use carpet cleaning products sparingly: Too much poorly vacuumed cleaning agent actually attracts more dust, causing new stains to form

Conclusion

If you like it cosy and warm underfoot and want to give your rooms an individual atmosphere, a modern textile floor is often the right choice! Most manufacturers offer a 5-year guarantee on high-quality carpeting with a pile layer and textile backing. Of course, when it comes to flooring, it is first and foremost the look that counts. Colour and structure must match you and your furnishings. Barefoot walkers will also appreciate the particularly pleasant feel of textile floor coverings. Wood, laminate and stone floors can be slippery when worn with socks. Textile floors are therefore a safer flooring option for children and seniors, and can also provide more grip and fall protection on stair treads. As with any flooring, you should pay special attention to some quality features:

• High pile weight
• high quality material
• Number of pimples for tufted textile floors
• Thickness and quality of the wear layer used
• Suitability for underfloor heating, if required
• low flammability
• dirt-repellent pile layer

Modern textile floors from well-known manufacturers absorb impact sound, are whisper-quiet and have an antistatic effect, which is an important criterion especially in the office sector. From functional needle felt to cosy Saxony qualities, carpet floor coverings make living a pleasant experience! In the hotel and conference area, textile floors have a noble, dignified and representative effect. Discover your personal dream ambience for your home or business! Even if you buy your floor online, you should check the individual look and feel with a sample! Give us a call!