A customer popped into Avonvale Carpets recently looking for carpet for the communal areas of a smart apartment block in the centre of Bath. The carpet had to be cleanable and hardwearing, but it also had to fit the part – it needed to be match the décor, be soft and stylish too.
It goes without saying that a good wool carpet will nearly always tick all the boxes. It’s the right colour. It’s soft and luxurious to the touch. It’s resilient, resists dirt and is quite easy to clean.
For a busy shared hall, stairs and landings spanning 5 floors, a woolen solution does of course represent a significant financial outlay. And in this case, from a return on investment perspective, a nylon solution provided a better solution. It was easier to clean and resilient to the effects of long term cleaning too.
One of the newer options that we proposed as an alternative to wool was a 100% polyamide carpet called Vivendi® produced by the well-established Belgian carpet maker Associated Weavers. It ticked all the requirements boxes, and it was on-budget too. A great solution.
And here lies the stimulus for this short article. Polyamide is a very resilient man-made fibre, a synthetic (not naturally occurring) material, and it’s known to all of us more commonly as ‘nylon’. And justified or not, the word to many of us can still have negative connotations.
Nylon? Surely not. It’s going to look low quality right? Isn’t it a bit ‘cheap and cheerful’? Would it really fit a smart apartment block in town? To this last question, the answer is yes.
Why Nylon carpet?
The reality is that nylon carpet has developed rapidly over a good number of years now. It’s come of age and it’s increasingly offering a lot more than just wear resistance and economy. And unlike the nylon carpets of the past, most modern nylon carpets can be recycled, so they’re a greener option too.
And today’s high quality nylon carpets actually are not that cheap in fact. Being made from a premium man-made fibre, they can be at least twice the price of the cheapest polypropylene (olefin) carpet and the very finest can be comparable with wool.
In terms of its performance, a quality nylon carpet is resistant to crush and wear so can be a particularly good solution for high traffic areas like stairs and hallways. They’re also non-absorbent and resistant to mildew. And contrary to what many still believe, they can also be very soft.
Why Vivendi nylon carpet?
Made with the exclusive iVivo® ‘solution dyed nylon’ (SDN) yarn, Vivendi® will retain its colour and looks over time. It’s designed to be carpet bleach cleanable, is resilient and wear-resistant, and yet it’s still very soft. The carpet has both a 25-year wear warranty and a 25-year stain warranty. And to help save money, they’re available in a range of widths as well which helps avoid joins in rooms.
For sure some nylon carpet ranges don’t offer the same plushness, luxury and textures as woolen carpets, neither do they offer the same wide range of colours, tones and patterns to suit all decors, but new products are being introduced all the time and they continue to surprise.
The Vivendi product is a case in point, comprising five diverse ranges of carpets, it still offers a pretty good choice, from dense to soft, from discreet to intense. Pop into the shop and take a look.
Nylon carpets have come of age. The need to compromise between resilience, underfoot comfort and style is increasingly a thing of the past. They might be just what you’re looking for.