Berber Carpet the Good & Bad Points
Berber carpets are very on-trend this season with lots of earthy shades and some exciting textured designs. Flecked versions in 2 toning colours are great for interior design because you can change your room colour or upholstery colour to the other shade after a few years, without needing to invest in new carpet.
How they are made
The name Berber relates to the process of the weave which is a continuous loop construction and lots of interesting materials can be made into a Berber style carpet, which can give lots of variation on the cost depending on the thread used. That is why some are really expensive and some are very economical.
How they feel
All Berber’s, but watch out for the quality of the thread. Wool will be more expensive than nylon. Because of the sculpted and looped construction, it feels very cushioned underfoot which is lovely compared to the flatter piles.
The Down Side:
The continuous loop construction means that if you catch a thread in your vacuum cleaner, it could unravel like a pair of tights, straight across the carpet. So if you have a cat who likes to scratch the stair carpet, this could give you a big problem.
Here is a true story of a friend (Farmer) who installed it and found his door sticking on the height of the pile, so instead of calling in a carpenter, he took a hedge cutting chain saw to the bottom of the door and quickly and easily, spliced off a sliver of the door along the bottom.
The problem was, that he caught a thread of the carpet, which then unravelled from the door, all the way to the other side; wrapping a long length of wool around his chain saw…
Not a great final outcome!
Cleaning a Berber Carpet
A Berber style carpet is not easy to clean. With the loop at the top leading down to the flatter base; dirt is pushed down under the loops and gets trapped. This is difficult to remove with a vacuum cleaner and can give you ‘traffic wear lines’ prematurely, especially in the cheaper fabrics.