Frieze
carpet has been one of the most popular
carpet styles for
the last 20 years.
Berber carpet
and Frieze carpet remain the two best selling styles in the market today.
One of the primary reasons that both of these carpet styles remain popular is
that both are
trackless carpet styles. Both Frieze carpet and
Berber carpet hide
footprints and vacuum cleaner sweeper marks. This does not mean that all
Frieze carpets are foot print free, it simply means they "hide" foot prints
better than tradition saxonies or cut pile carpet styles.
Many people confuse "true" frieze carpet styles with textured or trackless
carpet styles "sold as" frieze carpet styles. To fully understand the
differences
you should review our
carpet
construction section, but chances are, you are simply shopping for a
textured or trackless carpet style rather than a true Frieze carpet style. Most
carpet wholesalers assume consumers want textured or trackless carpet when the
consumer asks for Frieze.
A true Frieze has an extremely high
carpet twist level. Each carpet tuft has
two ply's of yarn that are twisted together. Most carpet styles have 3.5
to 5 turns (twists) per inch. A frieze may have 7-9 turns per inch and the high
carpet twist level causes the carpet tuft to kink or turn back upon itself giving it a
curled appearance.
A textured carpet or trackless carpet utilizes a different approach to achieve a
similar appearance. These styles use a "stuffer box" yarn, which pushes
(wads) yarn into a stuffer box and injects steam into the box, which sets a
crimp into the yarn. A textured style may have a
twist level of 3.5 turns
per inch. After the yarn is wadded into the stuffer box (in a tight, wadded ball) and
injected with hot steam, the yarn is forced out. This produces a curled
effect. When the yarn is tufted into a blanket, the tips of the yarn, lay
over, or are oriented in different directions. This directional difference
redirects light reflectance and reduces the amount of footprints and vacuum
cleaner sweeper marks shown as a result of light reflectance.
In cut pile carpet,
straight set yarns or yarns in which texture has not been added, you can sweep
your hand across the carpet pile and create a pile direction change. This
change in pile direction can create a perception of color change due to a change
in light reflectance of the change in pile direction. Even with stuffer box
yarns some degree of color change can be noticed when pile direction is altered.
Typically, the higher the
carpet density of the stuffer box style, the more color change you may
notice.
While the appearance of trackless carpet and Frieze carpet are similar,
carpet cost of a true frieze
is much higher, but the performance of frieze carpet is significantly better as
well. Stuffer box styles have a greater tendency of losing it's texture
due to foot traffic, than the texture (high twist level) placed in true frieze
styles. While nylon fiber has good memory, the rigors of foot traffic tend
to overburden these stuffer box yarns. In my own home, my Frieze is now
moving into its 14th year, while the textured carpet styles are nearing the end
of their second replacement. Of course, in comparing the cost per year,
the costs were fairly similar, except for the monthly "I think it's time we
changed the carpet color in our bedroom" from the wife.
The average carpet retailer may display 20
trackless carpet
styles for every frieze carpet style on their showroom floor, and many carpet
retailers may not display any true Frieze carpet styles because most consumers
do not like their nubby, heavy textured appearance.
While the Frieze carpet name is used by many consumers to
describe trackless carpet, the consumer may have to specifically ask for a "true
frieze" when requesting Frieze carpet styles from carpet retailers. Most
carpet retailers have grown accustomed to consumers incorrectly asking for
Frieze carpet rather tahn textured carpet.
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Frieze
carpet has been one of the most popular
of light reflectance.
