Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Do your wool carpets and/or rugs shed when you vacuum?


     Are you worried that the carpet or rug is degrading. Don’t worry. This is a natural characteristic of wool carpets and rugs. 

     Some pilling and shedding can occur with all wool carpets and rugs. This is a natural characteristic of wool carpeting because wool carpets are made from short “staple” fibers. A staple fiber is a short
length of fiber generally ranging from 4 to 8 inches long which is then spun into a yarn comprised of these short lengths. As we all know, wool is sheared from sheep. The result is short lengths of fiber which is then woven into a yarn. Because the yarn is made up of millions of short fibers, there are millions and millions of ends of these fibers in the carpet. Kind of like split ends in a person’s hair. It is impossible to remove all of these loose ends in the construction process. The result is these ends come out or shed when vacuuming.

     Once again, no need to worry. Wool carpets will not wear out from the loss of fiber. They can “ugly out” from use and abuse but they won’t fall apart.  Also, the thicker the carpet yarn, the more likely you are to see shedding. Once again, no need to panic. The shedding should diminish with time but it will never go away completely. There will always be some fiber in the vacuum canister. Remember, this is normal.

For more information, visit our website at www.graysoncleans.com