Wool Carpet Pros and Cons
While deciding on whether or not to add wool carpet to your home, it becomes important that you know and understand the various wool carpet pros and cons. Weighing the good against the bad is the best way to make any major purchasing decision. In order to know whether wool is the best choice for your home, you have to know the advantages of installing it as well as any drawbacks to purchasing wool over other carpet materials.
Wool Carpet Pros
Wool carpet has a number of advantages:
- Environmentally Friendly – Wool carpet is made from wool which is a natural product that is shorn from sheep. It is naturally biodegradable and hypoallergenic and contains no chemicals that can be harmful to the environment.
- Indoor Environment – Not only is wool carpet helpful to the overall environment, but it helps with your home environment as well. Wool absorbs up to 30 percent of its own weight in moisture without feeling wet. This provides you with a humidifier as well as a dehumidifier built right in to your carpet. It can also absorb various chemicals that can be present in a number of products and keeps them from harming the air that you breathe.
- Compaction Resistant – Wool is naturally coiled so it will resist compaction. This means that you will never notice unsightly track marks in high traffic areas or flattened areas underneath your furniture when you move it around.
- Dirt and Soil Repellent – Wool also repels dirt and soil as well as dust mites and other debris. This makes it much easier to clean and keeps it looking cleaner. It repels liquids as well so anything spilled on wool carpet can be instantly cleaned up without any stains left behind.
- Flame Retardant – Wool is also naturally flame resistant. This means that fire cannot breathe on wool and will be instantly extinguished. It will not melt like most synthetic carpet materials.
Of course if you are looking at wool carpet pros and cons then you should consider the disadvantages as well. Anything today has a drawback of some sort and wool carpet is certainly no exception. There are a few disadvantages to wool carpet:
- Shedding – Wool fiber tends to shed from time to time as the filaments work themselves free from the yarn that creates the carpet. You may not notice these sheddings and they can normally be picked up with a vacuum cleaner.
- Alkaline Damage – Alkaline substances are very harmful to wool carpet. This simply means that you have to carefully choose any soaps or detergents that you use to clean the carpet to prevent damage.
- Cost – Many consumers feel that the cost of wool is a disadvantage. Wool carpet does tend to be a bit more expensive than synthetic fibers. Of course, you have to realize that wool carpet will last much longer than these cheaper fibers and it is a much more luxurious carpet.
Choosing to purchase wool carpet should be done after careful consideration of these wool carpet pros and cons. Once you have determined that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, you can begin looking at colors, styles and designs.