When it comes to carpeting your home, whether it's wall to wall or by carefully placing area rugs around your floors, there no better feeling of natural wool under your feet. So with that in mind, what are the best wool carpet brands out there, and what's the benefits of choosing a wool carpet for your home?
Before we look at some of the top wool carpeting brands, let's see the different types of wool carpets available today.
Wool Or Wool Blend?
When we talk about wool carpet or rugs, we think 100% natural wool. But if it's advertised as a wool blend, then it will be a mix of wool and another material like nylon or polyester.
So, what's different between the two materials and what is the mix ratio likely to be? Nylon is a synthetic material and is tough and abrasive, whereas polyester is cheaper and used more like a filler to keep costs low when added to wool to manufacture the carpet.
The Mix Ratio
The blend of these fiber types is usually 80% wool 20% nylon or polyester. Therefore when you are looking for new wool rugs or carpet brands, it's best to check if it's pure 100% wool or a blend of wool and synthetic material.
Price Variation
Which brings us on to cost, this is the big difference between these carpet types. 100% wool is far more expensive than a blended mixture of nylon and wool.
For example, wool is around twice the cost of nylon and two and half times more costly than polyester. An average wool carpet is about $10 sq.ft. Whereas Olefin carpet (a brand of polyester) can be as cheap as $1.00 sq.ft.
So you see lots of variations in prices between Wool or Wool Blended types of carpet brands.
What are the best wool carpet brands?
Now you know a bit more about the blend types, we now want to know which are the best brands to look for when choosing the perfect rug, or carpet to compliment and style your home.
Karastan Carpet Brand
Karastan is a well-known brand of wool carpeting and is owned by Mohawk Industries, which is a global company selling into 170 countries and employing 40,000 people, with sales in 2018 of $10 billion. So Karastan is in good hands and is part of their business specially created for the carpet and rugs industry.
The Karastan wool carpet range comes with various patterns, cuts, loop pile, colors, and styles. The choice of rugs is from traditional to modern and contemporary, for use in the home or commercial premises.
Cut Loop Pile
Most carpets are manufactured with loops, the cut loop carpet design has some of the loops cut straight so leaving the appearance of a worn appearance to the carpet.
This is not a new look it became popular in the 1970s but is now back in fashion. It's not recommended in high traffic areas like stairs and entrance halls but it does work great as an area rug. It's available in many pattern designs and colors.
Loop Pile
Wool loop pile is more hard wearing and is suitable for all high traffic areas, and can be great for commercial projects. The loops of fiber can be twisted to strengthen the material even further, making it a popular choice for business owners.
Certain factors must be considered with this type of loop carpet. Also though it is durable, dragging furniture across it will damage the loops and can pluck them out, so extra caution when using loop wool carpet is advised.
So which one is best? That would depend on what you need it to do; they both have there own individual characteristics.
You will have more choice with design and colors with wool loop pile, as it is easier to manufacture than cut loop thus giving more options.
Top tip
Some loop types will hide dirt mark like footprints easier than others. So plan ahead which loop type, texture and color will best suit the areas you wish to fit them into.
Color
Many years ago the color of most wool rug and carpets were a light beige or similar with little choice. Nowadays the choice of colors is vast, and the Karastan brand range of carpets can have up to ten color swatches to select from for each product, this with a mixture of designs and patterns.
We would suggest that you choose the carpet color to match your interior including not going too light in color in high traffic areas.
Here is the range of color swatches available to choose from.
Our thoughts
As a brand, Karastan is one of the best for wool carpets, specializing in a large selection of synthetics and natural wool fibers. This offers you a choice of textures and colors.
They offer the option to have swatch samples so you can check color and textures before ordering. The Karastan brand is a long-standing business with a solid reputation in the industry for supplying quality rugs and carpets.
Warranty
Unlike many other companies, The Karastan brand offers a 20-year abrasive warranty on carpets and lifetime defects warranty, which to be fair is a statement of quality from Karastan giving you peace of mind if you do have any problems.
Sisal Carpet Brand
The next brand is Sisal, it's mixed with wool to make high-quality designer rugs and carpets for the European and US marketplace.
So what is Sisal? Like wool, Sisal is a natural material and comes from the agave plant. Produced by using the leaves from the plant, it's then twisted into fibers. Sisal is a very robust and durable material ideal for carpeting.
Sisal with Wool
The mix is 40% sisal & wool at 60%, the combination of the two materials complements each other well, as the Sisal is coarse and robust, while the wool is soft and gentle underfoot.
The weave of these rugs is with the wool fibers being on top and the sisal being underneath, so you have the best of both worlds.
The bonus of using carpets or rugs with sisal fibers in them is that because it is a natural material, it has great anti-allergies qualities so if you are using it in areas around people living with asthma, it's a great option.
Other benefits are unlike the nylon or polyester types we talked about earlier, the sisal fiber will increase the wool carpet lifespan and durability.
However, when you use this mix of both types, it's important to keep it away from areas where you use water, like in the kitchen and bathroom, as it will absorb moisture from the air and become damp, which isn't ideal.
There are many colors and styles of rugs and wool carpet with many designs to select from.
Did you Know?
You can have a custom Sisal & wool rugs to match your decor. With the mixture of fibers percentage made to suit your needs. This is particular useful for more durable areas of the home.
Common Sisal Questions
Q: Is sisal the same as hemp?
A: No, both are natural products but come from different plants.
Q: What is the difference between jute and sisal brand?
A: Sisal is more durable than jute, even though jute is used for rugs, its soft finish makes it less likely to be used in high traffic areas.
Q: Does sisal need underlay?
Yes, it is advisable to use a rug pad, which will ensure the rug lasts for many years. If applying for wall to wall carpeting, it needs adhering to underlay which should be carried out by installers.
Eco-friendly
There are several benefits for using sisal for your wool rugs and carpet, which includes its influence on the environment. Its footprint is small, and a single agave sisalana cactus leaf can product over 1000 fibers of sisal, and the remains of the plant go towards feeding the animals and powers electric on the farms where it's made.
Therefore when you take pleasure from your luxury rug, you can rest assured you've done your bit for the planet.
New Zealand Wool Brand
Most wool provided for carpets comes from European countries.
However, we have to mention the wool brand from New Zealand, which is the largest supplier in the world. Now available in the US, this is the finest wool in the world.
It comes from grass feed sheep that ensures the wool is whiter than its European counterparts. This bright white wool color helps create a vibrant color once it's dyed.
The Godfrey Hirst brand is one of the best suppliers of wool carpet in the US and Canada, importing the wool directly from the source. The great thing here it the sheep are only shorn of the wool once a year, making this a renewable process.
This wool is also available in a wool blend with 80% New Zealand wool & 20% of a nylon or polyester mix.
Advantages of Choosing A Wool Brand Of Carpet
Here's just a few of the benefits of Wool over other synthetic materials:
Pros
Eco-friendly
Great for allergy sufferers (hypo-allergenic)
Help reduce noise
Is flame resistant
Simple to maintain
Will last for many years.
Cons
More care is required to look after the wools material, also it is more expensive than synthetic carpet, i.e., Nylon or Polyesters yarn.
Tips on Maintaining A top brand wool carpet
Tips for keeping your new wool carpet in tip-top condition:
1. Avoid using chemicals for cleaning or stains. Some cleaning agents can damage fibers, such as salt and any bleach based chemicals.
2. Wool is very good at absorbing liquids. So dealing with a spill should be done by blotting with a cloth or paper towel to draw the wetness out of the wool first. Then by repeating the process the spill/stain can be quickly removed.
3. Vacuuming the wool carpets and rugs using a cleaner without beater bar will prevent the fibers from getting tangled in the cleaning head of the vacuum.
Use a model of a vacuum cleaner which allows the rotating roller to be adjusted or switched off, and this will save any fiber damage when cleaning your carpets.
Final Thoughts
So there we have it, a look at the top-rated brands for wool carpets. We have delved into the different brands and types of wool carpet. So whether it be for commercial or household use, there is an extensive selection of colors, fiber loop varieties and brands to check out. I hope this has been helpful.