Over 80 percent of the commercial carpet made in the USA is made out of nylon. Compared to Olefin and Polyester, Nylon is the strongest fiber and makes for the longest wearing carpets. You can get even longer life if you choose a LEVEL LOOP nylon carpet because of the natural resiliency of a loop.

In casinos and restaurants, you can get an even better carpet by buying a "SOLUTION DYED" commercial nylon carpet. Solution dyed carpets get their colour from coloured particles (called "pigments") added to the plastic before drawing it into a fiber. The result is that the pigments are suspended in the nylon very much like the raisins in raisin bread. This makes for a superior carpet in a restaurant or bar because it allows you to use bleach straight out of the jug to remove otherwise impossible stains (Kool-aid or red wine, say) without affecting the colour of the carpet. The carpet colour isn't affected because unlike conventionally dyed nylon, the pigments that give the carpet fiber colour are encased in nylon plastic, and not sitting on the surface of the fiber like you have in a conventionally dyed nylon carpet. So, almost no matter what gets spilled on the carpet, you can remove that stain with bleach without harming the carpet, and that makes for a longer lasting carpet in a setting like a restaurant or casino cuz you can keep it looking good for longer.

I buy commercial level loop solution dyed nylon carpet for my living rooms.

Clare Snyder is being a little too hard on Olefin carpets. I used to install Olefin carpets in my living rooms before I switched to soluton dyed nylon, and I have never had permanent marks on the carpet pile where furniture was moved, or anything like that. If Olefin fiber was so easily damaged, knowledgeable people wouldn't choose it to make carpets out of.

What I found in switching from Olefin to solution dyed nylon was:

1. Nylon carpets last much longer. Typically, I found I was only getting 10 to 20 years out of the Olefin carpets, whereas nylon would be closer to 30 years. The problem with Olefin carpets is that they tend to matt down unevenly, gradually giving the carpet a "blotchy" look. So, Olefin carpets don't wear out, they "ugly-out" as they tend to look more and more blotchy with wear. Nylon is a much stronger fiber and tends to have much better resiliency so that it doesn't matt down nearly as much.

2. Olefin carpets are particularily good when it comes to removing stains. Since you cannot dye Olefin by conventional dying techniques, ALL 100% Olefin carpets are made from solution dyed fiber, and that means that you can use bleach to remove stains from them, too.

3. Olefin are the least expensive carpets because Olefin fiber is the least expensive fiber used to make carpet.

4. DuPont spent a king's ransom over the years trying to make their Antron nylon more stain resistant in their "Stain Master" carpets. It just goes to show you how even the largest corporations can be dumb. A far better option would have been to make their carpets out of solution dyed nylon and let the carpet get stained. It's easier to remove that stain with bleach than it is to make nylon resistant to stains. So, right now the situation is that DuPont is still selling their Stain Master carpets made out of their most stain resistant Antron 6,6 nylon for $60 per square yard, and I'm buying Shaw solution dyed level loop nylon carpet for $12 per square yard, and I'm happier cuz I know that no matter what gets spilled on my solution dyed carpet, I can remove any stain with bleach. But, if I had a Stain Master carpet, I wouldn't have that option cuz Stain Master carpets are conventionally dyed, and the bleach would wreck the carpet. So, it's smarter to buy a solution dyed nylon carpet for under $20 per square yard than a Stain Master for $60 per square yard. Or, it makes more sense to me, anyhow.