What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

On 9/30/2012 10:00 AM, Simon Caster wrote:
What brand& style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

It was called "oak"...



--

On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:00:15 -0400, "Simon Caster"
wrote:

What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).



Stairs are tough on carpet. Consider alternatives like hardwood,
laminate and the like. Easier to clean, wears better, looks better.

Carpets just hold dust and dirt. We've eliminated most of it in our
house.

Simon Caster wrote the single word "carpet" in his subject line.

Carpet is what you put on the floor.

Now, if you put something more useful in your subject line, I might
actually respond accordingly...

Carpet doesn't hold up to traffic. If you use it plan on frequent
replacement.

"Simon Caster" wrote in message
...
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:00:15 -0400, "Simon Caster"
wrote:

What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).



Where do you live?

I bought a house without stairs (never again), threw the carpet in the
dumpster and put down 16x24 porcelain tile. Never looked back.

"Oren" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:00:15 -0400, "Simon Caster"
wrote:

What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).



Where do you live?

I bought a house without stairs (never again), threw the carpet in the
dumpster and put down 16x24 porcelain tile. Never looked back.

Heh, just tore out porcelain in the kitchen, and put down laminate.

On 9/30/2012 11:00 AM, Simon Caster wrote:
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).




I would stick with nylon only. I'm not up on current fibers but nylon
is the toughest. Get the highest basis weight you can. Flat
constructions like shag, if they still make it, wear worse.
Then there is a matter of dirt hiding and static resistance.
There are nylon fibers constructed for all the best attributes but I've
also seen off spec industrial grades used that were not made for
carpets. These are things to discuss with the carpet seller.
I also avoid the remnant type places. Guy once sold me a nylon carpet
that turned out to be polyester. I had done the testing myself. I got
a chunk of purchase price back.

On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 13:20:03 -0400, "Simon Caster"
wrote:

Where do you live?

I bought a house without stairs (never again), threw the carpet in the
dumpster and put down 16x24 porcelain tile. Never looked back.

Heh, just tore out porcelain in the kitchen, and put down laminate.


Where do you live?

On Sep 30, 8:00*am, "Simon Caster" wrote:
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Half the house is carpet and half is travertine.

You can have ours, it's high quality with expensive pad underneath.
approx 2,000 sq ft worth, some extremely large sections.Never been
'lived' on. Replacing it ALL with travertine.

Simon Caster:

If you opt for carpet, Frank's recommendation to go with nylon is right on, but don't buy ANY nylon carpet. Buy a solution dyed level loop nylon carpet for maximum durability and ease of cleaning.

Carpets are made from three different kinds of synthetic fibers and one natural fiber:
1. Nylon
2. Polyester
3. Olefin
4. Wool, and
5. bath mats, which aren't really "carpet" are typically made of acrylic plastic. That's that "PMMA" (polymethyl methacrylate) stuff I keep talking about all the time.

Nylon is the strongest fiber used to make carpet, and there's a natural resiliency to a level loop that can't be beaten, so over 90% of the commercial carpet produced, sold and installed in North America is level loop nylon carpet.

Now, DuPont has spent a king's ransom trying to make their nylon fiber (called "Antron") resistant to stains, and that money was largely wasted. A smarter way to make a stain resistant nylon carpet is to make a "solution dyed" nylon carpet.

Solution dying simply means that the carpet gets it's colour from tiny solid coloured particles that are added to the nylon plastic before it gets drawn into a fiber. That's exactly the way most plastics are coloured. A red telephone is red because the clear or transluscent plastic it's made of has gazllions of tiny red solid particles inside it. Consequently, you can use bleach straight out of the jug to remove otherwise impossible stains from a solution dyed nylon carpet without harming the carpet. That's because the stain is on the outside of the plastic carpet fiber, but the pigments giving the carpet colour are encased within the carpet fiber very much like raisins in raising bread. So, the bleach will take the colour out of the stain sticking to the surface of the carpet fiber, but not out of the pigments encased inside the carpet fiber.

So, long story short, you can use bleach straight out of the jug to remove otherwise impossible stains from SOLUTION DYED nylon carpet without harming the carpet.

Obviously, you have little to lose and much to gain by buying a door mat size sample of SOLUTION DYED NYLON carpet from the discontinued samples stack for $2 at your local carpet retailer and torturing it with Saniflush, Easter Egg dye, KoolAid, red wine and anything else you can think of to prove to yourself that what I'm saying is true. Just put the bleach into a spray bottle and apply it to the stain. Work the bleach in so that the bleach spreads all over all the solution dyed nylon fibers to remove the stain. Now suck up the used bleach with the vaccuum hose of a wet/dry vaccuum cleaner applied directly to the carpet pile. Replace the bleach in the spray bottle with clean water and wet the carpet down and then pull out the soiled water several times to remove the residual bleach from the carpet.

I wouldn't install anything but a solution dyed nylon carpet in my 21 living rooms. That's cuz I can buy solution dyed nylon carpet for $18 per square yard, it'll last longer than carpet made of any other kind of plastic, and I can use bleach to remove everything short of a cigarette burn from it. The last two solution dyed nylon carpets I installed in apartments were both made by Shaw and were from their "Franchise" series of carpet. The Franchise series has about 20 different colours of carpet in it, but they all have the same sort of pattern to them. They're all level loop solution dyed nylon carpets suitable for residential or commercial applications.

Now, every kind of flooring will wear out fastest where the pressure applied to it is greatest, and most of the pressure on a stair tread is applied at the small nose of the tread.

So, instead of having carpet professionally installed on your steps, consider gluing vinyl or synthetic rubber stair nosings to your stair treads first, and then gluing carpet to the treads and risers:

http://www.johnsonite.com/LinkClick....A%3d&tabid=802

Johnsonite (Home) makes stair nosings in both vinyl and synthetic rubber in 867 trillion colours. For a house, vinyl is plenty durable enough. I have synthetic rubber stair treads on the front and back stair cases in my building, and they're bullet proof. You cannot carve your initials into synthetic rubber with anything short of a razor blade, and you cannot leave a burn in it with anything short of a propane torch. Synthetic rubber stair nosings in a house would be overkill, but I like overkill and support it 100%.

So, if you're concerned about the carpet wearing out on the stair nosings, install vinyl or rubber moldings made specifically for stair nosings first, and then install the carpet on each step tread and riser separately. I'd melt the edges of each piece of carpet with a heat gun (or steam iron maybe) to prevent it from ravelling.

You can order Johnsonite vinyl or rubber stair nosings from any store that sells flooring. Generally, you order this kinda stuff from the store's commercial sales department. Johnsonite also makes vinyl and synthetic rubber stair treads to cover the whole step, but in my view, carpeting is more appropriate in a residential setting.

That'll be 35 cents. Please contact the forum moderator to arrange for payment.

On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 11:00:15 -0400, "Simon Caster"
wrote:

What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).



Well of the houses I owned or own, one rental home has tile for the
stairs and it holds up best (I don't like it for other reasons) but
you wanted to know what carpet is best and I'd say berber for strictly
traffic. The negative side of berber is when you have to have it
steam cleaned, it's harder than pile carpet.

"Simon Caster" wrote in message
...
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Carpet is not for stairs. That is why designers don't use it, unless it is
specified by the buyer. It wears a trough very quickly, is hard to clean,
and gets dirty easy. It is only used in low end houses usually to cover up
a crummy set of stairs or bad carpentry. Stairs should dazzle. Shag does
never dazzle. Neither does berber or any other style of carpet.

MHO

Steve

On 9/30/2012 7:51 PM, Steve B wrote:
"Simon Caster" wrote in message
...
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Carpet is not for stairs. That is why designers don't use it, unless it is
specified by the buyer. It wears a trough very quickly, is hard to clean,
and gets dirty easy. It is only used in low end houses usually to cover up
a crummy set of stairs or bad carpentry. Stairs should dazzle. Shag does
never dazzle. Neither does berber or any other style of carpet.

MHO

Steve


I like the no-slip treads myself. I don't like bruises on my backside
and shins from slipping on some odd material on the steps. O_o

TDD

"Steve B" wrote in message
...

"Simon Caster" wrote in message
...
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Carpet is not for stairs. That is why designers don't use it, unless it
is specified by the buyer. It wears a trough very quickly, is hard to
clean, and gets dirty easy. It is only used in low end houses usually to
cover up a crummy set of stairs or bad carpentry. Stairs should dazzle.
Shag does never dazzle. Neither does berber or any other style of
carpet.

Well, here's your lower end house. And, yes that's laminate in the kitchen.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateand...436&source=web

nestork wrote:
I'm looking for a brand name. Window installers use a sticky caulk
on my windows that is still holding up. It "flows".

You're probably looking for Kop-R-Lastic, which is what most window
companies use on the new windows they install:

It's made by the U.S.E. Hickson Company in Canada and the Henry Company
in the USA under license from the Koppers Company of Australia.

'Kop-R-Lastic | Henry.com' (http://tinyurl.com/9zgdp9b)

I have 66 windows in my building, and I wouldn't use anything BUT
Kop-R-Lastic on them. The reasonw why is that Kop-R-Lastic is a
synthetic rubber that's got excellent adhesion to most construction
materials, BUT, it's cohesive strengeth is even greater than it's
adhesive strength, which means that it sticks to itself better than it
sticks to construction materials. So, when the time comes to replace
your caulk, and it won't come soon, you just get one end of the bead of
Kop-R-Lastic started and it pulls out of the joint just like a rubber
rope.

Here's a picture of me pulling clear Kop-R-lastic off the Suite 3's
dining room window in my building:



http://users.usinternet.com/nkelebay...R-Lastic-1.jpg



Brackets ? See if this works

Greg

Simon Caster wrote:
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Low level loop commercial nylon. Not pretty but wears better than most.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Maybe just ready for a change? Check it out...
http://www.floridaloghouse.net

On Sep 30, 1:31*pm, Robert Macy wrote:
On Sep 30, 8:00*am, "Simon Caster" wrote:

What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Half the house is carpet and half is travertine.

You can have ours, it's high quality with expensive pad underneath.
approx 2,000 sq ft worth, some extremely large sections.Never been
'lived' on. *Replacing it ALL with travertine.

Carpet - the onlhy thing you will buy over...and over....and over...
Carpet Cleaning companies love it when
you put that stuff on the floor. Just did ours _again_ only one room
18x15 =$181. I can look forward to
doing it again in 2 years when it will be over $200. As for stairs -
never!

The caveman who was the first to throw a bearskin on the floor should
have been shot!

The things one puts up with to satisfy the wife!!

Harry K

On Oct 1, 8:43*am, Harry K wrote:
On Sep 30, 1:31*pm, Robert Macy wrote:

On Sep 30, 8:00*am, "Simon Caster" wrote:

What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Half the house is carpet and half is travertine.

You can have ours, it's high quality with expensive pad underneath.
approx 2,000 sq ft worth, some extremely large sections.Never been
'lived' on. *Replacing it ALL with travertine.

Carpet - the onlhy thing you will buy over...and over....and over...
Carpet Cleaning companies love it when
*you put that stuff on the floor. *Just did ours _again_ only one room
18x15 =$181. *I can look forward to
doing it again in 2 years when it will be over $200. * As for stairs -
never!

The caveman who was the first to throw a bearskin on the floor should
have been shot!

The things one puts up with to satisfy the wife!!

Harry K

gee carpet is warm on the feet and quiet......

however we have dogs so its not really practical. I am 55 and as a
child wall to wall carpet was fashionable. carpet normally lasts 10
years if you vacuum it often......

carpet doesnt really wear, the imbedded dirt wears the fibres of the
carpet

On 9/30/2012 11:00 AM, Simon Caster wrote:
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).



What kind of traffic.....five kids? Old couple? Dogs? Open stairway,
where looks matter more? Cheap or luxury? You can buy runners in all
price ranges...hold down with removeable rods so it can be changed easily.

I just looked at a nice home that had carpet in the kitchen...hadn't
seen that for about 40 years ) Bought the one with vinyl in the
kitchen....I'm more fussy about maintenance than esthetics at my age and
if I slip and fall the vinyl will be a tad softer.

On Oct 1, 5:43*am, Harry K wrote:
On Sep 30, 1:31*pm, Robert Macy wrote:

On Sep 30, 8:00*am, "Simon Caster" wrote:

What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

Half the house is carpet and half is travertine.

You can have ours, it's high quality with expensive pad underneath.
approx 2,000 sq ft worth, some extremely large sections.Never been
'lived' on. *Replacing it ALL with travertine.

Carpet - the onlhy thing you will buy over...and over....and over...
Carpet Cleaning companies love it when
*you put that stuff on the floor. *Just did ours _again_ only one room
18x15 =$181. *I can look forward to
doing it again in 2 years when it will be over $200. * As for stairs -
never!

The caveman who was the first to throw a bearskin on the floor should
have been shot!

The things one puts up with to satisfy the wife!!

Harry K

Years ago, we bought a 'commercial' grade carpet cleaner, about $4,000
that heats the water, has rating of 1200psi, plugs into two different
service outlets to operate, and purchased cases of really good carpet
cleaner from Brulins Indiana. Every month, just clean the carpet,
like vacuuming. The extraction is so thorough, the carpets dry within
2-4 hours. That way, the carpet stays new. The top 'look' keeps
nicer. When I took up a section, underneath between rebond pad and
carpet had NO grit, or dust, bright colors - looked like just
installed.

Seriously, look into getting a cleaner like that, both your Ms. and
YOU will be lot happier. Plus, line the perimeter of the room with
Raid's new product, "Bug Barrier" in our area takes out spiders,
centipedes, flying critters that land on it, and scorpions.

I just thought I would mention this because there's a widespread misconception that carpet shampoo'ers clean carpets better than vaccuum cleaners.

A carpet shampooer and a vaccuum cleaner are two separate tools meant for totally different purposes, just like a screwdriver and a pair of pliers.

Vaccuum cleaners are intended for removing SOLID dirt from carpets, like sand, pollen, dead skin cells, paper and cloth fibers, etc.

Carpet shampoo'ers are intended for removing wet or dried up liquid spills from carpets.

That's because as soon as you get a carpet wet, there's a force that comes into existance called "surface tension" that wants to keep solid particles like sand grains and dead skin cells stuck to the fibers of the carpet.

Next time you're at the beach, try cleaning sand off of wet feet and dry feet and see which one works better. Of course it'll be dry feet cuz in that case there's no surface tension trying to keep the sand grains stuck to your skin.

The best way to clean any carpet is to vaccuum it with a good quality vaccuum cleaner to remove the solid dirt particles first, and then shampoo it to remove any dried up liquid spills or dissolve any stains.

Simon Caster wrote:
What brand & style of carpet did you get for your home? Looking for
something, which will hold up to traffic (stairs).

You have a basic contradiction.

Look at high traffic areas: sidewalks, department stores, the neighborhood
Stop-&-Rob, etc. None - or almost none - have carpet.

Yes, but all those places are areas where road grit (from sanding and salting) are going to get ground into the carpet pile and wreck it. I wouldn't use carpet floor mats in the cab of a garbage truck either.

There are different kinds of flooring suitable for different applications. If there's gonna be no more sand and road grit on these stairs than there would be on the living room floor, I don't see why carpet would be any less suitable for the steps than the living room.

If this carpeting was ti be installed on the front or back stairs into the house, then I'd agree as well. But, my understanding is that the stairway is inside the house and not at either a front or back entrance.

nestork wrote:
You have a basic contradiction.

Look at high traffic areas: sidewalks, department stores, the
neighborhood
Stop-&-Rob, etc. None - or almost none - have carpet.

There are different kinds of flooring suitable for different
applications. If there's gonna be no more sand and road grit on these
stairs than there would be on the living room floor, I don't see why
carpet would be any less suitable for the steps than the living room.

I agree; I wouldn't use carpeting for the living room either.

Full disclosu I'm not totally opposed to carpeting. I built a
cat-scratching post using a piece of very expensive carpeting material.

The cats enjoy it.