Everything You Need to Know About Stain-Resistant Carpet
It’s no surprise that carpet is our favorite flooring surface — it’s comfortable, soft, warm, and helps insulate your home from noise and heat, which keeps you cozy in winter and cool in summer.
The Best Carpet Style For Stains
One of the best ways you can keep spills from ruining your carpet is to keep them from soaking into the carpet in the first place. Easier said than done, right? But there are a few features of the carpet you buy that can make it better at resisting stains.
First is the style of the carpet itself. Carpet falls into two basic categories: cut-pile and loop-pile carpet. Cut-pile yarns are cut into individual strands, giving the carpet a softer, more plush surface, whereas loop-pile carpets keep the loops intact for a denser, more durable feel.
In general, loop-pile carpets are more resistant to stains. Since they have a thicker surface, they tend to keep spills on the surface better, rather than letting them soak through to the carpet backing or padding underneath.
The best carpet for active families — families with kids or pets that might cause a lot of spills — is Berber carpet. Berber carpet is a form of loop-pile carpet, but the loops aren’t arranged in small rows. Instead, they’re overlapping and twisted together, creating a much more uniform surface that’s very good at keeping spills on top of the fibers where they can be cleaned up easily.
Stain Resistant Coatings
There are some stain-resistant coatings, like Scotchgard, that can be sprayed onto the carpet after you buy and install it. Once they dry, they create a liquid-repellent coating that will keep stains from soaking in before you can clean them up. You can also install stain-resistant coating by cleaning — some cleaning solutions that you can put into carpet cleaning devices have a stain resistance compound built into them, so they leave behind a coating when they dry.
But the best way to keep stains out of your carpet is to buy a carpet with a factory stain resistant coating. These coatings are applied to every fiber before they’re ever spun into yarn or woven into carpet, which makes them permanent — they won’t wear off, no matter how many times you vacuum or wash the carpet.
Cleaning up Stains
No matter what kind of stain-resistant carpet you have, it’s important to clean up spills immediately. In general, remember this simple saying: the solution to pollution is dilution. When you spill something on the carpet, soak it up as quickly as possible. Put a folded towel down on it and stack heavy books or weight on top of the towel — you can even stand on it!
Then rinse the spill with a 50/50 mix of white vinegar and warm water, repeating the towel trick in between rinses until the stain is gone. For trickier stains, like juice, blood, animal waste, candle wax, and so on, don’t worry! We have some tips.
Finding the Best Carpet for You
Your exact carpet needs will depend on your home, your lifestyle, your personal aesthetic, whether you have kids or dogs, and a whole host of other factors. It can all be overwhelming — but don’t worry! We have decades of expertise in the carpet world. Just come by our showroom and we can find the exact carpet that’s right for you!