Wool carpeting is a luxurious and beautiful product that has many attractive traits in both business and residential applications. It is sought out by discerning designers for its many unique properties. Let’s help you decide if wool will meet your flooring needs.

Wool is the soft, curly or wavy hair grown on sheep. Its fibers are woven into magnificent fabrics and yarns to create sweaters, blankets, rugs, and carpets. This natural fiber has many distinguishing characteristics making it ideal for carpeting. Wool’s natural fiber is excellent at absorbing dyes and so you can find wool carpeting in just about any color imaginable.

Durability and Easy Maintenance

The structure of the wool fiber is shaped much like scales or roofing shingles. This allows for dirt to be caught at the surface and easily vacuumed away (source). Wools natural fiber contains a special membrane that that covers its core making it largely fire and water resistant. The fibers are not combustible and will not ignite with a flame. In addition to that, it even resists staining because moisture can’t repel deep into the carpet.

Wool fibers have up to 40% more elasticity than its synthetic carpet competitors. This means that wool will bounce back over and over again retaining its life under the most brutal of traffic conditions.

Environmentally Friendly

Wool is a renewable and natural resource. Because wool is the hair of sheep, it is easy to grow and there is never a shortage. It is also biodegradable, meaning that it will not clog up the Earth’s already overstuffed landfills.

Much of today’s wool is sourced in New Zealand. New Zealand has stringent environmental standards. They do not allow pesticides on their sheep farms making the animals and the land much more healthy.

Superior Acoustic Performance

Acoustics are the everyday sounds we create in our environment. Traffic, phone’s ringing, pencils sharpening and printers printing all contribute to noise pollution in your space. Overtime, studies have shown that this pollution can have a detrimental effect on one’s health (source). Wool is an optimal commercial carpeting choice, especially for noisy environments. Its fibers naturally absorb sounds and dampen impact noise in a room. This creates a more comfortable space for living or working.

As you can see, wool carpeting has many benefits over synthetic and should be a serious contender for any flooring application. Its health and environmental perks make wool a superior choice.

Are you in the market for new floors but don’t know where to start? The process of picking the right flooring for your needs can be overwhelming. You want to embrace the latest trends without spending a fortune yet you want quality that will last for years to come. Here is what’s been trending in 2016.

Luxury Vinyl

This is not your grandma’s vinyl kitchen. Technology has created an abundance of Luxury Vinyl Tile, wood, and even marble looking choices that are sure to impress you. Vinyl is durable and easy to clean making it an ideal choice for families and other high-traffic locations. At only $4.00 to $5.00 per square foot (source), Luxury Vinyl is quickly becoming a favorite option.

Large Tile

Gone are the days of tiny tiles and tons of grout lines to keep clean. The trends this year include large-format tiles in square and rectangle sizes all the way up to 40” x 120” (source). These come in a variety of styles mimicking the looks of wood to marble. People like the large open feel that the tiles provide while being easier to maintain than their smaller predecessors.

Eco-friendly

It is no secret that the world is on the “Green” bandwagon and it applies to flooring as well. People are looking for floors that look great, are affordable, and are earth-friendly to boot. According to Green America, the EPA estimates that indoor pollution levels are two to five times higher than they are outside and experts believe the reason for that is flooring (source). There are many beautiful eco-friendly choices to consider:

• Hardwood from sustainably managed forests.
• Cork is hypoallergenic, fire-resistant and grows back every three years.
• Bamboo makes for a very hard floor making it durable for high-traffic areas.

Imperfections/Reclaimed

Consumers have decided that ugly is the new beautiful. People relish in the uniqueness of flaws and are clamoring for reclaimed materials to make a statement. You can even have wood floors made out of old wine barrels, wine stains and barrel markings included. These are excellent conversation pieces and lend themselves well to many different decor themes. Reclaimed wood is also a more affordable option and lets the consumer get creative with their project.

The next time you are shopping for new floors, keep these trends in mind. Whichever you choose, you will have a beautiful showpiece to be proud of.