Which carpets have the least amount of chemicals added?

[Jeff Short]

Some of you keep dissing Sorona. Go ahead. My experience & other information... independent testing, etc... tells me it is a superior fiber. Call it "polyester dressed up in a tuxedo" if you want to, but as for me, I am an educated, long time professional, and I know what I am doing.

ortiz34 said When Invista (stainmaster now) bought it from Dupont , Sorona was available and they said no thanks. Why? Because they knew it was a polyester dressed up in a tuxedo. This all came from the US Stainmaster rep right after the sale and Sorona wasn't a blip on the radar screen yet. I sell a few polys, some wools and mostly type 6,6 nylon as I find it wears and cleans the best for the value

[rusty baker]

No one is denying you, your opinion. It just seems to be the opinion of most people with years of floorcovering experience, including me, that polyester is not a good fiber for carpet.At least not as good as nylon or wool.

[Jeff Short]

Sorry. But heres the thing... Walker performance test vs. nylon & P.E.T... Sorona edges nylon slightly. Stain resistance test vs. treated nylon & P.E.T., again Sorona finishes best.. We did our own stain test here. Half a pot of hot, several hours old black coffee poured (over the sink, of course) over a discontinued Sorona sample. Let dry for a week. Spray bottle with straight tap water & lots of paper towels. Carpet looks like brand new. As to traffic performance, I sold the stuff to my sister four years ago. My brother in law is a farmer & they have two teenagers & a lot of traffic. Carpet looks excellent.
Yes, Sorona is in the polyester family, but it is not P.E.T. or the stuff they put out in the '70's. So, as I am, you are all entitled to your opinions, but unless you've actually been selling the product from its inception & had a lot of durability & performance issues, you're missing the point. I have been selling it, & it is outperforming nylon. And calling it "a polyester dressed up in a tuxedo" is like saying a Lincoln is a beefed up Pinto. There are differences here. I've seen them. And as for wool, I don't know if they'll ever come up with a synthetic fiber to match it. Then too, though, wool is MUCH more expensive than any synthetic, so it should outperform them.
Thanks for letting me vent.

rusty baker said No one is denying you, your opinion. It just seems to be the opinion of most people with years of floorcovering experience, including me, that polyester is not a good fiber for carpet.At least not as good as nylon or wool.

[cproader]

.............ya sold me Jeff.............

[Peter Kodner]

Jeff, what is a Walker performance test? Can you provide a test protocol?

If you are talking about goods actually being walked on, there is no protocol for it. I have discussion with many fiber and mill folks over the years and there are complications inherent in drawing any conclusions from these attempts to simulate real life conditions. It is considered by all I speak with to be "voodoo" science.

I recall a conversation about this several years back with Carey Mitchell at Shaw. He was upset as his only "reliable walker" was retiring

And by the way, I am an educated, long time professional too. Actually third generat6ion in the business.

[FlooringGirl]

I want to go back to whether wool shrinks for a moment. I've accidentally put wool clothing in a dryer, and they came out looking like toddler clothes. So yes, it sure does!

As to these new polyesters, they seem to be doing okay, although I'm still just a little scared. Testing samples is great, I've ruined many doing that and also found out which ones are good by doing that. But only time will really tell. The biggest factor in how anything holds up is the way in which it's cared for, and that is completely out of our control.

Peter, please don't remind me when I either repeat myself or forget things ... LOL

This week I had to get up earlier than usual and take my granddaughter to school. It has been a very long time since my mornings contained more drama than feeding and letting out the dog. Outfits and hairdos and bookbags - also, today was school picture day. How it is possible to be so bouncy and happy early in the morning like her is beyond me at this point in my life!

Tia

[mcbrides]

I PMd jeff about Smartstrand, we have just seen it here for the first time and like the product. We have already done a resista poly test in our home and unfortunately, our shepherd pup considered the landing a chew toy and we are going to replace it with a nylon product.

Hey Tia, you are not alone, we hate mornings, too.

[ortiz34]

yes stains vs stains Sorona is superior
you can bleach it and most, if not any stains will come out
However, soiling vs soiling is a WHOLE other ball game where PTT falls short to Nylon.

I've seen it down in a Mohawk floorscapes dealer and was far from impressed with the soiling and abrasvive wear (along with the retailer himself)

PET and PTT can't perform in the same manner as a type 6'6 Nylon for those instances
The wear warranty is "10% of your carpet each year"
So if it looks even crappy a year later, mohawk is going to say "that's normal"

How would you feel about Sorona is that starts to evolve into an issue down the road.


But who cares? If it works for you and you are confident to sell it makes you money than more power to you.
6-7 years later of this product being out and I may have had one, POSSIBLY two inquires if I can get Sorona.
That tells me it's just not that in demand, at least where I am

Nothing beats brand recognition like the Stainmaster logo
98% of customers don't even ask "who makes this?" They think all stainmaster cpt is all the same manufacturer.

Stainmaster also is known, tried, and tested to stand up for their products. Mohawk? LMAO, yeah......right. Mohawk is the worst company. They have killed the Karastan line slowly since they bought it.(not good)

I had a customer who son spilled kool aid into the rug she had installed 6 mos prior ,she called me in a panic. I gave her the 800-stainmaster phone # and she called and they walk her through on how to clean it.
Didn't come out
Second they sent out a professional cleaner on THEIR BEHALF
didn't come out

Kool Aid is not one of the 5 or so items they don't warranty against with stains (mustard, curry, tea, dog or pet urine, and vomit)
again it was still slightly there

next day I get a call telling me to re order that carpet and they are replacing it and paying all the labor costs

Now that is a company I feel confident in selling their product.

The 800 # completely gets them out of my hair with most claim or other issues.
No headaches after the sale

[FlooringGirl]

mcbrides said I PMd jeff about Smartstrand, we have just seen it here for the first time and like the product. We have already done a resista poly test in our home and unfortunately, our shepherd pup considered the landing a chew toy and we are going to replace it with a nylon product. Hey Tia, you are not alone, we hate mornings, too.

Yeah Deb, our dog was mad because her blow-up bed has a leak and wasn't staying full of air, so decided to dig up our carpet in that room this week because her bed wasn't pumped. Crazy animals!

Some days I like mornings, other days they're a real challenge.

Tia

[FlooringGirl]

ortiz34 said the road. Nothing beats brand recognition like the Stainmaster logo 98% of customers don't even ask "who makes this?" They think all stainmaster cpt is all the same manufacturer. Stainmaster also is known, tried, and tested to stand up for their products. Mohawk? LMAO, yeah......right. Mohawk is the worst company. They have killed the Karastan line slowly since they bought it.(not good)

The store where I work is a Stainmaster MasterGallery. I have seen the company readily replace carpets when necaessary, back when they were DuPont. No experience on that since they've switched to Invista. There are Stainmasters manufactured by Mohawk, so I'm confused about your take on that.

We also have the Lees line (a much better warranty than Stainmaster), and most of their products are from Mohawk. I've seen them replace carpets too, even just within the past few months.

Karastan was a great carpet - it stinks if it has been shot down and lowered. I need to llook into that one ...

Tia

[ortiz34]

FlooringGirl said The store where I work is a Stainmaster MasterGallery. I have seen the company readily replace carpets when necaessary, back when they were DuPont. No experience on that since they've switched to Invista. There are Stainmasters manufactured by Mohawk, so I'm confused about your take on that. We also have the Lees line (a much better warranty than Stainmaster), and most of their products are from Mohawk. I've seen them replace carpets too, even just within the past few months. Karastan was a great carpet - it stinks if it has been shot down and lowered. I need to llook into that one ... Tia

Master gallery store here also. Talk about brand recognition baby! The thing about these warranties in they are tied to the fiber company in these instances, soiling, stains, abrasive wear, texture retention etc.
The mills really don't have alot to do with claims pertaining to those instances listed above, if they did they would not replace much or anything. They go straight to the source (Invista, wear dated, Anso) so it's not from their pockets, cause it's not their fiber.
That's why I like stainmaster, NO company stands behind their customers like they do and I can attest to that in many instances (although it's rare, very rare to have a customer complaint with Stainmaster)
A generic unbranded fiber almost seems to have a tail light guaruntee in my experiences.
Not sure how much Sorona will stand behind their wear and soiling claims based on their warranty specs (there is alot of grey areas (12 yrs, 10% of your carpet each year) WTH is that lol?

LOL@ mohawk handling claims

[FlooringGirl]

I always tell people the Wear Warranty means absolutely nothing, because it's true. You will never find a carpet to lose 10% of its face in a hundred years. It may become matted and crushed, but the fiber is still there, just in a different form.

Texture Retention and Stain Resistance warranties is what I concentrate on, and yeah, I do read the fine print and try to learn the loopholes.

You are definitely right about Stainmaster and brand recognition. They do a great job, from my experience, and don't have many of the loopholes to get out of claims that others do. Lees is also a brand recognition from years past (they used to be like a Karastan or a Milliken), but I think the new Lees is playing on that, since it is not at all the same thing.

Carpet One has some great warranties, like the Beautiful Guarantee, which are helpful when a customer isn't satisfied for some reason. Fortunately, we don't get claims very often, but when it happens you do find out who stands behind them.

All in all, warranties can be deceptive and confusing. Our new water heater gave out recently. We turned in a claim 6 days before the labor portion of the warranty expired (!!) - although we didn't have it installed where we bought it, there was a defective part. Parts are warranted for 9 years, labor to replace them for one year. Funny thing, we bought it at Lowe's and they sent us a Sear's tech to fix it.

Tia

[Dobby Tappet]

This thread is beginning to make me wonder if we sell carpet or warranties?

Does anyone offer extended warranties?

Dobby

[FlooringGirl]

Dobby Tappet said This thread is beginning to make me wonder if we sell carpet or warranties? Does anyone offer extended warranties? Dobby

We do, but I've never sold one so can't even tell you what they call it. Oh wait ... Everguard, it came to me!

This thread is making me giggle because the person that started it never came back!

Tia

[Dobby Tappet]

This thread is making me giggle because the person that started it never came back!

Yeah, but it's still a great question and an excellent subject to sharpen our professional teeth on. Because we all know, this is a topic that will be brought up more and more as time goes on and preparation & education are key elements of success in sales.

Dobby