Carpet Construction

To appreciate all of carpet’s wonders, it helps to understand how carpet becomes carpet, what makes one carpet better than another carpet and then all about the various styles and types that you might encounter in a carpet store.

Carpets can be either woven or tufted. Woven refers to carpet (or a rug) made by a weaving process on a loom where the lengthwise (warp) yarns and the widthwise (weft or filling) yarns are interlaced to form the fabric. In woven carpet, the face and back are formed at the same time by interweaving warp, weft and other yarns. Weaves such as Wilton, Axminster and velvet are complex and often involve several sets of warp and filling yarns for the pile and backing. Some carpets are still woven in North America, with Karastan being one of the largest weavers.

Over 95% of all carpet made is tufted. In tufted carpet, yarn gets tufted into a primary backing (a woven or non–woven fabric in which tufting needles insert pile yarn — that’s what creates the fuzzy side), which then gets glued or laminated to a secondary backing that reinforces and increases dimensional stability. That glue or latex coating also locks the fibers into place.

After carpet is manufactured, the surface has a fuzzy appearance with small variances in the pile height. It gets fed into a sheering machine which shaves off those variations to create a nice, smooth finished carpet.

Learn more about the various carpet types, different carpet fibers or browse general carpet care tips.