floor covering

Finish material on floors, including wood strips, parquet, linoleum, vinyl, asphalt tile, rubber, cork, epoxy resins, ceramic tile, and carpeting.

Wood-strip flooring, attached to a subfloor of plywood, is most popular, especially for residences. Vinyl tiles and sheets have displaced linoleum in most residential and commercial work. Nonslip rubber and cork are used for commercial and industrial applications. Terrazzo provides a hard, durable surface for public spaces. The Greeks used pebble mosaics as early as the 8th century BC. Tessellated pavement (mosaics of regularly shaped cubes) appeared in the Hellenistic Age and by the 1st century AD had come into popular use in and around buildings throughout the Roman empire. Inlaid stone, popular in Byzantine, Renaissance, and Gothic architecture, is now only occasionally applied in lobbies and entranceways of grand spaces.

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Introduction

 material made from textiles, felts, resins, rubber, or other natural or man-made substances applied or fastened to, or laid upon, the level base surface of a room to provide comfort, durability, safety, and decoration. Such materials include both handmade and machine-made rugs and carpets (rug and carpet) and smooth-surfaced floor coverings. Although the words carpet and rug are frequently used interchangeably in referring to textile floor coverings, in modern usage carpets are fastened to the floor and usually cover an entire floor area, and rugs are not fastened and rarely cover the entire floor. Carpets and rugs may be classified as handmade or machine-made. Smooth-surfaced coverings generally adhere to a subfloor and are manufactured as sheet goods or tiles.

 Handmade carpets and rugs are usually made by knotting a number of pile tufts to a backing structure so that the loose knot ends form the pile. Mainly produced in Asia and the East, knotted types are often given the general name of Oriental carpets and may be classified according to the country of manufacture, such as Persian (originating in Iran) or Chinese. Well-known districts or towns may give their names to the carpets they produce; the Persian Kermān (Kirman) is an example. Other hand-knotted rugs include the Savonnerie rugs of France and the modern rya rugs of the Scandinavian countries. Handmade rugs woven by the tapestry method, often described as the Aubusson (Aubusson carpet) type, for the French town in which the method was perfected, have a flat or slightly ribbed surface instead of pile. Hooked rugs are made by drawing yarn or fabric strands through a basic material so as to form a pile of loops that may be clipped or remain uncut.

 Machine-made carpets include such woven types as Axminster (Axminster carpet) and Wilton, and also tufted, knitted, and flocked types. Axminsters resemble hand-knotted carpets, but their pile yarn is mechanically inserted and bound and not knotted. Wilton types may have looped (uncut) or cut pile, with designs formed by bringing yarns of the desired colour to the surface and burying the others beneath the surface. Velvet carpeting is made by looping strands that form the pile over wire strips that are removed as each row of loops is completed. Chenille rugs have soft, deep pile formed by long, furry strips. The pile of tufted carpets is formed by tufts inserted into a backing with needles. In knitted carpets, the backing, locking, and pile yarns are all looped together. Flocked types are produced by systems in which adhesives are used to bind fibres or yarns to the backing fabric.

      Smooth-surfaced floor coverings include linoleum, rubber floor coverings, cork tile, asphalt tile, printed felt base, and the vinyl types. Most are available in varying degrees of thickness, usually from ¹/₁₆ to ³/₁₆ inch, and may have some form of backing. Although flexible types are available in rolls at least six feet wide, square tiles are increasingly popular in all types. The various materials differ in their ability to take colour or pattern, and mottled or spatter effects are often achieved by blending in one or more mixes of the same general composition as the basic material.

History

Early floor coverings

      Prehistoric man may have happened upon a method of forming thread from twisted grass or hair. Evidence obtained from recent excavations near the Caspian Sea indicates that the shearing of sheep and goats, and the spinning and weaving of the fibres obtained, was practiced as early as 6000 BC. Before the development of weaving, fibres were probably interlaced to produce a simple form of plaited basket-work matting, replacing still earlier crude mats made of strands of dry stalks and tendrils.

      Findings in burial mounds at Pazyryk in southern Siberia, 2,400 years old, indicate that furs, leather, woven textiles, and felts were used, not as floor coverings, but as wall hangings. The first true carpets, characterized by pile surfaces, were probably rough cured skins that early hunters laid on the floors of their crude dwellings. Most carpets still retain the same tough flexible backings and upright pile, affording protection from cold and hard floors, agreeable to the touch, and serving a decorative function.

      Smooth floorings also have ancient origins. In the Late Bronze Age (1600–1000 BC) water-worn pebbles were laid as flooring in Crete and also on the Greek mainland. The Greeks refined the technique between the 6th and the 4th centuries BC, and ancient decorative pebble mosaics (mosaic) have been found in Greece, Asia Minor, and Sicily. Such mosaics were also made of marble, serpentine alabaster, some forms of granite, and other stones suitable for polishing. Timber flooring, originally used in rough form for a strictly functional purpose, was eventually made into smooth boards, and was later used decoratively in parquetry designs.

Carpet and rug weaving

      Although the exact origins of carpet weaving have not been determined, it is known that the Egyptians (art and architecture, Egyptian) of the 3rd millennium BC wove carpets for the most part of linen ornamented by sewn on brightly coloured pieces of woollen cloth. Egyptian influence apparently spread throughout the Middle East and then to Mongolia and China. Some investigators credit Central Asia, Turkestan, and China with the origination of carpets, and in the early 1950s a rug dating back 2,400 years, made with Turkish knots, was found in Siberia.

      Early Chinese carpets were made of knotted silk pile with backings of wool or cotton, but the pile of later carpets was made of wool. Wool pile was also used in Central Asia by early nomadic tribes who acquired it easily in their wanderings. Nomadic rugs were woven (weaving) on simple horizontal frames that could be rolled up for travelling.

      Early looms (loom) consisted of two forked branches joined by a crosspiece holding the suspended warp, or lengthwise threads, through which the weft (filling), or crosswise threads, were woven. A wooden bar was used to flatten the binding weft threads, allowing the loose warp ends to stand out to form the luxurious pile. The early weavers used wools in their natural gray, white, cream, fawn, brown, or black colours, but eventually learned to produce fast colours with dyes made from vegetable, flower, and insect materials.

      During the Middle Ages, Italian merchants imported Oriental rugs to Europe, where they were usually hung on the walls; Europeans continued to cover their floors with rushes and straw. Moorish weavers were probably taken from Spain in the 13th century to set up the looms at Aubusson in France. Eleanor of Castile introduced Spanish rugs to England in 1255, and carpets imported from Turkey in the 15th century encouraged the development of an English rug-weaving industry.

      By 1600 French (France) carpet weavers had formed a strong guild, and in 1608 Henry IV set up looms in the Louvre. During the reign of Louis XIV, carpet manufacture was revived at Aubusson, where it had suffered from the religious wars of the 16th century, and was established at Beauvais, in Normandy. The revocation of the Edict of Nantes, that had guaranteed religious and civil freedom to French Protestants, drove French and Walloon Protestant artisans into England and Germany, where they contributed to the development of spinning and weaving techniques.

      English (United Kingdom) carpet weavers were chartered at Wilton and Axminster in 1701, and in 1740 the Earl of Pembroke brought weavers from France to perform Brussels and Wilton weaving. At about the same time, carpet weaving was also established at Kidderminster, and the trade extended to northern England and Scotland. In 1830 a Parliamentary paper noted that carpet wool comprised one-twenty-eighth of the wool produced in the United Kingdom.

      In the 18th century Richard Arkwright (Arkwright, Sir Richard) and others invented machinery that radically improved textile manufacture and together with the steam engine led to the development of the power loom, first applied to carpet making in 1839. The so-called Jacquard mechanism (Jacquard loom), which employed punched cards to control the warp yarns, gradually began to replace the complicated harness of the hand loom for the production of designs. The tapestry process of printing patterned carpets was evolved in Edinburgh in the 1830s, and in 1839 a chenille Axminster process, which was patented by James Templeton of Glasgow, gave increased colour range to carpet designs.

      The U.S. (United States) carpet industry began by adapting the British system on a modest scale. Largely a cottage industry, it was organized by agents who marketed the small amount produced, until the first half of the 19th century. By 1830, the use of carpets had become popular throughout the eastern U.S., and factories were being established in New England, New York, and Pennsylvania. The continued dominance of the U.S. market by British carpets led U.S. manufacturers to encourage the development of power equipment, and a power loom first appeared in 1841. In 1876 an Axminster loom was invented. This development stimulated the carpet industry by permitting an unlimited range of colour and design with an economy of pile.

      Loom widths increased from the formerly conventional 18, 27, or 36 inches (46, 69, or 91 centimetres), to the broadloom, usually 12, 15, or 18 feet (4, 5, or 6 metres) wide, resulting in large economies in weaving costs and producing larger and more convenient unseamed areas for laying. After World War II, needle tufting developed, employing a prewoven backing for the basic construction, and the major portion of carpeting manufactured in the U.S. was produced by this system. Some tufted carpet manufacturers even began to produce outdoor carpets and imitation lawns.

Smooth-surfaced floor coverings

      In 1860 Frederick Walton of Great Britain patented a process for making linoleum, the first widely used smooth-surfaced floor covering. Plain linoleum, without design, was popular until the mid-1930s, when decorative linoleum was developed. In the 1920s, dark-coloured asphalt sheet and tile materials were developed in the U.S., made from mixtures of asbestos fibre, mineral fillers, and asphalt, and although light-coloured resins, not containing asphalt, became available within the next 10 years, the name asphalt tile persists in the U.S. for this type of flooring. In the U.K. the term asphalt tile was used for a different product, and the somewhat misleading term thermo-plastic tile was applied to a similar British product. Vinyl asbestos tiles, containing asbestos fibres, were developed next and introduced at the Chicago World's Fair in 1933, but resin shortages prevented quantity production until 1948. Vinyl, a newer composition material with a high content of polyvinyl chloride resins, was eventually perfected. The number and variety of smooth-surfaced floor coverings multiplied after World War II, and plastics had considerable impact. Although traditional linoleum was still in use, such materials as asphalt, cork, rubber, vinyl asbestos, and the various types of vinyl were achieving greater popularity. A new development in the 1960s was a type of flooring applied directly to the area to be covered and allowed to harden; epoxy resins have generally been used.

Handmade carpets and rugs

Orientals

 Major classifications of Orientals, based on place of origin, include Persians, the largest and most important group; Turkomans, popular, vividly coloured carpets including Turkoman, Afghan, and Baluchistan rugs made in Central Asia; bold, geometric patterned Caucasian carpets, from Caucasia and Transcaucasia; the Turkish Anatolian group, less intricately designed than other Orientals; and the Indian, Pakistani, and Chinese group, frequently less durable than the other types.

Materials

      The availability of excellent materials is probably the factor most responsible for the origin of carpets in the East. The nomads had access to fibres (natural fibre) from their camels, goats, and sheep; cotton was cultivated in Persia and China, and silk in China. Nomadic carpet makers often used wool for the warp and weft of a rug foundation fabric, as well as for the pile. Although a variety of materials may be used in making Oriental rugs, wool is the most important pile fibre, and cotton is most often used as the base and binder material.

Knots (knot)

 The pile surface of knotted rugs is formed entirely by the ends of knotted tufts. The Ghiordes, or Turkish, knot brings both tuft ends to the surface together between two warp yarns. It is common in the Middle East, especially in Turkey and the Caucasus. The Sehna, or Persian, knot brings each end of the tuft to the surface separately. It predominates in Central Asia and the Far East, mainly in Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, Turkestan, and China. In Iran either knot is used, depending upon the origin or site of the tribe or town producing the rug.

Looms

      The loom employed is upright, consisting of two strong beams connected by two vertical posts to make a steady frame. It is often adjustable for the weaving of different sized carpets and rugs. The weaver is positioned conveniently in relation to the row of knots being worked either by means of a seat that can be raised, moving him upward, or by winding each completed row of knots onto a separate cloth beam. The warp, or lengthwise, threads stretched between the two beams are evenly spaced and regularly spun, assuring that the pile forming beneath the surface will also be even.

Weaving

      The weaver ties his rows of knots forming the pattern, and when an entire row of pile is knotted, the two, three, or four weft, or crosswise, threads are forced down by a comb or knife, causing the pile to stand out. Density of pile is about 300 knots to the square inch and a weaver completes about 8,000 per day; several weeks' work is needed to produce an ordinary carpet, and possibly months for a more complex one. The weaving instructions required to produce the desired pattern may be chanted by a Salim or may be provided on a coloured chart of squared paper.

Dyestuffs

      In olden days, craftsmen used natural dyestuffs (textile), obtaining reds from the roots of the madder plant; carmine red from cochineal, the bodies of the female Coccus cacti; reddish browns from ox blood; yellow from the reseda plant or from saffron crocus, vine leaves, and pomegranate skins; and blue from the indigo plant. Mixtures of certain blues and yellows produced greens; and natural wool shades produced greys and brown, although nutshells and bark were also used. Oak apples were often used to produce black, but if their iron oxide content was high the wool was likely to be damaged; some old carpets today show the most wear in the black portions. Modern synthetic dyestuffs allow greater flexibility than these traditional dyes.

Characteristics

      Persian rugs have intricate all-over patterns, mainly floral, but sometimes including animal or human figures, often with a central medallion. Colours include soft pastels and muted reds, browns, and blues. The rugs are fringed at both ends.

      Turkoman rugs are woven in geometric designs, employing vivid reds, browns, and greens, and usually have webbed fringes at the ends. Caucasian rugs have sharply outlined, bold, geometric patterns. Brilliant and strongly contrasting colours are employed, frequently including reds, yellows, and blues. Turkish rug patterns have precise, stylized geometric or floral designs, with bright, sharp, contrasting colours. Indian (India) rugs are made with botanical designs in a naturalistic style and are brilliant in colour. Chinese rug designs include religious symbols. Designs are usually in blue, and background colours include dulled yellows, browns, and roses.

Other handmade carpets and rugs

Tapestry weave

      Another kind of hand weaving is the tapestry method, wherein the coloured weft threads, wound upon wooden needles, are threaded around and between the warp ends, leaving a flat or slightly ribbed surface. Since a tapestry carpet lacks a tufted pile, it does not have a luxurious texture, even though a fine pitch, the number of warps per inch, can be employed, and the richest and most delicate effects of design and colour obtained. Carpets of this type have long been made at Les Gobelins, Paris, Aubusson (Aubusson carpet), and Beauvais in France, and Tournai in Belgium. The work involved in producing tapestry carpet is slow and requires great skill; the product therefore is expensive.

Hooked rugs

      The origin of the hooked rug is obscure. A rug of this type is made by pulling narrow strips of wool or cotton cloth or wool yarn, with a tool roughly resembling a buttonhook, up through a basic material of coarse linen or burlap. The loops, approximately ¹/₂ inch high and the width of from two to four of the mesh openings in the basic material, are often clipped. Frames of various designs hold the basic material taut. Frequently the rug is made by pushing, instead of pulling, the loop through the basic material, usually employing a large threaded needle.

Modern handweaving

      It is possible to weave rugs, with or without a pile surface, on hand looms. Almost any material can be used for hand-weaving, including plastic strips and some forms of rope. Weaving speed can be increased by the use of a chain-and-pedal drive similar to that used on bicycles. In modern times, handweaving is mainly limited to design development and study in educational institutions and to the most costly floor coverings, frequently made to order and considered fine works of art.

Machine-made carpets and rugs

      Early machine processes employed hand or water power to duplicate processes originally performed completely by hand. The invention of the power loom greatly reduced the amount of time and labour, and therefore the cost, of carpet manufacture.

Nomenclature and types

      Machine-made rugs and carpets take their names from the looms employed—Wilton, for example—or the construction method, such as ingrain or Brussels (Brussels carpet).

Ingrain

      After 200 years of use, the ingrain became almost obsolete during the 1930s because of its relatively poor wearing qualities. Also called Kidderminster or Scotch, it is flat ribbed, reversible, and completely without pile, and usually could be made with two- or three-ply warp and weft yarns, dyed before weaving.

      Design on the surface of the carpet was easily produced by bringing to the surface, at the chosen area, the desired colour of the weft; the latter almost completely formed the surface colouring. Although the warp intruded into the design, its colour was carefully chosen to blend satisfactorily. The term Venetian has been applied to lesser grades of ingrain carpet.

Wire-formed piles

      Brussels carpet, with uncut looped pile formed by round wires, was first introduced about the mid-18th century. Shortly after, Wilton followed with the development of bladed wires producing a cut pile. Both were capable of producing elaborate pile designs, and the Jacquard device was used with them from about the 1820s, when it replaced hand selection of coloured pile threads. Bigelow's power principles were applied to the loom from about 1849. Pile not used for surface design is woven longitudinally into the body of the backing fabric. Brussels carpets, woven on the Wilton loom, but with their pile remaining uncut, are no longer sold in large quantities.

      Tapestry is a printed pile yarn carpet that may be cut or uncut but must, by its nature, normally be one pile thread per dent. In order to make a design by a method other than printing yarn, more than one pile yarn per dent (five or six usually) is used with a jacquard. The term velvet, more common in the United States, is used to mean cut pile single frame; that is, plain carpet for which tapestry technique is not used. A velvet carpet is basically one of Wilton type. The term frame is often used instead of pile thread per dent, and a single frame carpet is therefore a plain carpet with one thread per dent.

      Tapestry carpets were invented in Scotland in 1830 but are now virtually obsolete. Few of them were produced in the main carpet centres (Kidderminster, West Riding of Yorkshire, and Scotland) after World War II.

      Typical high quality Wilton and Brussels carpets contain about 120 tufts per square inch with up to 13 rows per inch. Tapestry, generally up to about 80 tufts per square inch, but as low as 50, is possible. Velvet may be similar in density to tapestry, but not necessarily so; it can be made with pile as dense as Wilton if desired.

      Wilton carpet can be produced on the “face-to-face” principle. Two carpets are simultaneously woven sandwiched one above the other, and the two are then cut apart by a reciprocating blade traversing the loom width. The linear rate of production is thus almost doubled; Jacquard designs can be produced by this method.

Loom-formed pile

      Axminster carpets, in which all of the pile yarn is effectively used for design (unlike Wilton and Brussels that waste some “dead” pile yarn by hiding it in the body of the carpet) include spool, gripper, and chenille.

      Spool looms were invented in the United States in 1876, and the gripper Axminster loom was developed about 1890. The chenille two-stage process was invented in Glasgow about 1830.

      With the first loom, each row of pile is drawn from an individual spool, and two blades cut away the tufts when woven. On the gripper loom, each tuft is held by its beak-like gripper and taken from its yarn carrier to the fell of the carpet, the point at which the warp and weft intersect, after being precisely cut away by a traversing knife blade. One type of spool-gripper Axminster loom employs spools instead of a jacquard; the tufts are taken from them and woven on the gripper principle. Chenille pile (from the French word for caterpillar) is formed on the carpet loom by weaving the “fur,” or pile yarn, as a weft. The tufts are usually bound by cotton threads forming a long strand. The fur is woven in the first weaving process on normal cloth looms and cut longitudinally into the requisite patterned strips; pile yarn is woven as weft, and the warp is the cotton binding threads. A simple gauze or the lacelike leno weave is used to bind the weft pile yarn so that the pile does not fall away when the strips are cut, before they can be woven into the carpet.

      Jute weft and cotton warp are common materials for Axminster carpets. All-wool pile is popular, although nylon–wool mixtures and various combinations of natural and man-made fibres are becoming common. Carpets made of 100 percent man-made fibres are increasing in popularity. Spool and gripper qualities average about 40 to 50 tufts per square inch, the two extremes being about 30 and 60.

Unconventional carpets: tufted, knitted, and bonded

      In tufted carpets, the tufts are inserted by means of vertically reciprocating needles pushing through prewoven backing and are held below the carpet backing by loopers. The loop pile slips off the loopers, or is severed when cut pile is desired, as the formed carpet moves away from the looping elements. The rate of pile yarn feed from the creel governs pile height. The variation of this rate for groups of pile threads is the basis for certain patterned effects resulting from the inclusion of both high and low pile areas or achieved by alternating two different coloured threads across the full width, emphasizing the pattern in one colour by hiding the other low-pile colour with higher adjacent loops. Different rates of feed can be obtained by electrical or mechanical means. In the former, the pattern, in small scale, is placed on a pattern drum, and feelers touching the pattern areas change the delivery rate of the pile feed roller. Photoelectric means of influencing the delivery rate have also been devised. The mechanical device pushes down the required pile lengths by means of a castellated metal plate cut to the required pattern. Other effects can be obtained from fancy or printed yarns, and some tufting machines reciprocate the carpet widthwise to obtain a longitudinal zigzag effect. Designs including up to eight colours are possible, with quality almost as satisfactory as in traditional carpets having an equal number of colours.

      Quality ranges now vary as much as for traditional carpets, since needle spacings may be as close as 12 to the inch, giving the same number of tufts per square inch as in Wilton. Traditional pile materials are employed, but polypropylene, a synthetic fibre, is commonly used on prewoven backing. There has also been some development of nonwoven backings.

      Production rates can be many times greater than that of Axminster looms; one machinery manufacturer has developed a yarn looping technique whereby the backing is pierced by a needle and the pile is then blown through the resulting opening. This method increases the rate of production up to about 1,200 rows of pile per minute. Patterned carpets have been produced mainly in the United States with either cut or loop pile or a combination of both. In warp knitting, beams are used to feed in the yarn supply; in weft knitting, the yarns are fed from smaller packages.

      A Czechoslovakian Arachne stitch-bonding machine achieves high production rates with low pile costs, employing a fibrous web stitched on the knitting principle with yarns drawn from beams. A German Malipol machine uses knitting principles to bind pile to a backing fabric, although a later model uses unknitted weft threads instead of backing. Production rates for knitting are higher than for traditional looms but do not reach the high speeds of modern tufting. The quality of the materials used and the finished carpet are much like that of the middle range of traditional carpets. No spectacular growth, however, in the sales of such carpets has occurred, since there are currently limitations in design, although development work is progressing. Several methods use the principle of bonding fibres, fibrous webs, or yarns with various adhesives. The technique imposes design limitations, but the less complicated pile forming method results in high production rates. The needle loom principle involves a fibrous lap attached to a base fabric, and another method forms a lap into a loop pile sheet and sticks it to a base fabric. A special finishing operation can convert the loops into cut pile.

      A German device projects positively charged fibres toward a negative pole; the fibres are then stuck to an adhesive-coated backing fabric. A Czechoslovakian technique makes double, or face-to-face, carpet by looping and bonding a fibrous web to two backing fabrics; the full layer is then cut into two separate carpets. A French machine cuts fibres from a sheet and then binds them to a fabric backing, with electrostatic means used to keep the fibres vertical.

Manufacturing methods

Raw material preparation

      The warp and weft backing structures of carpets, and the pile yarn superimposed upon it, made originally from natural fibres, are now mostly synthetic. Backing yarns are frequently made from the lower priced cut-staple normal or high-tenacity viscose rayons. Selvages of synthetic filaments and pile yarns are produced from mixtures of cut-staple man-made and natural fibres, the latter primarily wool. Pile yarns composed of the more expensive synthetic materials are increasingly used, and viscose rayon has been used extensively for less costly carpets. As the use of man-made filament pile yarns has increased, traditional processing of natural and staple man-made fibres has decreased in importance.

      The preparation of natural fibres (natural fibre) for backing and pile yarns involved many labour-consuming operations. Fibres had to be cleansed, often by mechanical means and a wet treatment. Pile-yarn wools had to be thoroughly scoured, and cotton fibres also needed special cleaning treatment. Straightening of fibres prior to spinning was a long-drawn-out process, with spinning often followed by additional single twisting operations to form ply or cable yarns. In contrast, man-made filament yarns are extruded in clean, continuous, and parallel form, and the twisting operation is uncomplicated. Backing fabrics are currently made from fibrilated yarns, consisting of small fibres twisted together, and sliced narrow tapes are made from sheets of synthetic film.

Selection and preparation of design

      Design creation or selection involves consideration of the range or limitations of the various methods of carpet manufacture. The number of colours that can be used for Jacquard Wilton and gripper Axminster are limited; spool and chenille Axminster allow unlimited colour range. Density tends to be greatest for Wilton carpet, sometimes reaching as high as 130 per square inch.

      Spool Axminster designs are made from a chain of spools, with one spool to each row of pile. There are usually seven threads to the inch across the width, with a pile yarn length per thread of about 35 feet (11 metres). Spool width varies according to the loom, the smallest is usually 18 inches (46 centimetres) wide. The person operating the machine creels all necessary colours for the tufts in a row and winds the full spool, repeating the process until the full set for the design is made.

      Gripper Axminster and Wilton Jacquard looms (loom) utilize a perforated card system to select the required combination of different coloured threads per row of pile. There is one card per row, punched according to the predetermined design, and the possible colour choice for each tuft is usually one in five for Wilton and one in eight for gripper Axminster. “Planting” of several additional colours in the pile-yarn creel may increase the number of different colours possible in a design. High- and low-cut and uncut effects are also possible in Wilton carpets. Normally employed on tufted carpets, the process can be applied to all types. Different pile height effects are produced in tufted carpets by using different rates of yarn feed, and are sometimes emphasized by alternating the colours and hiding the colour of low pile under adjacent high pile. Mechanical and photoelectric devices are used to regulate the rate of yarn feed to the tufting needles.

Construction

      The basic structure of traditionally manufactured carpets consists of the backing fabric and the pile, which is bound under and between the weft. Pile is formed on Axminster looms by inserting weft, with reciprocating needles, across the warp chain yarns. A central stuffer warp usually separates top from bottom weft. In Jacquard Wilton and Brussels carpet, the pile not used for surface design effect is concealed between top and bottom weft; Axminster carpet uses all pile yarn for surface effect. Wilton pile is formed by looping the yarn over wires that project it mechanically across the width of the loom and beneath the decorative pile yarns. When the wires are withdrawn, they either cut the pile, forming Wilton, or leave it uncut to form Brussels carpet.

      In spool Axminster carpets each row of tufts is inserted and cut away from the spools. On gripper Axminster looms each tuft is inserted by its individual beaklike gripper, after being cut away from the carrier. Backing fabrics have warps held on flanged beams; in Wilton weaving, weft (filling) threads wound on cops are shuttled across the loom. Axminster weft is drawn from large stationary cones at the side of the loom.

      Tufted carpets differ basically from traditional types because they have a prewoven backing into which the tufts are inserted. One unconventional method of making carpet involves the forming of pile on knitted structures. Another method involves the application of pile yarns or even undulating webs of fibres to backing fabric by means of adhesives. These methods often lack the means for controlling design.

Finishing

      After weaving, carpeting may require machine brushing to remove loose fibre or yarn, before any correction of processing faults. Traditional carpets have a separate reparation process, but on tufted carpets, missing pile, the most common fault, is stitched in by a portable “gun” operating a reciprocating needle. The carpet pile is then sheared to uniform level with cutting blades similar to those of a wide lawn mower. Steaming of the pile causes it to expand or “burst” into an aesthetically enhanced state. Natural back-sizings were formerly applied to Axminster carpets (Axminster carpet), and Wilton and Brussels (Brussels carpet) weft threads on their cops were soaked in sizing. Increasing use of such synthetic backing compounds as polyvinylacetate and different kinds of lattice backings now produces excellent tuft bind and stiffness.

      Other modern finishing processes include mothproofing of wool, often performed in the dyeing sequence, and application of soil-resistant finishes to man-made pile, rot-proofing, and antistatic treatment.

      Reinforcement or screening, particularly used for tufted backing, may employ adhesives on open structure woven materials, and the use of such cushioning materials as synthetic rubber foam is increasing.

Smooth-surfaced floor coverings

linoleum

      Linoleum is produced by pressing a sheet containing oxidized linseed oil, gums and resins, ground cork or wood flour, and pigments on to a backing, and it is hung in huge “curing” stoves to toughen.

      Two general types, plain and printed, or inlaid, linoleum, are produced; the latter has a constant pattern throughout its thickness. Different methods are employed to create various design effects. Thickness ranges from about 1.6 to 4.5 millimetres, depending upon the traffic expected; a standard width is six feet (two metres), and the weight in 3.2 millimetres gauge is about 7.6 pounds per square yard (3.5 kilograms per square metre).

      Recently developed products are specially hardened to resist indentation. Certain alkalies and organic solvents, however, will attack linoleum if left in prolonged contact; staining and discoloration can arise from certain anti-oxidants in tires, rubber castors, or rubber heels. Linoleum is resilient, warm, unaffected by reasonable floor temperatures, and does not readily support combustion.

Printed felt base

      Printed felt base is formed by applying a heavy film of paint to felt saturated with asphalt; the felt is sealed at both the top and bottom with one or more layers of coating before application of paint, preventing discoloration from the paint and leveling the surface. The paint used has low volatility and little flow, dries quickly in thick layers, and gives high gloss with good wearing properties. Wooden blocks are used to apply the paint on the base, with several colours being printed separately. The material is next dried in an oven, with the product hanging from racks or festooned, and this maturing process requires several days. Rugs or rolls are available in several thicknesses and sizes.

asphalt tile

      The tiles are made from asphalts (25 percent) or synthetic resins, asbestos fibres (25 percent), pigments, and mineral fillers (50 percent). If asphaltic binder is used, colour is restricted to black, brown, and dark reds. The plasticised resin-based tiles are much lighter in colour, including blues, reds, yellows, and greens, and some recently developed tiles have a small amount of vinyl binder, giving brighter, clearer colours and improved grease resistance. The ingredients are mixed at relatively high controlled temperatures to form a dough, that is then forced through successive calenders until the required thickness and finish is obtained. The sheet is die cut when cool, ensuring dimensional stability. Common sizes are nine inches (22 centimetres) by nine inches by ¹/₈ inch or ¹/₁₀ inch (three or two millimetres). The tiles are resistant to fungal attack, mild acids and alkalies, and oils and grease; and they are suitable for use where floor heat is less than 80° F (27° C). Sweeping and washing with warm water and soap or detergent keeps them clean; wax or resin emulsion polishes improve their appearance and prolong life.

Vinyl floor coverings

      Vinyl asbestos tiles were developed from asphalt tiles. Asbestos fibres, mineral fillers, and pigments are all bonded together with copolymers of vinyl chloride, or with vinyl acetate. Vinyl resin binders have greater flexibility without requiring heat treatment prior to installation.

      Vinyl sheet coverings are made by calendering from various combinations of vinyl chloride resins, pigments, stabilizers, and fillers. Tiles 9 inches, 12 inches, or 18 inches (23, 30, or 46 centimetres) square can be cut from these sheets; widths vary from 3 to 6 feet (1 to 2 metres). Sheets can be unbacked or backed with felt, hessian, plastic foam, cork, or fabric. One method adds a coat of vinyl to a backing, and the surface appearance is influenced by the nature of the backing. Jointless seam welding can usually be applied to vinyl sheeting. A blowing agent can be added to vinyl paste, producing a foamed back and fully bonded vinyl floor covering. A thin layer of the paste and agent is spread on the back of a premanufactured vinyl sheet; these are passed through a heated tunnel causing the release of a gas from the agent, forming the foam.

      An “all through” flushing in the mix can be used for secondary colour effects. Some laminated sheets have rotogravure pattern printed with vinyl inks and covered by a protective layer of transparent vinyl. Backed vinyl sheets can have added coloured chips, with a final clear coating producing a three-dimensional effect. Embossing allows the addition of a second colour into the resultant depressions, producing an inlaid effect.

rubber floorings

      Production figures for this material are comparatively small. Previously made with natural rubber, it is now produced with synthetic rubber mixed with pigments, fillers, resins and curing materials, and when sheeted is heat cured. Mottled effects are available, and thicknesses around two- and three-sixteenths of an inch (three to four millimetres) are available in tiles up to one foot square or in rolls. It is a comparatively expensive, excellent wearing flooring, although somewhat susceptible to grease damage, and is appropriate for use in public buildings where traffic is heavy.

cork tiles and carpet

      When ground cork is heated, either for long periods or by rapid high-frequency heating, the granules adhere, creating a resilient mixture that can be formed into tiles, usually two- to five-sixteenths of an inch thick, and six or nine inches square. This tile has a comfortable resilient feel and absorbs sound, but appearance and wear properties are only fair.

      Cork carpet, although limited in use, can be produced from graded cork granules and polymerized linseed oil, homogeneously pigmented and calendered on a jute canvas backing.

Epoxy resins

      Flooring compositions based on epoxy resins have developed steadily, giving a hard, chemical-resistant, seamless, and firmly adherent floor covering. The resin and curing agent must be blended immediately before use; colours and fillers can be added. The comparatively high cost of epoxy-resin systems restricts them principally to repairing or surfacing existing flooring substrates; e.g., concrete. They frequently employ composition based on a cement aggregate and natural rubber latex. Polyvinyl acetate may be substituted for rubber latex, and such resins as acrylic, polystyrene, and styrene-butadiene have also been employed.

Economic aspects

      Modern research and development have resulted in improved equipment, processes, and materials contributing both to increased production and greater product durability. Although per capita use has increased, greater competition exists. Larger companies usually have larger facilities for development and expansion than smaller companies and are more likely to survive any large decrease in profit margins. The heavy capital expenditure required for increasingly sophisticated processes, and the equipment they require, may accelerate the trend in the developed countries toward larger groups of floor-covering manufacturers and their suppliers.

Peter Ellis

Additional Reading

R.S. Brinton, Carpets, 2nd ed. (1932), traditional carpet structures and processes described at a basic technical level, including some that are obsolete or obsolescent; A. Crossland, Modern Carpet Manufacture (1958), a description of carpet processes and structures, including nonwoven types, with helpful diagrams; B. Jacobs, The Story of British Carpets (1968), a history of the British carpet industry; P. Liebetrau, Orientalske Taepper i farver (1962; Eng. trans., Oriental Rugs in Colour, 1963), an illustrated treatment of the making and nature of Oriental rugs; G. Robinson, Carpets and Other Textile Floorcoverings, 2nd rev. ed. (1972); short sections on nonwoven carpets; F. Walton, The Infancy and Development of Linoleum Floorcloth (1925), a history of linoleum by its inventor; D.T. Ward, Tufting: An Introduction (1969), on the development of the tufting process; Hedley Pointon (ed.), Carpet Surfaces (1975); E.W. Allen, “Adhesives for Flooring,” R.F. Briggs, “Contract Flooring: Its Use, Misuse, and Abuse,” W.J. Warlow, “Plastics for Flooring, Their Use and Assessment,” and J.G. Bramley and W.V. Wilkinson, “Epoxy Floor Coatings,” in Floorcovering Symposium (1965), papers on major developments and problems in hard floorcovering industry; R. Beaumont, Carpets and Rugs (1924), on the design and manufacture of carpets and rugs, not new but has some relevancy; S.R. Cockett, An Introduction to Man-Made Fibres (1966), a general treatment of man-made fibres and their production; R.B. Holt, Rugs, Oriental and Occidental, Antique and Modern (1901), rug making outlined in a brief and straightforward manner; E. Kornreich, Introduction to Fibres and Fabrics, 2nd ed. (1966), a quick introduction to several important basic ideas in textiles; F.J. Mayers, Carpet Design and Designing (1934), on various aspects of carpet designing; Henri Mucherie, Du Tapis de Roi au Tapis pour Tous (1966), an illustrated descriptive outline of carpet structures (in French); H. Osswald, Die Teppichindustrie, 3rd ed. (1965), detailed technical coverage of main fields of carpet manufacture (in German).

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