Green Keys
Our GREEN KEY program offers solutions to our customer’s requests for healthy, green interiors. Natural Home Design not only provides the best materials solutions for healing interiors, but we also offer our professional staff for your green building consulting projects.
Why Wool?
Health Benefits of Wool Rugs & Carpet
Choosing the right carpet for your home or business is a critical decision because you want a carpet that will both look good and last a long time. Wool is the superior fiber choice for woven and tufted carpets because it meets the rigorous demands of the consumer with ease. Luxuriously comfortable and warm, wool is, paradoxically, one of the coolest fibers available. Soft, yet resilient, it can withstand the toughest treatment and still bounce back.
Here are just a few of wool’s many promises:
Naturally Resilient
Wool carpet is able to retain its original appearance much longer than other carpets because it has bulk and bounce which withstand heavy pressure and repeated footfall. Scientists have attributed this to the fact that each wool hair, or fiber, contains a three-dimensional spiraling crimp that acts like a miniature spring. These springs give each fiber elasticity, to compress under furniture or shoes and then bounce back to its original shape when the pressure is lifted. This unique fiber structure is what makes wool carpet outperform carpets made from synthetic fibers.
Naturally Stain-Resistant
Wool has a natural resistance to staining because each fiber is covered by a thin membrane that acts as a repellant and prevents water from penetrating the surface of the wool fiber. Another reason why wool carpets are able to retain their original appearance.
Naturally Resistant to Soil and Dirt
If you were to look at a wool fiber under a microscope, you would see that its surface is made up of overlapping scales, much like a roof. These scales trap soil and dirt at the top of the fiber, near the surface of the carpet. It is then easily and quickly released when vacuumed.
Naturally Flame-Retardant
The high moisture and protein content of wool fibers gives wool carpet excellent natural flame resistance. Wool fibers will not support combustion and are difficult to ignite. In addition, they are self-extinguishable when the flame source is removed.
Health Benefits & More
- Wool carpet is non-toxic, non-allergenic and will not support bacterial growth.
- The high moisture content of wool reduces static electricity and the risk of shocks.
- Wool carpet purifies indoor air of common contaminants like formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide and sulfur dioxide by locking the contaminants deep in the core of the fiber. Wool carpets continually purify indoor air for up to 30 years.
- Another benefit of wool’s naturally crimped shape is the formation of millions of air pockets that act as insulation to help regulate room temperature and reduce energy bills.
More Benefits:
- Wools' high moisture content and protein constituents make it naturally flame retardant. Most traces of fire place or cigarette embers can be brushed away.
- Wool has the ability to absorb up to 30% of its own weight in water vapor without feeling wet and therefore, helps to control humidity. Similarly because of this, it naturally resists static electricity.
- Wool is a natural insulator for both heat and sound. As wool is hydroscopic, it can either absorb moisture or release moisture, creating heat. It will therefore, keep you cool in Summer and warm in Winter.
- Wool also has the ability to absorb other things from the atmosphere. For example, it is capable of absorbing large amounts of Formaldehyde, which is commonly found in alot of buildings. Obviously, wool carpets also have other natural properties in terms of their resilience, resistant to 80% of all stains and similarly, naturally resistant to dirt. The scale structure keeps dirt particles to the surface.
Care and Cleaning Information
We understand that you don’t have the time to spend on time-consuming cleaning, which can also be expensive. With a minimum amount of routine care and maintenance, your wool carpet will steadfastly retain its original texture, color and overall appearance.
These simple tips will help you maintain its top condition:
- Expect new wool carpet to shed its loose fibers in the beginning. This will gradually decrease in the first couple of months until it becomes unnoticeable.
- Regular vacuuming is wool carpet’s best friend as it will pick up these loose fibe
- Slow and careful vacuum strokes over the carpet is more effective than a quick run over. This will do more to groom the carpet and help it to maintain its appearance.
- To clean up a liquid spill, first blot it up with a clean, dry absorbent cloth as quickly as possible. Then blot the area with a clean towel dampened with hot water to pull the substance up from the surface of the carpet. Continue to blot with clean, dry towels until the area does not leave wet spots on the towel.
- Avoid using soap to clean spills as it is difficult to thoroughly get out of carpet and will attract dirt and make dark spots on the carpet in the future.
- Avoid rubbing strokes with the cloth as you clean, as this would disrupt the appearance of the fibers.