Woven Carpets - Axminster and Wiltons
Facts about traditional woven carpets - still the epitome of quality and hardwearing floor coverings.
description | wear | price | widths | fitting | useful woven carpet links
Description - colour; feel; lifestyle
Axminsters and Wiltons stand out in quality terms - the pile is strong and tightly woven together which shows in the finish just by looking at it. The majority of woven carpets generally look much less "twisted" than twist carpets although the yarns often are. Piles feel denser to the touch and less textured (though there are some textured weaves).
Weaving is the technique by which patterns are produced - different colours are chosen from spools in an order that will produce a design such as Turkish motifs or flowers (see picture below). Domestic tastes have leant more to plain finishes of late, but commercial areas such as hotels, restaurants and pubs are nearly always patterned because it hides heavier soiling.
Wilton carpets are usually not patterned and represent the best of plain carpets - velvets are dense and uniform and compare very favourably with tufted velvets.
Wear factors - hard wearing; resilient to footfall
Woven carpets are superior to tufted carpets due to their construction. Weaving produces stronger stability as the pile is held in by mechanical means (the actual weave). Look at the back of woven carpet to see what this means - everything plays a part in the construction.
The yarn is most often a mix of 80% wool and 20% man made, although there are 100% man made fibres now with their special qualities of colour fastness and stain resistance.
Price - wool; man made
The majority of woven carpets are wool heavy and hence costly by this alone. When you appreciate how much more is involved in manufacturing woven carpets you won't be surprised to find prices commonly in the £40 - £70 band for domestic use.
Some manufacturers have introduced man made yarns for weaving and this brought prices down to about £25+. Even with man made fibres the quality of weaving is obvious to both sight and touch - patterns are brought back within consumer budgets.
Widths - imperial; 4 metre
With a tradition of joining woven carpets, there are usually more widths available. Based on imperial measurements metric equivalents of 0.69, 0.91, 1.83, 2.74, 3.66 and 4.57 are often available in woven ranges and often colour match between widths. Some woven carpets come in 4 metre widths.
Fitting - sewn seams; pattern matching
Fitting is largely the same as for tufted carpets for the domestic market, but seaming can be more involved and pattern matching between areas (ie hall, stairs, landings) will be more involved. As a consumer it would be prudent to politely ask as to the fitters experience with patterns.
It has always been traditional to lay woven carpets on natural (horse-hair) felt - it is said this helps bed the woven carpet in. This may have been more true when narrow widths were sewn together (body carpet). It would certainly be better to lay your woven carpet on a firmer underlay for support.
Useful woven carpet links
Axminster Carpets - get brochure
Brintons Carpets - get samples; request brochure
Ulster Carpets - get samples
Wilton Carpets - woven carpets (including amazing animal skin designs); get samples
Axminster Carpets - guide to the technical details of making woven carpet
Brintons - further explanation of commercial carpet weaving
Blog Articles