Need carpet info? We’ve got you covered

Do you have happy feet? Take off your shoes and walk on a plush, resilient carpet. Ooh, that feels good. With carpeting the ideal floor covering for most rooms in your home, you might want to know a little about the different types.

There are three basic fibers used: wool, nylon and olefin.

Wool: Mother Nature provides us with the best fiber for carpet. Wool is the most durable, resists stains and is naturally resilient. Wool is a tough fiber that can take a beating without losing strength. Dust, dirt and oil-based stains wash off easily because wool naturally releases the soil rather than absorbing it.

High-traffic situations do not harm its resilience, as this carpet is quick on its feet and bounces back into position. With all these benefits, you will understand why this is the most expensive fiber for carpet.

Nylon: Next to wool, nylon is the strongest fiber for floor covering available. It has exceptional resilience, is abrasion-resistant and retains its texture well. The latest nylon carpets resist soil, too. The nylon fiber is usually dyed before the filament is extruded, rendering it essentially colorfast.

Remember when you would walk across a nylon-carpeted room to turn the television on? (You're showing your age.) You would often get an electrical shock upon contact with the dial. Most nylon carpets now have carbon fibers, which eliminate the static that caused the shock. Nylon carpets are almost always less expensive than wool.

Olefin: This material is often used for indoor/outdoor carpets and for commercial use such as in hospitals and hotels. It is very durable and virtually impervious to stains. Oily-type soils are attracted to olefin, but this fiber cleans easily; olefin withstands strong detergents. Olefin carpets are the least expensive of the three fibers.

As you can imagine, nylon carpet is the best seller, taking 75 percent of the market share. Olefin comes in second with a 22 percent claim. Wool caters to the chosen few, taking up the remaining 3 percent.

How are carpets made? Glad you asked. Tufting and weaving are the two primary methods.

About 90 percent of domestic carpets are mechanically tufted. Tufting machines punch yarns through a backing to form a looped pile, which is then either cut for a plush look or left in a loop. The tufted carpet is then backed with a layer of latex to secure the yarns in place, and then a backing of jute or other synthetic material is bonded to the latex to give the carpet stability.

A woven carpet is generally more expensive than a machine-tufted one because it is more labor-intensive. In some cases, skilled workers monitor complex looms that carry dozens of spools of various colored yarns. In other situations, a digital computer monitors the loom. As opposed to the tufted variety, the pile, or face, and the backing of a woven carpet are created at the same time, interlocking the fibers structurally in the weaving process. This gives the carpet a longer life.

Rosemary Sadez Friedmann, an interior designer in Naples, Fla., is author of "Mystery of Color."