Commercial carpet specification comes with its own vocabulary. This glossary covers the terms most often used by architects, interior designers, and procurement teams when discussing hospitality and commercial carpet projects — useful as a quick reference during specification.
Construction and Manufacturing Terms
- Axminster: A woven carpet construction capable of producing complex, multi-colour patterns with high design detail, widely used in hotel corridors and public areas.
- Wilton: A woven construction known for durability and a slightly different pile finish than Axminster, often used for both patterned and plain commercial carpet.
- Tufted: A faster, more cost-effective manufacturing method where pile yarn is stitched into a pre-made backing, common for large-area commercial installations.
- Pile weight: The amount of fibre per unit area, expressed in grams per square metre — a key indicator of durability and cost.
- Pile density: How tightly pile fibres are packed together; higher density generally resists matting and crushing better under traffic.
- Backing: The base layer that holds carpet fibres in place, which also affects acoustic performance, stability, and installation method.
Fibre Terms
- Solution-dyed nylon: Nylon fibre coloured during fibre production rather than after weaving, giving strong, long-lasting colourfastness.
- Wool-blend: A mix of wool and synthetic fibre, balancing wool’s premium appearance with added durability.
- Recycled-content fibre: Fibre manufactured using a proportion of recycled material, used to reduce environmental impact.
Format Terms
- Broadloom: Carpet manufactured and installed in continuous rolls, typically used for large, uninterrupted areas.
- Carpet tile: Carpet manufactured in modular squares, allowing selective replacement of worn sections without disturbing the surrounding floor.
Performance and Compliance Terms
- Flammability rating: A classification indicating how a carpet performs in fire safety testing, required for hospitality and commercial specification and varying by country and building type.
- NRC (Noise Reduction Coefficient): A measure of how much sound a flooring material absorbs, relevant to acoustic performance in hotel corridors and public spaces.
- Colourfastness: A carpet’s resistance to fading from light exposure or cleaning chemicals over time.
Project and Design Terms
- Bespoke carpet: Carpet custom-designed to a client’s specific pattern, colour, and branding requirements rather than selected from a stock range.
- Strike-off / sample: A small production sample created before full manufacturing to confirm colour, pattern, and scale.
- Pattern repeat: The distance before a woven pattern repeats itself, which affects how seams and pattern matching are planned during installation.
Specifying carpet for your next hospitality or commercial project? Explore SolevoCarpet’s full product range, or contact our team with any technical questions.