Mohawk Carpet

Mohawk® carpet is one of the many types of flooring made by the Mohawk® flooring division of Mohawk Industries. As the second largest carpet manufacturer behind Shaw® Carpets, Mohawk can offer a wide selection of styles.

Note:
This article is intended as an information resource about Mohawk® carpet for the readers of this website and represents the objective opinions and views of HomeStyleChoices.com. It's not associated with nor intended to represent Mohawk Carpet Corporation in any way.

What Products Do They Offer & What's Unique?

Mohawk® carpet is comprised of three collections:

• Alladin - The Alladin collection is the value-priced product, offering durability with affordability.
• Horizon - This collection is characterized by a broader range of style choices and a wide range of colors.
• WundaWeve® - The WundaWeve collection is comprised of various textures with multi-level pile and contemporary styles.

Among these collections you'll also find carpets made with various brands of fibers and stain-protection technology. Mohawk® carpet offers both the Wear-Dated® and STAINMASTER® brands of carpet fiber as well as ScotchGard™ Protector Advanced Repel technology.

Mohawk® also makes several lines of carpet cushion.

• Heavenly
• Ivory
• Pinnacle

These 3 products are made from 100% virgin urethane and carry the CRI (Carpet & Rug Institute) Green Label which means they meet or exceed healthy indoor air quality standards.

Two additional cushion lines are available:

• Platinum Cushion System
• Silver Lining Cushion System

What these 2 cushion products offer over the previous 3 is a two-sided moisture barrier. They're also touted as being "engineered for cushion" and contain no recycled materials.

One of the advantages of pairing a Mohawk® carpet with a Mohawk® carpet cushion is that you'll be able to increase the warranty coverage to a "full performance" warranty. This means that covered items like wear, stain resistance and texture retention are covered in full for the terms of the warranty as opposed to being pro-rated in the later years of the warranty period.

If you'd like to learn a bit more about the distinctions between carpeting, fiber types and how to choose carpet, click here.

There's actually a fair amount of 'stuff' to know about broadloom carpet and the more you know, the more informed your carpeting decisions can be.

Mohawk's Unique Product Choices

Carpeting may just seem like it's all the same, save for different colors and pile textures. If you're under that impression, you're not alone but when you take a closer look, there are differences among broadloom carpets (also known as "wall-to-wall" carpets).

Mohawk® carpet distinguishes itself by offering several product distinctions in addition to the fiber and stain technologies mentioned above. They include new fiber technology that offers "greener" carpeting choices (and we're not talking about the "new avocado" color line here). These new fibers are more environmentally friendly than traditional synthetic carpets.

• everSTRAND® - This fiber technology uses the plastic from post-consumer plastic bottles. In other words, the carpet you may walk on tomorrow might contain some of the milk jugs you recycled last month.

  

  Mohawk® is actually a leader in the use of recycled plastic bottles, keeping a lot of plastic out of landfills. The plastic, known as polyethylene terephthalate or PET for you former chemistry majors, is essentially 're-melted' into polyester fibers. These fibers are then wound together into yarn and ultimately tufted into Mohawk® carpet pile (tufting is one of the processes used to attach carpet pile to the backing material).

  This makes for an eco-friendly carpet choice. However if there are any drawbacks, it's that the fiber is polyester, not nylon. Polyester is one of 3 types of synthetic fiber used to make carpeting. On the downside it's not as durable as nylon. But on the upside it doesn't fade like nylon will and it retains its color well.

• SmartStrand® - Another environmental arrow in Mohawk® carpet's quiver is their SmartStrand® fiber. It uses the DuPont™ Sorona® fiber technology that is made with renewable resources. In this case, the wonder-chemical is called Bio-PDO™ which is made from corn sugar. The result is a carpet fiber that's made using less energy than what it takes to produce nylon, the most predominant synthetic carpet fiber.

  There are other benefits as well. SmartStrand® is made with a "built-in" stain resistance, which is different than typical carpet fibers that receive topical (applied-on) stain protection. It's achieved at the molecular level of the fiber itself, so that stains can't permanently adhere themselves to the fiber. Topically applied stain protections can eventually wear off, depending on conditions like traffic wear and cleaning.

What Mohawk Carpet Doesn't Offer

Mohawk® carpeting uses synthetic fibers like nylon and polyester that employ technologies to improve stain resistance and fiber resilience. However what Mohawk® carpet doesn't have in their lineup is wool carpeting.

Wool is a natural fiber with many beneficial features that make it a good choice for carpeting and an alternative to synthetic fibers. If you're looking for wool carpeting you'll need to look elsewhere since Mohawk® doesn't offer it.

What Type Of Warranty Is Offered?

Mohawk® carpet warranties cover a number of conditions depending on the actual carpet product you choose. Along with coverage against manufacturing defects the warranties include stain resistance (broken out by the fiber type in the carpet), fade resistance, soil resistance, anti-static properties and texture retention. Keep in mind that not all warranties apply to all Mohawk® carpets however.

Abrasive Wear Warranty

The Mohawk® carpet abrasive wear warranty states that applicable carpet will not be worn by abrasion more than 10% during the warranty period, provided installation and maintenance requirements are maintained.

The point to understand regarding abrasive wear is that it means fiber loss from the carpet due to normal abrasion. If your carpet looks "worn out" but is just showing the compaction and fuzziness that comes with use over time and hasn't lost fibers, it's not considered abrasive wear.

Stain Resistance

The stain resistance warranty varies depending on the carpet fiber, meaning there are different warranties for nylon, polyester, olefin and Mohawk® carpet's SmartStrand® fiber.

The thing to keep in mind regarding stain warranties is that they (the warranties) don't cover stains produced by every substance under the sun. There are exclusions, typically substances like foods that contain strong natural color such as mustard. Interestingly, the warranty for SmartStrand® carpets does include those substances that are excluded under the other fiber types, indicating that Mohawk® stands behind the stain-resistant properties of that fiber.

Remember too that you'll also be required to do your part to remove any stains first before filing a claim. It pays to read the warranty carefully to understand what is and isn't covered.

Texture Retention

Mohawk® carpets also have a limited texture retention warranty. This means that for a specified amount of time from original purchase the carpet should keep it's "texture" in the face of ordinary foot traffic.

An important point here is that "texture retention" is defined (per the warranty) as "the ability of the carpet tufts to retain their visible shape, as measured by the degree of bursting, opening, or untwisting of the tufts at the surface of the carpet." It doesn't mean crushing or matting of the carpet pile, which is a typical result from use over time.

Texture retention is measured against standard rating scales per ISO Standard 9405-1990. This standard rates carpet texture from a 5 (no change from new) to a 1 (severe change).

According to the Mohawk® carpet warranty, the carpet must maintain a texture rating of 3 under warranted conditions. The practical side of all of this involves how you as the homeowner will actually discern whether your carpet has deteriorated sufficiently to warrant a claim. The point: don't confuse texture retention with the normal matting and wear and tear the carpet will exhibit over time.

One of the key points to remember regarding any carpet warranty is that what's actually covered and your perception of what's covered may not match. The warranty will clearly spell it out. But what we usually think of as "wear" typically has a different definition in carpet warranties. That's why it's important to read the warranty completely and understand the terms that apply to your carpet.

More information on carpet warranties is covered on the Carpeting page.

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