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A
- Axminster Carpet
- A machine-woven carpet where an enormous variety of colours are used to
produce colourful patterns.
B
- Berber Carpet
- The term Berber is applied to carpet that has the off-white, heathered
look of cloaks used by the Berber tribes of North Africa. Berber carpets use flecked yarns most
often in loop styles. The size of the loops varies from large nubby ones to
smaller styles. Patterned Berbers are multi-level-loop as well as cut-and-loop
styles. Berber styles are also available in pastels and dark tones as well as
naturals.
- Binding
- A strip sewn over a carpet edge for protection against unraveling. Carpet
is bound to form rugs.
- Broadloom
- A term originally used to denote carpet produced in widths wider than six
feet. Today carpet comes in 6-foot, 12-foot, and 15-foot widths.
- Brocade
- A carpet or rug in which a raised pattern or engraved effect is formed
using heavy twisted yarn tufts on a ground of straight fibers.
C
- Carpet Backing
- Fabrics or yarns forming the back of the carpet as opposed to the carpet
pile or face. In tufted carpets, there are two backings: a primary backing
into which the pile yarn is inserted and a secondary fabric backing laminated
to the back of the carpet for reinforcement and dimensional stability.
- Carpet Cushion
- A variety of materials placed under carpet to provide softness and longer
wear when it is walked on. In some cases, the carpet cushion is attached to
the carpet when it is manufactured. Terms also used: lining, padding, or
underlay.
- Carpet Pile
- Fibers that form the upper surface of carpet.
- Carpet Squares
- Loose laid or self-adhesive backed "tiles" of carpet.
- Ceramic Tile
- Made from clay or a mixture of organic materials, ceramic tile is finished
by kiln firing. Made in many shapes and sizes, it is glazed or unglazed. For
floors, tiles are set in a cement or mortar type mixture.
- Cork Flooring
- One of the earliest of modern resilient floor coverings, the flooring is
made from the bark of cork oak trees, a replenishable material.
Cork flooring is available in
tiles and sheet goods in natural unfinished cork, waxed cork, resin-reinforced
waxed and vinyl impregnated cork in many colours including natural shades.
- Cut-and-Loop Carpet
- A multi-level loop carpet, where the taller loops are sheared. The
resulting uncut loops and sheared top loops create a sculptured pattern. The
texture and often subtle, variegated colourings help hide soil and traffic
wear.
- Cut Pile
- The face of a carpet where the surface is composed of cut ends of yarn.
F
- Flat Weave
- Flat Weave rugs and carpets are flat woven items traditional to India,
made of cotton or silk. They are noted for soft colourations and varied
patterns.
- Frieze
- (Pronounced "free-zay") A tightly twisted yarn is used to give a rough,
nubby appearance to carpet pile. Frieze carpets may be loop or cut styles.
G
- Glazed Tile
- Clay shaped into tiles, fire-hardened, and then covered with a matte or
glossy glaze to make the tiles more resistant to moisture.
H
- Hooked Rug
- Rugs made by pulling yarns or fabric strips through a mesh backing. Many
are designed in various colours to create a scene or design.
I
- Indoor/Outdoor Carpet
- Carpet designed to be used outdoors.
K
- Kilim or Kelim
- A flat, woven rug, usually reversible.
L
- Laminate Flooring
- Relatively new to North America, laminates have a
dense fiberboard core with a paper pattern layer sealed both top and bottom
under high pressure with a plastic-like substance. Sold as planks and panels
in wood, stone, tile, and other looks.
- Level Loop Carpet
- A carpet style - woven or tufted - with a same-height loop surface.
- Linoleum
- One of the first resilient floors, it was introduced in the 1800s. Made of
linseed oil, gums, cork, or wood dust and pigments. Often the term is used
incorrectly to describe resilient floors made of vinyl.
- Loop Pile Carpet
- Carpet style having a surface made up of uncut loops.
M
- Marble
- Limestone flooring known for its elegant appearance created by polishing
its very hard surface. Now available in tiles.
- Mosaic Tile
- Small ceramic tile, hard porcelain or glass, glazed or unglazed mounted on
a backing for ease of installation. Often mosaic tiles are used to create
designs for walls and floors.
O
- Oriental Rug
- Hand-woven or hand-knotted rugs native to the Middle or Far
East, available in many patterns and known for their colourations.
Many machine-made rugs, made using Oriental rug designs, are also referred to
as Oriental rugs.
- Outdoor Carpet
- Carpet designed to be used outdoors on patios, walks and decks. Usually
made of polypropylene to withstand the weather and ultra-violet rays of the
sun, most outdoor carpet is designed for glue-down installation.
P
- Parquet Floors
- Flooring made up of wood that is laid or inlaid to create patterns, most
often geometric ones.
- Patterned or Printed Carpet
- Carpet having patterns applied by methods similar to printing paper. These
include flatbed screen printing, rotary screen printing. Stalwart printing and
modern computer programmed jet printing.
- Pile
- The upright ends of yarn, whether cut or looped, that form the wearing
surface of carpets or rugs. Sometimes called the face or nap of the carpet.
- Plank Flooring
- Wood flooring made of long boards more than 3 inches wide.
- Plush Carpet
- A smooth, dense, cut pile carpet in which individual tufts are only
minimally visible, and the overall visual effect is a single level of fiber
ends.
Q
- Quarry Tile
- Glazed or unglazed ceramic tile made using an extrusion process. An
example is the terra-cotta squares used in the Southwest.
R
- Rag Rug
- A sturdy, colourful rug hand-woven from cotton scraps.
- Random-sheared Carpet
- Textured pattern created by shearing some of the top or higher loops and
leaving others looped.
- Remnant
- A short piece of carpet from a roll of carpet that usually measures less
than nine feet long.
- Resilient Floor
- Smooth surfaced flooring (tiles, strips, or sheet goods) manufactured by
first combining a plastic material with filler and pigments, and then
processing them into sheets of different thickness. If a backing material is
used, the plastic sheet is joined to the backing. Types include solid vinyl,
backed or cushioned vinyl, rubber, cork, and linoleum.
- Rubber Flooring
- Today rubber flooring tiles and sheet goods is made from synthetic rubber.
It comes in ribbed, studded, or other raised patterns.
- Rug
- Carpet made or cut and bound into room dimensions and loose laid.
S
- Saxony Carpet
- Cut-pile carpet in a relatively dense construction, with well-defined
individual tuft tips. Smoother finished saxonies are called "plushes."
- Sculptured Carpet
- Any carpet pattern formed from high and low pile areas, such as high-low
loop or cut-and-loop.
- Shag Carpet
- A deep-pile texture with long-cut surface yarns. Shag carpet was popular
in the 1970s, and a new type of contemporary shag in more up-to-date colours is
gaining in popularity today.
- Sisal Flooring
- Rugs, mats, and matting made from sisal, a natural plant material.
Available woven and dyed in various colours, as well as machine- and
hand-painted. Similar flooring is made of jute, coconut, and sea grass.
- Slate
- A naturally laminated rock that is often used in regular and irregular
shapes, and is embedded in cement or mortar to create a hard-surface,
patterned floor.
- Soil Retardant
- A chemical finish applied to carpet and fabric surfaces which inhibits
attachment of soil to fiber. It is usually a topical treatment but may also be
inherent in the fiber.
- Solid Vinyl Flooring
- This smooth-surfaced plastic floor is a mixture of vinyl resins,
plasticizer, fillers, and stabilizers with colour added throughout the product.
Produced in either square tiles or sheet goods.
- Stain Resistant
- A chemical finish applied to or inherent in carpet fibers which inhibits
specific stains from adhering to or dyeing (staining) carpet and fabrics.
- Stretch
- A carpet installation term for the give in carpet when it is pulled over
the pad onto tackless strips.
- Strip Flooring
- The most popular wood flooring, strip flooring is made of narrow
(typically2 1/4. 3-inches wide) tongue-and-groove boards that are end-matched.
Strip flooring wider than 2 1/4 inches is called plank flooring.
T
- Tackless Installation
- Where carpet is laid over pad and stretched to fit over tack strips of
wood with implanted tacks to hold the carpet snugly to the wall. Also called
wall-to-wall installation.
- Terrazzo
- A smooth, multicoloured floor made of marble or stone chips embedded in a
cement binder, and then highly polished. Traditionally terrazzo floors are
poured and set on site, but manufactured terrazzo tiles are also available.
- Tufted Carpet
- Carpet manufactured by tufting machines, which insert pile tufts with
needles that penetrate a primary backing fabric, thus forming tufts. About 90%
of all North American carpet is tufted.
V
- Vinyl Composition Tile
- These floor tiles are made from vinyl resins and filler materials to
create resilient flooring in assorted colours and patterns.
W
- Wilton Carpet
- Woven carpet made in a variety of patterns and textures but with a limited
number of colours per pattern.
- Wood Flooring
- Most wood flooring is made of hardwoods, such as oak, maple, pecan, beech,
and birch. There is solid wood flooring and laminated flooring, which combines
wood layered in different directions for strength and to inhibit shrinkage or
expansion. Most wood flooring today is prefinished at the factory for ease of
installation and uniformity of finish.
- Woven Carpet
- Looms interlace warp (lengthwise) and filling (widthwise) yarns to create
a sturdy textile for the floor. Much woven carpet is produced in intricate,
colourful patterns. Types of woven carpet include Axminster and Wilton.
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