Walked through an old carpet mill in Dalton Georgia last weekend

I was visiting family down there and stopped by one of those old mills that still has the original looms from the 70s. You could smell the wool and dye before you even walked in. Made me think about how we used to get rolls with actual jute backing that weighed twice what this synthetic stuff does now. Customer complaints about seam peaking are way more common today because nobody stretches like they used to. Have you guys noticed a difference in the quality of backing on newer carpets versus stuff from 20 years ago?

2 comments

2 Comments

thomas8622d ago

Did your buddy notice the jute fibers crumbling like old sawdust when they moved those looms? My friend who runs a restoration shop told me he pulled up a 1980s carpet last month and the backing was still solid, while a five year old nylon job basically disintegrated in his hands. Makes you wonder what shortcuts they started taking around the time everyone switched to polypropylene.

wren3072d ago

That old jute holding up better than new synthetic stuff tracks with what I've seen in old theater stages, where burlap backed curtains from the 60s are still hanging fine. Maybe the real problem isn't the fiber itself but that modern manufacturing skips the natural oils and treatments that kept jute from getting brittle. Could be those old looms were coated in decades of dust and wax that actually preserved the fibers, while modern climate controlled spaces strip everything dry.