Do you have Berber carpet?

[Disneylover79]

We are in the middle of house hunting and the one place we like has berber carpet, so we are looking for pros and cons of berber carpet. Thanks for the advice.

 

[monkeyboy]

Will the carpet match the drapes?

 

[GeorgeG]

We have berber carpet that came with the new house in 2005. It's a pretty durable carpet. It's not as soft as some carpets, but not unpleasant to walk on in bare feet.

I would say go with the house you like regardless of the carpet. Carpets are easy to change if you end up not liking them.

 

[disney100666]

we have it. it's alright. I agree with the above poster, it's not very soft, but it doesn't hurt your feet.

 

[catsrule]

Simba and Cali enjoy using it as a scratching post.

 

[Kirby]

I would love to have Berber carpet in my house. I like the different blends and patterns it comes in. But my husband won't agree to it because if a thread pulls, it pulls all the way across. At least that's what he's been told.

 

[Aimeedyan]

We chose it for our house and actually really love it. It's easy to clean, which is a HUGE plus as we have 3 dogs and hope to add children to the family soon. It's easy to vacuum dog hair out of =)

We have a pattern to ours, which helps break up large spaces and disguise traffic marks.

Downside is that it can pull - but you just have to snip it at the base with scissors. We've had a few pulls; one was from pushing a dresser across the carpet instead of lifting it and the corner caught, and a couple from dog nails that got too long. You can't see any of them now that they were cut off.

I have been told that berber quality makes a big difference in how easily it runs and how easily it cleans up.

Here is a picture of ours in an empty (unpainted!) room so you can see the pattern.

 

[Aimeedyan]

I would love to have Berber carpet in my house. I like the different blends and patterns it comes in. But my husband won't agree to it because if a thread pulls, it pulls all the way across. At least that's what he's been told.

Nah, not unless you stand there and rip it across the room. It usually is a loop that sticks up, you just take scissors and snip the loop out at the base. You don't even notice you've cut a little piece off, at least not in our carpet.

 

[RadioNate]

I hated ours. I don't think it vacuumed well. Sure it looked clean but move a piece of funature and you'd see how really filthy it was!

I had a short shag in our old house that I loved. It didn't show dirt and after 4 years still looked brand new even when we took all the furnature out of the house.

When we replace the carpet in this house that is what I'll go with.

 

[DLBDS]

My DH's family owns a flooring business. I've had berber carpet for MANY years. I currently have it in my MBR (hardwoods everywhere else). I love berber! It doesn't leave vacuum tracks. It's just a clean, tidy carpet. One big concern you may have....if you have dogs and the nails get stuck in the loops so much so that they actually pull the carpet out, the carpet 'thread' will pull out in a straight line. You should be careful dragging something across it that could snag. Regular cut pile carpets don't do this. I don't have to worry about this issue myself. Mine is a breeze to spot clean. I use OxiClean most of the time to clean it. Nylon berbers (which mine is) are the best. My carpet is an off-white/cream color. I've had it for 8 years now.

 

[mmcguire]

I must be in the minority -- we've had berber in two houses, and I don't care for it at all. At the previous house, a loose thread got caught in the vacuum and ripped several feet. Because of that, we would never buy it again, but the previous owner at this house already had it in the den.

The pattern is nice, but the deep sculpting makes it VERY hard to keep clean. The vacuum brushes can't reach into the deep crevices of the pattern well, and when it's shampooed, it doesn't get 100% clean for the same reason.

I prefer a regular pile carpet like we have in the rest of the house.

 

[Abbie]

I wonder if there are lots of different kinds of berber? We have it in our family room, going on 12 years now, and it still looks awesome. It's a mix of blues and grays and so easy to keep clean. It's very durable and has held up to three kids, two dogs, two cats, and tons of parties!

Other than the bedrooms, it's the only carpet in our house and if/when we need to replace it, I'd get the same again.

 

[Kathi OD]

We had berber in our old house. Paid a small fortune for it and I would never buy it again. It's not comfortable underfoot that's for sure and it does definitely pull. We also found that it was hard to keep clean because all the loops really trap the dirt.

Give me my hardwood and ceramic tiled floors any day.

 

[SamRoc]

We had just put berber down and our 5 lb yorkie got one of his nails caught in the rug and it actually turned sideways! poor thing, we rushed him to the vet and it had to be removed.

 

[DLBDS]

I wonder if there are lots of different kinds of berber? We have it in our family room, going on 12 years now, and it still looks awesome. It's a mix of blues and grays and so easy to keep clean. It's very durable and has held up to three kids, two dogs, two cats, and tons of parties!

Other than the bedrooms, it's the only carpet in our house and if/when we need to replace it, I'd get the same again.

There are MANY different kinds. They can be made of different fibers...wool, nylon and olefin (the cheap stuff). They come in many different colors and color combinations. Some have patterns in them. Some have large loops. Some are small. (I don't like the 'fat' stuff.) BTW, a quality pad under your carpet will make a HUGE difference in how well ANY carpet performs.

 

[CEDmom]

We have a berber runner on the stair and berber in the upstairs hallway. We went with it because it doesn't show wear and tear or dirt like a solid carpet would. It's not comfortable to walk on like plush carpeting is but it's not horrible either. I think it's a great choice for high traffic areas.

 

[tinabheart]

wouldn't want any other kind of carpet - have it throughout the house except kitchen and bath (ceramic tile) - love it!

 

[Rafiki Rafiki Rafiki]

Count me among those who don't like it.

I don't think it looks or feels as nice as regular pile.

We're getting ready to buy quite a bit of carpet for the upstairs in our new house. I'm not even going to bother with putting it on the main floor because of how dirty carpet seems to get in high traffic areas. We don't allow food or drinks onto the carpeted areas in our current rent house, but man...the heavy traffic areas look awful even though the house is only a year old.

 

[michellekl]

we bought a huge good quality berber rug for one half of our very large living room. one day our dog somehow hooked his rabies tag into one of the loops & got stuck while we were out. he pulled a big long line through the carpet to try & get himself free. he was still attached when we got home, poor thing. needless to say that rug was out of there the next day, after having it only for 3 months.

another issue we had was it also made our high quality vacuum cleaner make this terrible high pitched noise when it was vacuumed over. don't know what that was about. :

 

[swilphil]

I had it in my old condo and liked it very much. It's not as soft as some of the carpets that are out there now, but does look good and holds up very well. Just don't buy the cheap stuff.