Anyone have experience with cornrowing carpet?

[rslaback]

A bit over a year ago my wife and I used our savings to replace the carpet in most of our home. We purchased Smartstrand Silk carpet from Mowhawk as it was incredibly soft even though it was definitely on the higher end of the available price point. Within 5 weeks of the carpet being installed we started noticing weird pattern lines in the carpeted walkway behind our sofa that looked like a decade old matted down carpet. We are a shoes off, socks on family so dirt and oil should not have been an issue at all. We called our flooring dealer who had a carpet inspector come in and take a look at it. It turns out this is called cornrowing and the manufacturers do not see it as a defect. We've tried vacuuming at all directions, raking it and having it cleaned and there doesn't seem to be any way to correct the issue and apparently there isn't anything Mohawk will do about it.

Over the past few months pretty much all the trafficked areas have noticeable cornrowing. The hallways, doorways etc. all look like the carpet was installed ages ago and never vacuumed. Our local flooring company that installed it wasn't familiar with cornrowing before now and he seems to prefer we just live with it and/or go away.

I've been all over the internet and so far I've found lots of complaints but no real solutions (we've tried vacuuming in all directions and raking). Does anyone here have any better ideas. This image is what the carpet looked like behind our sofa after 4 months. It's only gotten worse since then.

 

[vettex2]

A bit over a year ago my wife and I used our savings to replace the carpet in most of our home. We purchased Smartstrand Silk carpet from Mowhawk as it was incredibly soft even though it was definitely on the higher end of the available price point. Within 5 weeks of the carpet being installed we started noticing weird pattern lines in the carpeted walkway behind our sofa that looked like a decade old matted down carpet. We are a shoes off, socks on family so dirt and oil should not have been an issue at all. We called our flooring dealer who had a carpet inspector come in and take a look at it. It turns out this is called cornrowing and the manufacturers do not see it as a defect. We've tried vacuuming at all directions, raking it and having it cleaned and there doesn't seem to be any way to correct the issue and apparently there isn't anything Mohawk will do about it.

Over the past few months pretty much all the trafficked areas have noticeable cornrowing. The hallways, doorways etc. all look like the carpet was installed ages ago and never vacuumed. Our local flooring company that installed it wasn't familiar with cornrowing before now and he seems to prefer we just live with it and/or go away.

I've been all over the internet and so far I've found lots of complaints but no real solutions (we've tried vacuuming in all directions and raking). Does anyone here have any better ideas. This image is what the carpet looked like behind our sofa after 4 months. It's only gotten worse since then.

now I can read your post

 

[vettex2]

It's actually called "pooling" and is not a defect

I was Mohawk, Shaw and Karastan Certified.

 

[rslaback]

It's actually called "pooling" and is not a defect

I was Mohawk, Shaw and Karastan Certified.

When they denied the warranty claim they called it cornrowing. The IFCI agrees. So does the CRI. Personally, I really don't give a **** what they call it or if the carpet world thinks it isn't a defect, after 4 months, it looks like it has been walked on for 20 years.

I just want it to look better.

 

[danieldd]

Never seen this before and it makes me wary of buying new carpet now! I hope you find a resolution to your problem, but if the carpet manufacturer doesn't acknowledge it is an issue, I don't know what recourse you will have other than removing it and going with a different style carpet..

...which *****.. because new carpet and installation is certainly not cheap. We have a patterned berber in our family room that we are looking to replace with a nice thick carpet, but now I'm not too sure. Would be interested in knowing how you proceed with this as it will be useful knowledge for the rest of us.

Good Luck!

 

[Antoddio]

I have the all over my house and I think in my previous houses. I thought that was the way carpet was supposed to look. I've never thought about it. ??

I know that's not very helpful. Maybe just perspective.

 

[rslaback]

I have the all over my house and I think in my previous houses. I thought that was the way carpet was supposed to look. I've never thought about it. ??

I know that's not very helpful. Maybe just perspective.

I tipped the sofa up so you could see under it to what the carpet is supposed to look like.

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[TexasShooter]

Mohawk is one of the worst company's we deal with on warranties and broken tile shipment. Ive got 2 orders on my rack right now from last summer that is still in their return protocol. I can understand your frustrations with them.

My only advice I can give is next time go for the tile and use rugs. If anyone has ever pulled carpet up and seen what is under them will understand why.


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[Antoddio]

I tipped the sofa up so you could see under it to what the carpet is supposed to look like.

Sent from my VS986 using Tapatalk

Interesting. I guess I would never have thought twice about that. I am not much of a fan of carpet to start with however.

 

[vettex2]

When they denied the warranty claim they called it cornrowing. The IFCI agrees. So does the CRI. Personally, I really don't give a **** what they call it or if the carpet world thinks it isn't a defect, after 4 months, it looks like it has been walked on for 20 years.

I just want it to look better.

No matter what they call it, replace it with Shaw. They have better warranties and fewer problems
Good Luck

 

[PWC Repair]

It actually appears to be matting together in a pattern perpendicular to the foot traffic. How often do you vacuum? More often tends to keep it from doing this as the brushes help keep the fibers loose.

 

[Fatboy148]

. Within 5 weeks of the carpet being installed we started noticing weird pattern lines

Wow! It is nice carpet. I am sitting over some of that same carpet in my office and it may even be same color. Thankfully I don't see that effect here. Ours is maybe three years old now. My son has it in his basement too. At his house there was a defect in the carpet. He has a 32' long x 20' wide room that had a defect that repeated along one wall three times at about every 6' in one of the two seamed pieces in this room. Lowes replaced the entire 1800 square feet of carpet in the finished area of his basement as they knew the die lots would be different where the old pieces met the replacement piece.

I just followed in his footsteps on his choice of product but he had checked prices and according to the local store owner that sells the same product (they have three stores in three cities) Lowes could sell it installed for less than they could buy the product. One good thing about Lowes is, IF you aren't happy for at least 90 days, they will try to make it so you are happy. IF... my son had purchased from the locally owned store, he would have been dealing with the factory as a warranty claim and the factory only wanted to replace the one defective 12' x 32' piece and not all of it. This is a bright open room and there surely would have been a difference in the colors at the seams and Lowes didn't want to risk that. They "bit the bullet" on replacing the rest of the carpet and I am sure the installer got paid for the entire job twice too.

***** to spend that much money (or any amount of money) and not be happy with the product after the purchase.

If the OP had purchased from Lowes, at five weeks, when he first noticed this "corn rowing effect", he could have put Lowes on notice that he wasn't happy.

I hope you have some luck in getting your issue resolved.

 

[Fatboy148]

When you Google "Smartstrand Silk carpet cornrowing" this thread is comes up right after the manufacturer's site links.

 

[Keel]

Mistake #1 carpet
mistake #2 light colored carpet.

Hope it works out for you..

 

[bczygan]

Never ever, ever, ever use wall to wall carpet!

Hardwood flooring, tile and rugs.

Bill

 

[Cairo94507]

I have not had carpet in my homes for over 30 years now. I go hardwood with area rugs in the areas I want a little something to break it up. I agree with the above, pull up old carpet once and see what filters through it and that is the end of carpet in my homes. Also, if you have any pets, hardwood or tile is so much easier to maintain and keep clean.

Good luck with your warranty issue -be persistent and they might cooperate. Heck if nothing else, ask for some cooperation/good will to replace the carpet with another product. You pay the installation, they supply the material, something like that.

 

[Hobbit]

Could it be your Vacuum cleaner?

 

[Vantastic]

I think smartstrand is just glorified polyester. Should of went with a 100% nylon.

 

[Dirtydan69]

Sorry to hear of your issues. That's *****. That said I agree with others here. No carpet, only area rugs over hard scape flooring. We have carpet in our bedrooms now only because it was there when we bought the house. When it's time I'll replace with hard floors. Good luck.

 

[rslaback]

It actually appears to be matting together in a pattern perpendicular to the foot traffic. How often do you vacuum? More often tends to keep it from doing this as the brushes help keep the fibers loose.

Vacuuming occurs twice a week which should be adequate. In my research what I have found out is that Smartstrand Silk is made to be super soft and it is. That's why we picked it honestly. However, to help make it soft, the strands are not tightly packed like a nylon carpet would be. What is happening in cornrowing is that one row of strands gets folded over and jammed in place by the base of the next row. This then essentially creases the strand. You can vacuum them up a bit and it will improve the looks temporarily. We also have a carpet rake to try to make it presentable. The issue is that the strands have creased which makes it super easy for them to get jammed back down in again.

The strands are supposed to have enough resilience that they don't crease but that obviously isn't what we are seeing.

When you Google "Smartstrand Silk carpet cornrowing" this thread is comes up right after the manufacturer's site links.

Good. I've resigned myself to the fact that Mohawk isn't likely to do anything about it. Hopefully this thread saves somebody from making the same mistake we did.

Could it be your Vacuum cleaner?

Nope. The carpet is ironically difficult to vacuum though. We had to get a new vacuum to do it. The carpet is so soft that if you use something like a dyson or other high suction or automatic height vacuum it will just **** itself to the floor and not move. We had to get a vacuum with less suction and a beater bar that can be moved way up. The brush likely doesn't even reach the bent over strands.

 

[ltusler]

Maybe it could be steamed with strong suction to heat and straighten them?

 

[jd_1138]

Never seen this before and it makes me wary of buying new carpet now! I hope you find a resolution to your problem, but if the carpet manufacturer doesn't acknowledge it is an issue, I don't know what recourse you will have other than removing it and going with a different style carpet..

...which *****.. because new carpet and installation is certainly not cheap. We have a patterned berber in our family room that we are looking to replace with a nice thick carpet, but now I'm not too sure. Would be interested in knowing how you proceed with this as it will be useful knowledge for the rest of us.

Good Luck!

I would never buy carpet. It's a haven for dust, mites, mold, etc.. After I ripped up all the carpeting and installed laminate hardwood all over our house, my allergies are a lot better.

Wasn't too much more than carpet, if any. I think it was $1,700 for the flooring and I paid a guy $500 to install it (with my help). 50 year warranty, and there are like 30 shades to choose from.

The OP's hassles he's going through are just another reason to skip carpet.

 

[LXCam]

So I learned two things today.

Obviously the first being when substandard but high end carpet goes to **** it's called corn rowing

The second being doing business with Mohawk is they'll corn hole ya if you have a problem.

Oh I guess I did learn that far too many here suffer from Textophobia.

I also learned whomever owns this site pays big money to google.