Guide · For the trade
Axminster carpet manufacturers for hospitality: who weaves it and how to specify a custom Axminster
Axminster carpet manufacturers fall into three groups: the British heritage weavers, the large contract looms in Asia that weave most of the world's hotel corridors and the American mills that weave or import Axminster for the trade. In our library the Axminster comes from Prestige Mills, Bloomsburg Carpet and Couristan, 58 styles in all, almost all of it 80 percent wool and 20 percent nylon at 13 ft 2 in or 12 ft wide, with a custom program that goes from rendering to woven strike-off in 4 to 6 weeks.
This guide is for the designer or junior on a hotel, club, restaurant or ballroom job who has been told the carpet "has to be Axminster" and needs to know who makes it, what makes one Axminster better than another and how a custom pattern moves from a sketch to a loom. The construction itself is compared with Wilton in the Axminster vs Wilton guide; the room-by-room hotel program is in the hotel carpet guide. This page is about the mills and the custom process.
What is Axminster carpet and why does hospitality use it?
Axminster is a woven carpet in which every tuft of pile is cut to length and inserted into the weave individually, either from a gripper that picks yarn from a carrier or from spools wound to the design. Because each tuft is placed on its own, the loom can put any color anywhere, which is why Axminster is the construction of large-scale, many-colored pattern: the ballroom medallion, the corridor repeat, the custom carpet with the property's own motif. The name comes from the town in Devon where the construction was first woven in the 1750s. The pile is always cut, the back is a woven jute-and-polypropylene weft locked with latex and the standard hospitality blend of 80 percent wool and 20 percent nylon gives wool's resilience and self-extinguishing flame behavior with nylon's abrasion resistance under a luggage cart.
Axminster carpet manufacturers: the three kinds of mill
The British weavers are the heritage names, still weaving in the UK and Ireland and they set the standard for wool quality and the 4 m (13 ft 2 in) width that most Axminster looms run. The contract looms in China, India and Thailand weave the bulk of the world's branded-hotel corridor carpet to a brand standard and a price, in very large runs. The American mills either weave on their own Axminster looms, as Bloomsburg does in Pennsylvania, or operate a custom program on partner looms and sell through the trade. For a designer the question is not which group is best but which program fits the job: a 40,000 sq ft corridor package and a 900 sq ft private club dining room go to different looms.
The Axminster mills in our library
Prestige Mills carries 24 Axminster styles, 80/20 wool-nylon at 13 ft 2 in, with a custom color and custom design program. Bloomsburg Carpet weaves 13 on its own looms, which keeps the custom lead time short and the strike-off cost down. Couristan's Premiere series adds 12 7, both with hospitality-weight constructions. Every style is made to order from the mill and samples ship to approved trade accounts within 24 hours; the Axminster filter lists all 58. For a custom Axminster, our Design Studio draws the pattern, the mill weaves the strike-off and the yardage follows approval.
What separates one Axminster from another
Two Axminsters can look identical on a sample card and wear very differently. Read the spec sheet for these lines.
| Line | Typical range | What to specify for hospitality |
|---|---|---|
| Pitch (tufts per inch across) | 7 to 10 | 7 pitch for guestrooms, 8 or more for corridors and public areas |
| Rows per inch (lengthwise) | 7 to 10 | 8 rows or more; 7 x 8 is the entry grade, 10 x 10 the densest |
| Pile weight | 40 to 65 oz/yd2 | 45 oz minimum in corridors, 50 to 60 oz in ballrooms and lobbies |
| Pile height | 0.25 to 0.35 in | 0.27 to 0.30 in; lower is firmer under carts |
| Fiber | 80/20 wool-nylon, 100 percent wool, 100 percent nylon | 80/20 for almost every hospitality use |
| Width | 12 ft, 13 ft 2 in (4 m), some 15 ft | Draw the seam diagram to the loom width before the pattern is sized |
| Fire | ASTM E648 Class I or II, ASTM E662 smoke | Class I with the report; smoke 450 or less |
Pitch and rows are the Axminster equivalent of density. A 7 x 7 at 40 oz is a fine guestroom carpet; a 10 x 10 at 60 oz is a 30-year ballroom floor. Ask for both numbers, because the pile weight alone will not tell you which you are buying.
Custom Axminster: how a pattern gets to the loom
- Brief. The property's palette, the motif or the design direction, the areas with square footage and the loom width you want to design to. A plan with the seam direction marked saves a round of revisions.
- Rendering. Our Design Studio draws the repeat in your colors, with the repeat size, the number of frames (colors) and the scale against the room. Axminster designs are usually held to 8 to 12 colors; the loom can take more, but every added frame adds yarn and setup.
- Strike-off. The mill weaves a sample of the actual design in the specified yarns, usually 18 by 18 inches or a corner with the border, in 4 to 6 weeks. This is the approval document and it is what the strike-off guide covers in detail.
- Production. The mill quotes the lead time with the strike-off; custom Axminster broadloom runs 10 to 16 weeks from approval, longer for very large packages or phased floors.
- Install. Direct glue-down or double-stick over a 1/4-inch dense pad in corridors and public areas, with a moisture test on the slab, through our installer network anywhere in the United States.
Axminster hotel carpet by zone
Corridors are the Axminster workhorse: a mid-tone ground, a repeat scaled to the corridor width so the pattern does not fight the doors, 45 oz or more, Class I. Public areas and ballrooms carry the signature pattern, larger repeats, 50 to 60 oz and a border program that follows the room. Guestrooms are more often tufted solution-dyed nylon for cost, but a 7 pitch Axminster at 40 oz is the upgrade for a luxury property. Restaurants and bars take Axminster where the brand wants pattern and the floor sees spills: the 80/20 blend cleans well and the pattern hides what the cleaning misses.
Axminster carpet patterns
The classic Axminster vocabulary is floral, Persian-derived and architectural: trellis, medallion, damask, acanthus and the large-scale botanical that reads as a vintage Axminster. Contemporary hospitality has moved to abstract textures, watercolor washes and oversized geometrics, all of which the loom weaves as easily as a floral. A vintage pattern from a client's archive or an old installation can be redrawn and rewoven; the strike-off confirms the colors against the original.
Questions designers ask
What does Axminster mean and is it still woven in Axminster?
Axminster is the construction name, taken from the Devon town where Thomas Whitty began weaving it in 1755. Carpet is still woven there today and the name now describes any carpet made on an Axminster loom anywhere in the world. On a spec sheet it means a cut-pile woven carpet with individually inserted tufts, as distinct from a Wilton or a tufted carpet.
Which are the best Axminster carpet manufacturers?
The best mill for a job is the one whose loom width, pitch and custom program match the package. For a designer in the United States the practical answer is the mills that sell through the trade with a strike-off program and published fire reports: Prestige Mills, Bloomsburg, Couristan in our library. The British heritage weavers are the reference for wool quality and most hospitality brands accept any mill that meets their pitch, weight and Class I standard.
Axminster carpet vs hand-tufted: which is right for a hospitality job?
Axminster for anything walked on by the public: corridors, lobbies, ballrooms, restaurants. It is woven, dimensionally stable, glue-down and rated. Hand-tufted belongs in the residential-scale rooms of a property, a suite living room or a boutique lobby seating group, as an area rug on a hard floor, where its carved texture and higher pile are the point and the traffic is lighter.
How many colors can a custom Axminster carry?
A gripper loom carries 8 to 12 colors comfortably and more with setup; spool Axminster is effectively unlimited. Most custom hospitality designs land between 6 and 10 colors because that is what the rendering needs, not because the loom limits it.
What width does Axminster come in?
13 ft 2 in (4 m) is the most common loom width, 12 ft is the American standard and a few looms run 15 ft. Design the repeat and the seam diagram to the width of the mill that will weave it, because a 4 m design does not re-size to a 12 ft loom without redrawing.
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