Guide · For the trade
Nylon vs polyester carpet: which fiber for which room on the spec
Nylon vs polyester carpet comes down to resilience against stain resistance: nylon springs back from crushing and holds its texture for 15 to 20 years in traffic, which is why it carries 20-year texture retention warranties and nearly all commercial ratings; polyester resists water-based stains without a topical treatment and costs less, but mats in a traffic lane within 3 to 5 years and holds oily soil. Specify nylon for halls, stairs, family rooms and anything commercial; polyester for bedrooms, guest rooms, a media room and budget-led residential and never on a stair.
This guide is for the designer writing a synthetic carpet spec, or answering a client who has read that polyester is "the stain-proof one" and wants it everywhere. It covers what each fiber is, the comparison in numbers, where each belongs, how the mills in our library use them, the woven-polyester exception and the questions clients ask. Triexta, the third synthetic, has its own guide.
What the two fibers are
Nylon is a polyamide, made in two forms for carpet: type 6 and type 6,6, the latter slightly more resilient and the fiber behind most premium residential lines. It is strong, elastic and absorbs a little moisture, which is why it takes dye well, both in the yarn (solution dyed) and after (piece dyed, printed), and why it needs a stain treatment to resist water-based spills. Polyester is PET, the same polymer as a drink bottle and much residential polyester carpet is spun from recycled bottles. It is hydrophobic, so coffee and wine bead on it rather than soaking in, but it is also oleophilic, holding cooking oil and body oil in a way a hot-water extraction does not fully remove and its fibers lack nylon's memory: once a polyester cut pile is bent by traffic it stays bent.
Nylon vs polyester carpet, in numbers
| Property | Nylon | Polyester |
|---|---|---|
| Resilience (recovery from crush) | Excellent; the best of the synthetics | Poor to fair; mats in traffic lanes in 3 to 5 years |
| Texture retention warranty, typical | 15 to 20 years, 25 on premium 6,6 lines | 5 to 15 years, usually limited to light traffic |
| Water-based stains | Resists with a topical or built-in treatment; solution-dyed is bleach resistant | Resists without treatment |
| Oily soil | Releases in cleaning | Holds; traffic lanes grey |
| Fade resistance | Good; solution-dyed, excellent | Good |
| Face weight for a quality cut pile | 35 to 50 oz per sq yd | 45 to 60 oz per sq yd to compensate for lower resilience |
| Commercial ratings | Heavy and extra-heavy commercial available | Rarely rated above residential or light commercial |
| Flammability | DOC FF 1-70 pill test; Class I ASTM E648 on most contract lines | DOC FF 1-70 pill test; Class I less common |
| Cost, relative | Higher | Lower, often by a third or more at the same weight |
| Expected life in a family room | 12 to 20 years | 5 to 10 years |
Where nylon belongs
Stairs, halls, family rooms, home offices on chairs with casters, rentals, multifamily and every commercial corridor. Within our library of 470 nylon broadloom styles, Milliken's residential lines are all Class I on the radiant panel and CRI Green Label Plus certified, printed in custom patterns on a 13 foot 6 inch nylon broadloom; Masland and Fabrica tuft EnVision branded nylon in 12 and 15 foot widths with 20-year abrasive wear and texture retention warranties and Masland's are Class I and Green Label Plus as well. A solution-dyed nylon, where the color is in the polymer rather than applied after, adds bleach and fade resistance and is the spec for a beach house, a mudroom or a facility that cleans with chlorine; the solution-dyed nylon guide covers it. For a residential stair the choice is nylon or wool, never polyester.
Where polyester belongs
Bedrooms, guest rooms, closets, a media room, a basement playroom that will be recarpeted in a few years and any residential job where the budget decides and the traffic is light. In those rooms polyester's softness and built-in stain resistance are real advantages and its matting never shows, because nothing walks the same line twice a day. Keep it out of the hall that connects those bedrooms.
The woven polyester exception
Most of the polyester in our library is not tufted residential broadloom. Of 659 polyester styles, the majority are woven Wiltons and machine-woven patterns from Kane Carpet and Couristan, where polyester yarn is locked into a dense woven construction with a low pile. A woven polyester Wilton behaves differently from a tufted polyester plush: the weave holds the yarn upright, the pile is 1/4 to 3/8 inch rather than 1/2 to 3/4 and the pattern hides what matting there is. It is a legitimate hall or dining room spec and a good stair runner in a casual house and it is the reason a blanket "no polyester" rule is too simple.
How to read the two on a spec sheet
Fiber first: "100 percent BCF nylon" or "nylon 6,6" against "100 percent PET polyester" or "polyester." Then the warranty block: a texture retention warranty of 15 years or more almost always means nylon; polyester lines carry stain warranties that read generous and texture warranties that read short. Then face weight and density; a polyester needs 10 to 15 ounces more face weight than a nylon to perform similarly, so a 30-ounce polyester plush is a bedroom carpet at best. Then the use rating: heavy commercial is nylon. Finally certifications: Green Label Plus is available on both fibers, Class I radiant panel is common on nylon contract lines and uncommon on polyester. The carpet face weight guide explains the weight and density numbers.
Questions designers ask
Which nylon carpet should be specified?
A type 6,6 or a branded type 6 with a 20-year texture retention warranty, 35 ounces or more for a cut pile, solution dyed if bleach or sun is a concern, Class I and Green Label Plus for anything commercial or LEED. In our library that is Masland, Fabrica and Milliken for tufted nylon and the Wilton and hand-loomed nylons from Prestige Mills and Rosecore for pattern.
How long should a synthetic carpet stay in a spec before replacement?
Nylon in a family room, 12 to 20 years; polyester in the same room, 5 to 10. A carpet past 15 to 20 years has usually lost its texture, its backing and much of its stain treatment and the pad under it has broken down, which is the point at which clients ask whether old carpet is unhealthy. Replacing the pad with the carpet and specifying a low-emission certified carpet, is the answer to that question.
What type of carpet does not flatten easily?
Wool first, then nylon, then triexta, then polyester; and within any fiber, a dense low loop or a tight frieze resists crushing better than a plush cut pile. For a hall or a stair, a nylon or wool loop at 1/4 inch over a dense pad is the spec that still looks new in year ten.
Is polyester a good quality carpet?
It can be, in the right room: a 50-ounce polyester plush in a bedroom is soft, stain resistant and inexpensive and a woven polyester Wilton is a sound hall carpet. It is not a quality choice for a stair, a family room or a commercial floor, because it cannot recover from traffic and no weight or treatment changes that.
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