Carpet Tog Ratings: Tales of Woe

In recent months there has been an upsurge in queries from customers who are looking to install carpet over underfloor heating systems. Fine, great, wonderful and surely good for the trade you might think. Well, yes and no. You see, actually obtaining the tog rating of most carpets is a thankless and arduous business.

Balta are great – their website gives very clear, comprehensive information on all of their ranges – though curiously the ITC ones are not as thorough. Most of the British manufacturers need just a phone call to find out the relevant information, but some manufacturers simply ‘do not have’ the information. Erm….excuse me? you don’t know? You have to know – you make the carpet! Excuse the exasperation, but this comes after an hour’s fruitless searching for the tog rating of Bajong‘s Montana, which ended in my phoning Belgium, only to be told by the manufacturers that they ‘don’t have that information’. I was practically speechless and my customer stood aghast as I tried to explain that this manufacturer of the carpet he wants to buy  is simply unwilling/unable to supply a basic technical detail.

A plea to manufacturers. Please can you begin printing the tog rating on the samples? Please, please,  please. Otherwise every single time some new customer comes in and asks, we have to reach for the phone and customers are sometimes reluctant to take our word for it – they want proof positive printed on the sample. Is this really too much to ask?

Oh and a handy little tip. If you can only find the thermal resistance expressed this way 0.14m2 K/W then you simply multiply by 10 to get the tog rating, so in this example the tog rating would be 1.4.

I’m now compiling a list of information that is available and hope to publish this as soon as I can.

UPDATE: They emailed me in the end and I can confirm that Bajong state that the tog rating of Montana is a little under 1.2. Hopefully I will get the sale now.

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Classique Wilton by Balta Carpets

We’ve seen a resurgence in the sales of Wilton this year, with several of the recently launched ranges in natural shades selling well. The ‘old-style’ greens/blues/reds of mainstays such as Balta’s Wellington Wilton and Super Wiltax have now been overtaken (for us at least) by these new, more subtle ranges. I know Wiltax is a major seller, but the figures are skewed by commercial sales – I’m talking purely domestic here.

One of the best examples is Balta’s Classique Wilton. It’s a very varied range, with a pindot,  a small square motif a floral ‘ispahan’ style design and a lovely panel which is shown below:

It works for heavy domestic (yes, really) and general contract wear would be fine. It weighs in at 1650gr/m2, which I believe is around 50 oz in old money, with an 8mm pile height. It’s 4 metres wide only (when will Balta match Lano’s 5 metre wide Wiltons?) and is 100% Polypropylene.

It looks good, feels good and fills a bit of a void. It will retail at between £18 and £27 per metre** I would say and is reasonably good value at that kind of price. There is a ‘big brother’ of this product that Balta have launched, called ‘Vintage Wilton’ and we will take a look at that very shortly on this blog.

We recently fitted 3 new retirement apartments in the same complex in this range, so it’s definitely appealing to our slightly more senior customers. I was dubious about displaying too much pattern in the shop this year, because last year less than 5% of our carpets sold were patterned (wilton, axminster, cut pile print) and that came as a real shock when we looked at it. However, we’ve left a fair amount of pattern on display and while it doesn’t really fully justify the amount of space we give it, it doesn’t do too badly – especially considering the recession we are troubled by currently.

** Why are my prices on here so vague? A couple of reasons really. I don’t want to ‘unveil’ the trade price (in spite of a large number of emails to me, I refuse to do this!) and also there is a huge variation regionally in carpet prices.

Remember though that if you are buying carpet (or any flooring) then the only price that really matters is the fully fitted price. Don’t be fooled by low prices on ‘offers’ by traders – you have to make sure that those artificially low prices actually translate into a competitive fully fitted price.

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Shepherd Twist from Balta Carpets

Shepherd Twist from Balta has been with us now for several years and this is at least its third or maybe fourth relaunch.

One of the better man-made twists around, Shepherd does come close to the look and feel of wool, at least with customers. We have regularly had excellent feedback from customers over the years and have had quite a few customers buy it after moving house – repeat Shepherd Twisters!

One thing that Balta have always done with this carpet is to avoid reducing the pile weight from the near-perfect 45oz – instead they have simply put up the price when they needed to. After the last 18 months of recession and awful exchange rate problems however, I was worried about the new release. I do have some justification now in that the pile weight has been cut down to 42oz – still pretty good for a carpet of this type and still recommended by me. They have cut the price by £1 per square metre to retailers, so I would say that this carpet will find the £10-£15 per square metre price band.

One new additional benefit is that it finally comes in both 4 metre and 5 metre widths – that was long overdue.

The colours are very much a plethora of natural shades once more. Beiges and creams still dominate but the best-selling ‘Mocha’ shade is continued. I think around 8 or 9 of the shades are carried forward and we see some newcomers – a dark red, a dark grey and we see the blue disappearing along with the bright red. I’m surprised at the bright red being dropped as we are selling a fair amount of that shade right now.

I’d certainly continue to recommend this carpet. Yes, the pile weight has dropped slightly, and that is a pity, but it still outperforms many competitors of this type. It handles and fits superbly and at this price there is no doubt that is represents excellent value for money.

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Balta: Techno Collection

Balta have just launched a new carpet collection aimed at Contract locations and heavy domestic locations where wear is the primary consideration ahead of comfort – a kitchen for example (yes, some people still like carpet in kitchens!).

Techno Design by Balta Carpets

It is available in nine different colours and two designs, giving 18 options in all. Techno Design is shown above and Techno Star below:

Techno Star by Balta Carpets

Balta give this a 5 Year Stainsafe and 5 Year Wear Warranty and it is rated Heavy Contract. I think it will do pretty well in the short to medium term in locations like, for example, nursing home bedrooms or in the home of someone who spills a lot and needs to clean up easily. We find this is a common problem that some of our less mobile and older customers experience and this carpet will allow them to live with a carpet fitted on underlay and be able to keep it looking in decent shape.

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It’s all very well telling people just to put down a smooth floor to make mopping up easier, but people with joint problems or who are unsteady on their feet should definitely look to carpet first and foremost.

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The Techno Collection has an action back so it is meant to be fitted onto underlay. A lot of contract carpet is gel backed and meant to be fitted without underlay and the loss of comfort on these jobs can sometimes be an issue.

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This carpet comes in at an excellent price point. I think you would look at somewhere around £8-£12 per square metre (4m wide only) for this and it’s very good value at that. It does not compare with the mega tough nylon heavy contract carpets from the likes of Vorwerk, but it punches it weight very well nevertheless. It’s made from 90% Berclon/10% PA, which keeps the price competitive without the added expense of nylon that so often bumps up the price on contract carpet.

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All in all a good effort and coming to an office or shop interior near you soon.

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Fusion Twist from Balta Carpets

Balta carpets had promised more colour into the UK market and are delivering on their part in funonthefloor with several new ranges.

The latest of these I got hold of today is Fusion Twist. Coming in a whopping colour palette featuring 30 shades to cover any taste.

30 Colours

Technically it is not a top of the range product, far from it in fact. It comes with a 5 year wear and stainfree warranty though and weighs in at 20oz (Dublin is 13oz, Bali is 15oz), so it’s not as bad as some and for a budget twist, it is pretty good value. It is only available felt-backed and 4m wide.

I’d reckon it will go out between £6 and £10 per metre and it will sell very well with landlords and for cheap kids’ bedrooms. It seems like it could well be the new version of Fiesta Twist, which was once a top seller at this kind of price.

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Crown Prince & Crown Regent

Omce a flagship product of Wilton Royal, Crown Prince and Crown Regent has returned to production with Associated Weavers launching it recently.

I got hold of a sample book today and although the designs are similar to the old days, the carpet itself has been thinned out considerably. In its heyday, Crown Prince was a top selling carpet – a chunky cut-pile print with a choice of Fleur de Lys print (Prince) or else simple pindot (Regent). Now it’s a budget felt-backd print.

The Label Sports The Butterfly!

To be fair, it’s not all that bad. Comparing it with Associated Weavers’  Hollywood felt-backed pint, this does feel and look a little more substantial. The colour bank is pretty good, with blue, burgundy and a chocolate brown available. There are barely any cut-pile prints left around now and it’s a welcome addition from my point of view. Sadly the designs are along the same lines as ITC’s Heritage Collection (although that is significantly heavier). A couple of new small motif prints could definitely sell for us right now.

Such Groundbreaking Design...ahem

It is a shame to see a once decent carpet cut down to the bone like this, but these things happen quite often in this trade – Balta’s Wellington Wilton has seen some major changes in its lifetime, for example.

Expect to sell it for £10-£12 a square metre I reckon.

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