Relax, no marriage counseling today. The subject is delamination – or the separation of backings on relatively new rugs and carpets.
Here’s the scene: Your rug seems limp and starts curling up at the edges, or you notice telltale ripples in traffic areas, or your cleaner begins cleaning the rug and is starts to separate, although the secondary backing is still holding together (a tough situation for the cleaner to explain because it wasn’t like that until you started cleaning).
So, What Happened?
Rug and carpet backings are held together with a combination of expensive adhesives. These backings used to be made of jute, but today are more often made of non-absorbent synthetic fibers. The first problem for the manufacturer is to get the adhesive to bond to the synthetic backing, and then to get the two backings to stick to each other.
When “bargain” rugs and carpet are manufactured, costs must be cut, often in areas where they won’t be noticed. So, the expensive latex is extended with fillers to make a little go a long way. Unfortunately, these diluted formulations break down in a few years, considerably changing the status of the bargain you got.
The Solution?
What’s to be done to avoid delamination? Unfortunately, there’s no such thing as a free lunch, meaning you pay for what you get. In other words, price and quality must be combined to equal value. So, when selecting rugs and carpet, stick with quality retailers who have a reputation for standing behind their products. Even then, if you notice signs of early delamination, contact the retailer immediately for an evaluation. Usually, the problem is easy to pinpoint, and, if caught within the first two years, corrective action can be taken under the manufacturer’s warranty.
