Sometimes, an area of carpet appears to be a different color even though there are no stains or dye issues. People call this carpet pooling or watermarked carpet. When carpet fibers lie in different directions, they catch the light in varying ways. This is like what gives carpeting those vacuum lines after cleaning. However, with carpet pooling, the fibers lie in a different direction permanently. It is most common in dense cut-pile carpeting.
So what causes carpet pooling? The carpet pile gets distorted or reversed during manufacturing. The fibers have a natural slope in one direction. When the fibers are sloping in different directions right next to each other, the appearance of some of the fibers is darker or lighter than the surrounding or bordering fibers.
The problem often goes unnoticed until after professional cleaning because cleaning revitalizes the fibers and restores them to a more upright position. Carpet pooling commonly occurs in high-traffic areas and may appear less noticeable when fibers remain slightly matted down. That’s why many clients believe that professional carpet cleaners are to blame, but that isn’t usually the case.
There is no quick fix for this appearance issue.
You can’t repair the problem without installing new carpet. At least carpet pooling doesn’t affect the flooring’s performance, just the appearance.
we got knew carpeting in September 2018. we paid a lot of money from the carpet guys. We noticed right away that the carpet looked like it was wearing in certain areas. It’s just my husband and I, no pets, my house is very clean, I am a neat freak. We called and carpet guys said we had to have it professionly cleaned before they would do anything . We had to pay for the cleaning which was not needed. The cleaner even said the carpet is not even a year old and has signs of pooling. I know they probably will not do anything about this problem, but we are very unhappy with The Carpet Guys in Michigan.
“Pooling” is floor industry jargon. How did you determine that it was pooling?