Carpet suggestions?

We have a 5x8' rug in our living room that needs to be replaced.

It's olefin, which I was told would be great for stain & dirt resistance. Unfortunately it hasn't stood up well at all - we've had it less than 2 years, but the cats have pulled loose many of the loops, the foster puppy (now in a new home) tore a hole in the middle of it trying to bury a toy, some klutz (that would be me) spilled soda on it, and it has lots of ground-in dirt from the dogs coming in from outside & laying on it. Supposedly olefin doesn't stand up well to heat, so we haven't tried to steam-clean it, but my attempts at spot cleaning have only made it worse. I think part of the problem might be that oil will stain olefin, so perhaps oil from the dogs' coats has marked it up and made it attract dirt?

DH is pretty set on keeping the current color scheme of soft beiges, rather than going with something a bit darker that would be more practical (like a dirt-colored shade of brownish grey ), so I need a rug that will either resist dirt & stains or be easy to clean, and a pile that the cats' claws won't destroy. Wool isn't an option because I'm allergic.

Any suggestions for a pile & type of carpet that would be good for us?

Thank you

The most perfect color of carpet for a house with cats is an actual "cat puke" color. Really! Take a picture of cat puke and go to the carpet store. Or just have it in your mind and go to the carpet store.

Cuz, no matter how many different floor types you have in your house --- wood, vinyl, linoleum, ceramic tile --- your cats WILL find the cleanest, brightest spot of CARPET and choose that area to puke.

So you may as well join 'em vs. trying to beat 'em, and just go with cat-puke colored carpet.

That's what I did for my bedroom. It is actually called "Honey". It works!!! K.C. practically lives in my bedroom and well she does the hairball thingy at night, so do the other cats... and welp it's a WHOLE HECKUVA lot easier to clean up stains on the puke-colored carpet than it is that light, pale beige that I have in the rest of my house.

As far as the pile itself, AVOID BERBER. I had berber in my old place and it got snaggy & the loops came unlooped due to claws, bunny teeth, you name it. Go with something low pile. Is that Olefin stuff like Berber? The loopy stuff and once you snag one piece, it's SHOT?

I have a bamboo rug from Ikea... it's not overly cushy but the cats love the lay on it because it conducts heat like paper and there is nothing for their little claws to get caught in. Also you can just pick it up and shake it to get the dirt off if you drop somthing mushy on it you can wipe it off and orange oil it.

I also have a couple faux sheep fur throw ruds the cats love to cozy down and sleep on, that is not to say that they wouldn't rather sleep on me or in my bed *smile*

In our apartment we have 2 different carpets. One is berber, the other the really cheap "apartment" style. Both get ripped up easy by the cats though. The berber loops do get pulled out. The cheap stuff stands up to ususal wear and tear just fine, the problem is Wiggies likes to scratch under doors and has ripped a couple of big holes in it. If I was paying for it myself, I might actually be tempted to go with the cheap stuff and assume I'd be replacing it in 5 years.
Otherwise, the area rug idea is a good one, depending on what flooring is under your current carpeting.
As for colour:

The most perfect color of carpet for a house with cats is an actual "cat puke" color.

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Umm.....really?!

Originally Posted by darkeyedgirl

The most perfect color of carpet for a house with cats is an actual "cat puke" color. Really! Take a picture of cat puke and go to the carpet store. Or just have it in your mind and go to the carpet store.

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Good point

Originally Posted by darkeyedgirl

As far as the pile itself, AVOID BERBER. I had berber in my old place and it got snaggy & the loops came unlooped due to claws, bunny teeth, you name it. Go with something low pile. Is that Olefin stuff like Berber? The loopy stuff and once you snag one piece, it's SHOT?

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I think we must have the Berber texture you're talking about. It is low pile but loopy, and started getting snagged almost as soon as the first cat walked on it.

Originally Posted by Sibohan2005

I have a bamboo rug from Ikea... it's not overly cushy but the cats love the lay on it because it conducts heat like paper and there is nothing for their little claws to get caught in. Also you can just pick it up and shake it to get the dirt off if you drop somthing mushy on it you can wipe it off and orange oil it.

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Hmmmm...that sounds nice. Do you have a picture of the type of rug? The cats don't try to sharpen their claws on it? Can it be vacuumed effectively, or do you have to take it outside and shake it?

I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing, but I've seen rugs made up of little narrow (1/4 inch or so) wooden slats bound on the edges with a thick linen-type fabric in the store and have been considering them, but I didn't know how easy they'd be to clean, and I was afraid the cats would use it as a giant scratching rug.

Originally Posted by pushylady

In our apartment we have 2 different carpets. One is berber, the other the really cheap "apartment" style. Both get ripped up easy by the cats though. The berber loops do get pulled out. The cheap stuff stands up to ususal wear and tear just fine, the problem is Wiggies likes to scratch under doors and has ripped a couple of big holes in it. If I was paying for it myself, I might actually be tempted to go with the cheap stuff and assume I'd be replacing it in 5 years.
Otherwise, the area rug idea is a good one, depending on what flooring is under your current carpeting.

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Our flooring is just linoleum - ugly, but easy to keep clean for my allergies. One of these days I'd love to install wood flooring.

An area rug of the cheap stuff might work for us, because the cats don't actually scratch on the carpet - it's more that their claws catch in it accidentally. They have a heavy oval rag rug they use for horizontal scratching, and that seems to work well.

I have hardwood floors, so don`t know a lot about carpeting...but I do have oval braided rugs that I bought from JC Penneys over 9 years ago. The have varying shades of colors and don`t show the dirt bad at all. They are still in great shape even with having had kittens on them for the past... almost a year.
The can be turned end for end and flipped over so I really don`t get any wear patterns at all. They don`t have any loops and are tighty braided, so they have been great to have with cats, even though they did go throuh a stage when they were younger and i had to train them not to use them as a place to scratch. I`d definatly get them again! (The rugs AND the cats!) :-)
Linda

We had a good quality Berber in the family room at our other house and had no problems with the cat pulling the loops at all. In fact, after 4 years the carpet still looked pretty much new. We clip claws once per week and had a scratching post.

Maybe the quality of carpet is as important as the type.

Originally Posted by tuxedokitties

Hmmmm...that sounds nice. Do you have a picture of the type of rug? The cats don't try to sharpen their claws on it? Can it be vacuumed effectively, or do you have to take it outside and shake it?

I'm not sure if we're talking about the same thing, but I've seen rugs made up of little narrow (1/4 inch or so) wooden slats bound on the edges with a thick linen-type fabric in the store and have been considering them, but I didn't know how easy they'd be to clean, and I was afraid the cats would use it as a giant scratching rug.

Click to expand...

Yep that's the type of rug, I actually just pick it up stand it on end and knock it a couple times to get the dirt out.... you can also vacume it I vacume mine at least once a week (with 2 cats you know we have to vacume) its standing up vey well I've had it for almost a year and not a snag. They would rather sleep on it than sharpen their little talons on it. Although my cats are very well trained and only sharpen on their cat tree.

I have hardwood floors downstairs and I bought a 5x8 area rug at Lowe's for maybe 200-300 bucks. It goes in front of the TV by the couch and to be honest, it doesn't get much trafic. It has many colors in a diamond, quilt like pattern. So far its holding up 4 months later. My cats aren't too interested in scratching though.

Upstairs we got new carpeting- I tried to stick with a low pile, and hi density carpet. I got a green- blue one for the bedroomthat is basically green with a lot of really tiny blue dots. So far we have had a couple puking incidents which have come right up with petstain woolite or resolve, and left no mark. The other rooms have a plain green carpet. I would get something with multi mixed colors, hair and whatever doesn't show as much. DO NOT get black- I have a hall rug that shows everything!

I'm a throw rug fan too.

The majority of my house has Berber, and try as they may, my cats scratch and scratch at it, but they haven't made a dent in it.

Thank you so much for all the great ideas & advice