There are a variety of carpets and rugs manufactured today. While there are many ways to classify carpet types, one way is by looking at the pile.
The pile is the softer, raised part of the rug located on the top surface. Some rugs do not have any pile at all, such as kilims and dhurries, however the majority of traditional Persian and Oriental rugs do. Here are the common categories that classify piles:
Woven
At our Toronto area rug gallery showroom, you’ll notice that the vast majority of rugs on display feature this type of pile. A woven pile is constructed by knotting pieces of yarn onto the foundation of a rug (the warp and weft). The manner in which knots are constructed depend on the region in which the rug was made, along with other factors such as artistic background and ethnicity.
Woven piles tend to create a flat and overall even surface that is denser and firmer, both visually and tangibly. Some consider this type of pile to be superior, believing it to be more resilient. When speaking about the archetype of Persian rugs, you would only think about a woven pile.
Tufted
There are two main types of tufted piles: looped and cut. Both are created by inserting each yarn forming the pile into the base of the rug with a needle or gun, then keeping it in place with adhesive and/or a backing on the underside of the rug.
Tufted rugs have become popular in recent times, particularly when manufacturing wall-to-wall carpeting. The manufacturing process tends to be mechanized, enabling mass production.
Looped: Regular and Cord
A pile that is looped creates a pile that is smoother than its woven counterpart, although it can be made coarser depending on the material, if the yarn has been twisted and the size of each loop. Each yarn that forms the pile is in the formation of a loop.
A cord pile is essentially a looped pile, except the size of the loops is smaller. This creates a very tight pile.
Cut: Regular, Velvet, Saxony and Shag
The loops inserted into the base of the rug are cut to create a cut pile. The length of the pile is what determines whether it is velvet, regular, Saxony or Shag: velvet is the shortest and shag is the longest.
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