Flooring is the general term for a covering of a floor, or for the work of installing such a floor covering. Floor covering is a term to describe any finish material applied over a floor structure to provide a walking surface. Both terms are used interchangeably but floor covering more often refers more to loose-laid materials.
Materials almost always classified as floor covering include carpet tiles, area rugs, and resilient flooring such as linoleum or vinyl flooring. Materials commonly called flooring include ceramic tile, wood flooring, stone, terrazzo, and various chemical floor coatings.
A textile floor covering consisting of an upper layer of pile attached to a backing (mostly bitumen or similar) are called Carpet tiles. The pile is usually either made from wool or a manmade fibre such as polypropylene, and usually consists of twisted tufts. These are often heat-treated to maintain their structure.
Structure - Needle Punch
Needle punch carpet construction is an assembly of fibre webs compacted and interlocked, using barbed felting needles and can have different textural effects, such as, rib or hobnail velour. Using this method of construction it is possible to produce a hard wearing carpet/carpet tile at a relatively low cost.
Structure - Tufted
The first tufted carpet was produced in the early 1950’s. Since then the addition of pattern attachments and computers permit the machines to produce multiple pile heights with both geometric and random patterns. This method of construction is now widely used in the carpet tiles industry.
Structure - Loop Level
Level Loop is the most common construction for cheap rugs and wall to wall carpet in Europe and Asia. This type offers a relatively smooth, homogenous surface and consists of loops constructed at the same height. Patterns may be printed on the surface of this style type. Lower density construction may allow the loops to be dispersed farther apart providing the illusion of texture.
Carpet Tiles Structure - Loop Structured
This carpet style utilises a combination of high and low loop pile to create patterns or textures and is widely used in the carpet tile industry. Cut and loop pile structures are generally random coloured providing the appearance of colour splotches over the entire surface. These styles offer good performance characteristics and random colourations provide good soil – hiding abilities.