Yesterday I shared all about having our hardwoods refinished with a nontoxic finish and today we’re moving to the upstairs and talking carpet! I’ll share the pros and cons of natural carpet and padding, along with my Earth Weave Carpet review. Also, a lot of you sent me really great questions about the carpet while we were renovating and I’ll answer as many as I can within this post.
(the photos below are unedited to show the true colors in different lighting)
Let’s Talk Carpet…
It’s not a secret that carpet is no friend to those with allergies as it attracts dust, dust mites, pet dander, mold spores, and more. What’s worse is that most carpet brands use a number of different chemicals during manufacturing and also can add moth repellent pesticides, flame retardants, and stain treatments, which are usually toxic PFAS.
(note: Home Depot has pledged to stop selling carpet and rugs containing PFAs sometime this year. It’s unclear if another substance will replace it as a stain repellent)
The right kind of carpet can solve most of those issues.
While we originally decided to go with hardwoods in most of the upstairs, when some subfloor issues were discovered we completely ditched the idea of hardwoods, as the easiest thing was to stick to carpet throughout the upstairs. Of course, I did a deep dive on carpet and researched until found one that was durable, safe, and offered some benefits without the added chemicals. After exploring several natural carpet brands, we landed on Earth Weave because of the price, color & texture selections, and it was totally untreated with any chemicals.
Earth Weave Carpet Review
Why Earth Weave?
- It’s truly eco-friendly and biodegradable
- 100% untreated, natural materials with no added chemicals
- Priced well
- Lasts much longer than synthetic carpets
- Their wool is from free-range sheep
- Wool is naturally flame-resistant, has antibacterial and antimicrobial properties, and creates a harder environment for dust mites to thrive.
Our Thoughts
It’s been nearly 4 weeks since the carpet was installed and overall, we’re very pleased with how it turned out. We went with the Rainer line in the color Snowfield. It looks light but in person, it’s your typical lighter, beige carpet. There’s some color variation from loop to loop so hopefully, that will help disguise any wear and tear.
I want to point out that virtually all of the organic, non-toxic, and/or wool carpets we looked at all had mostly closed loops like a Berber style carpet. The Rainier collection has both cut and closed loops and felt really soft and dense on the sample, but still has a nice tailored look. Since it does have a lot of closed loops, our installer explained that seams will always be more prevalent with that style, though he tried to lay it in such a way that the seams wouldn’t be in prominent areas. Earth Weave has one collection, the Catskill line, with mostly cut loops.
Can you spot the seam? This is one of the more obvious ones.
While it’s dense and soft, the carpet is quite short. So much so that we now need to have most of our upstairs baseboards repainted, since you can see the line from the original dark-stained wood trim. This is probably not a problem for most people, but something to note for those who’ve changed the color on their baseboards.
Earth Weave Padding
While we love the carpet, I have mixed thoughts on the padding. It’s super thin and with the carpet also being thin, it’s a big change from the relatively plush carpet and padding we had before. I do love that it’s entirely wool and biodegradable, but in hindsight, I wish I’d gotten a sample of it first and perhaps explored some other options. That being said, it was well priced and it made things much easier to have the carpet and padding shipped to the same terminal to be picked up by our installer.
No Added Chemicals Or Treatments
I was surprised to find the carpet and padding had almost no smell at all. Especially since we visited our neighbors the day they had new carpet (this was conventional carpet) installed a couple of years back. It had such an intense smell that the installers had left the windows open.
Earth Weave’s wool is completely untreated and dye-free, except for their Catskill line which uses an organic dye. The rest of the lines are created with just the natural colors in wool.
They do not use pesticides like moth repellents, which a few people asked me my thoughts about. Since we already have several rugs, curtains, pillows, and even some furniture made from wool and we haven’t had any issues with moths in our home, I feel very comfortable using it. If you have problems with moths, you may want to speak directly with Earth Weave to see if they have any recommendations.
Durability/Stain Resistance
According to Earth Weave their carpet lasts up to 20-25 years. It feels pretty durable to us so far, but I will update this as time passes. Wool is known as one of the most durable natural fibers that retains its shape well, so hopefully, it will last a while. It’s held up really well with the kids running and playing, and even with Frankie’s nails.
By request, our back staircase. The carpet installed very neatly here and has held up well. You can see the paint problem due to the shorter carpet here, too.
Would you believe that within a few days after just having it installed we managed to get red wine, mud, and urine on it?? The dog is mostly to blame, but the red wine was Teddy! We are always so careful upstairs and I can’t remember the last time any of that happened on the old carpet! I guess we unintentionally were putting it through a stain test (with me cringing in the background the whole time). I’m happy to report it all came out ok!
It seems it is somewhat moisture resistant & stain resistant.
The red wine was kind of funny. Since we had no furniture downstairs (from refinishing the hardwoods) we headed upstairs to watch a movie and Teddy debated for a while about having a glass of wine because he was nervous about getting red wine on the new carpet. He decided to do it and wouldn’t you know, he spilled some. It was just a few drops but it beaded up on the carpet and I was able to quickly get a towel and dab it up. We were both amazed and relieved when we saw no trace of it left!
I wasn’t sure what to do about the mud, as my attempts to wipe it up seemed to push it further into the carpet. Instead, I waited a bit for it to dry and then vacuumed it up without any stains left behind.
The urine was tougher since there was more of it and I wasn’t able to get to it immediately as I did with the wine. I used towels to absorb as much as I could and then used water with a tiny amount of dish soap to kind of flush it out. I would pour some on, absorb it up, then pour more on until I felt the urine was gone. There isn’t any staining or odor left behind.
How To Purchase Earth Weave Carpet
Though they don’t sell direct to the public, you can contact Earth Weave to see if there are any local carpet stores that carry them. They did direct us to a store here, which was helpful for looking at samples, but the installation prices were very high so ultimately we purchased online through organicandhealthy.com and found our own installer.
I have to give a huge shout out to organicandhealthy.com. I don’t even know how many emails and phone calls we exchanged but they were SO helpful with answering questions, figuring out quantities, and finding a local shipping terminal (these huge rolls need a lift gate so they can’t be delivered to residential addresses unless you’re receiving a small amount). It can be scary to make such a large purchase online but they were so responsive and helpful. I highly recommend their store and will seeking them out for future home purchases.
Overall
The carpet looks and feels wonderful. It’s so soft and not scratchy at all, as I feared wool would be. I’ve been doing a side deep dive on the benefits of wool (this post was long enough without going into that), but the more I research, the more impressed I am with its benefits for your home and health. We’re relieved to have the old gross carpet out of here and have nice, natural wool carpet instead.
If there’s anything I didn’t cover in my Earth Weave Carpet review, just leave a comment below!
***2 Year Update**
We still really love the carpet and it’s held up well. We haven’t had issues with Frankie’s nails snagging the carpet or any type of wear and tear, really. The padding remains my one regret, though my mom used some of our extra pad for an area rug and it seems really well suited for that.
Almost all stains have come up quite easily, with exception of 2:
A doggy accident on a rainy day (after refusing to go out all day). I can still see a faint yellow tint there. I’ve tried a few things, but may get one of those spot carpet cleaner machines and see if that works. *One previous accident cleaned up just fine.
The other is from pencil shavings that somehow spilled out when Carson and a friend were playing. The details have seemed a bit hazy, but apparently they tried to clean it themselves which was basically them rubbing it into the carpet more and now we have a gray cloud there. Nothing has worked! But pretty sure that would be an issue on any type of carpet.
Hi! Any updates on your carpet? I couldn’t see when this was posted. We are looking into getting wool carpet as well but then I saw some crazy things about carpet beetles! Thanks!
Hi Chelsey! I’m actually writing a 6 month update which will be published in the next week. We haven’t had any issues with beetle but now I need to look into that more!!
Our clients also love to have Earth Weave Carpet installed in their house. Since it is all made from wool and is safe for those with chemical sensitivities (pesticides, insecticides, fungicides, etc.). So, I believed you didn’t regret buying that carpet. Nice Review!
Please note, if you are sensitive to latex, there could be a problem. We are sleeping in the living room going on three months waiting for the smell to subside.
Hi Ed, Sorry to hear that. The EarthWeave carpet we have doesn’t have any latex. Was it the carpet that was an issue or maybe the padding? We used 100% wool padding but many carpet pads do have latex.
What was the cost approximately for a bedroom?
Its hard to say since we were quoted for the overall cost of our upstairs area, which included hallway, stairs, and many different sized rooms. Plus we paid labor separately. If you know how many square feet the room is you want to have done, you can check on Earth Weave’s site to see what the price per sq ft is on the carpet you’d like and figure it that way. Also, Green Building Supply carries Earth Weave and may be able to give you a better quote for your exact space.
Thanks for the review! Super helpful! The house we just bought has carpet that we would like to replace with natural carpet so this was great to read. Thanks for the website endorsement as well! Just wanted to share a tip: since wool is so different than cotton and other fibers, you should try to use a wool cleaner on that tough spot. I had a wool rug that was stained. After a YEAR of it being there, I used the wool wash I had for my kids’ wool diaper covers, and it did wonders! If you’re interested, the bottle of wool wash is called Eucalan. It lasts forever!
Hi Sarah, Thanks for reading! That’s a fantastic tip. I will try that out as we still have the stain upstairs. I appreciate that tip!
Hey Molly, we’re about to make the same purchase — Rainier, debating Granite or Snowfield. And we were thinking we’d do the all natural wool underlayment but we do want a plush soft feel…have you found any other green alternatives you’d consider? Earthweave really seems to be one of a kind-great materials, made in the USA, truly no plastic…would love to know your thoughts on a possible alternative underlayment! Thanks, LaRue
Hi LaRue,
I wish I could give you a few options but I’ve only found a couple of 100% natural material pads. They all seem very similar to me but it may be worth it to order samples of both and be able to compare it before you purchase. Here’s a link to the other brand: https://www.greenbuildingsupply.com/All-Products/Natural-Performance-Wool-Cushion
Molly
Thanks Molly! And can I ask: given the environmental trade offs (we have 3 small kids so trying to avoid plastics/chemicals) but want the carpet to feel soft (as we have 3 small kids and we will be building legos, coloring, laying on the floor all the time)…was your regret with the Earthweave carpet pad just that it isn’t too soft/plush? Or is it because of spills? We used a carpet pad under our other wall to wall carpet called “Arcadia” and we really liked it..but it’s not all natural. I do want the soft comfy feel…ya know, trade offs. Just curious on what your regret is on that choice. We’re all in on the carpet for sure! Can’t decide btw granite and snowfield! Thanks again, LaRue
The downside for us was just plushness. We had exceptionally plush padding and carpeting before, so it was a very pronounced change for us. We’ve gotten used to it being less plush, however if I come across a more plush option, I’ll be sure to share it here!
Do you know if there is a big difference betwen the Mckinley and Rainer and what those differences are? Also, did you get the Enertia Natural Wool carpet padding because I don’t want any latex or rubber padding. I assume all of their carpets have the rubber backing but the padding can be an option?
Thanks!
Hi Nancy, Thanks for reading! I’m unsure of what the exact difference are between those are as I was primarily interested in the one we went with. Many retailers I contacted while searching offered samples though. May be a good option so you can compare. There is no rubber backing. If you scroll up, I show a picture of the full roll of carpet and it gives a good view of the front and back if you’re curious. I did go with Earthweave’s padding and it is my one regret. The padding is very thin. I go into more detail about that above with some pictures showing the height difference of the carpet compared to what we previously had. -Molly