Visual Color Change in Carpet:Pile Reversal, Pooling

Pile Reversal: An irreversible, localized change in orientation of the pile of a textile floor covering. The phenomenon has different names in different countries. The terms we are most familiar with in the United States and Canada are “water marking” and “pooling”.

Water Marking (Pooling) Some carpets develop areas where the pile appears to have been stained by water, hence, “water marking.” Other names to describe the phenomenon include “pooling” and “highlighting. At some installations this appearance takes months to develop. At other installations it develops so rapidly that the consumer believes it to have been there since installation. At a single installation the carpet may be installed in several rooms with the condition only developing in one or two of them. The area the condition develops in may be a major traffic lane or a lessor used area. This condition routinely crosses seams even between different color and styles of carpet and maintains a uniform pattern.

Common Identifying Characteristics of Pooling

• Areas of carpet may look wet as though someone has spilled water on it but the carpet will be perfectly dry.
• Areas reverse in shade when viewed from opposite directions. When the areas are brushed with the hand a sharp difference in pile direction can be seen and felt.
• A narrow, conspicuous, irregular shaped serpentine line (referred to as an interface) usually develops at the edge of the traffic area. The pile at the narrow interface will run in one direction, the pile on both sides of the interface will be strongly oriented in opposite directions. As an example the pile at the interface may be oriented north while the pile on one side of the interface is facing east and on the other side it is facing west.

Water marking often gives the carpet a highly objectionable appearance. Some carpet become downright ugly appearing as if it has been badly stained or allowed to become filthy within a short time of installation. As objectionable and as rapidly as this appearance change may occur, carpet manufacturers consider it a site-related condition and with rare exception will they offer the consumer any type of an adjustment. Water marking is a condition that cannot be permanently corrected.

Some of the more common reasons it is considered site related are:

• Carpet off of the same roll is installed in different areas and the condition only develops in some areas.
• The condition will cross seams between different color, styles, and textures of different manufactures.
• The condition can sometimes be seen on installed carpet and an area rug above it.
• Replacing the carpet with another carpet of any fiber will often result in a repeat of the same condition.

The causes of this form of pile reversal have not been conclusively determined. The Carpet and Rug Institute in its manual titled Pile Reversal (”Shading”, “Water Marking”) states, At the present time, the only conclusion which can be drawn is that pile reversal may develop on the surface of some carpet after it is installed, and that pile reversal is not due to the materials which are used to produce the carpet, the manufacturing process, or any combination of these factors.