Marion's Blog > Wool Carpet: From Stain Resistance to Allergy Control - Things to Know About This Natural Fiber
Wool Carpet: From Stain Resistance to Allergy Control - Things To Know About This Natural Fiber
Wednesday, September 24, 2026
By Carpet Carl, 50 year industry veteran
Canyon Ridge II by Godfrey Hirst
Is wool carpet the best cleaning? No. Is wool carpet the best wearing? No. Is wool carpet the least expensive fiber? No, it’s the most expensive. I heard wool carpets are really soft? They are, but the synthetics have softer styles.
Why would anybody want a wool carpet, then?
First off, most wool carpets are 13’2” wide. It’s not because they don’t seam well so manufacturers make them wider, as many thought originally. It’s because most wool carpets are made overseas and they are on the metric system, 4 meters =13 feet 2 inches.
Wools come in cut pile, looped piles, or a combination of the two. They come in solid colors, multi-colors or not dyed at all.
Research has shown that wool fibers naturally trap some common indoor air toxins and do not release them back into the room (unlike synthetics).
Wool carpets clean and wear quite well but not as good as the synthetics which are made for nothing but wear and cleaning.
How much more expensive are wool carpets over their cheaper synthetic cousins? There are a list of variables that affect this but figure about 40% more.
Wool carpets come from sheep shearings. Those strands are anywhere from 1 to 5 inches long. When they are processed and made into carpet these smaller strands have a tendency to shed, which makes wool carpets the only type that still sheds. It happens more when they are new and shed less with time and wear.
Most wool carpets come with a Teflon or scotch guard coating. It is sprayed on at very high temperatures after the carpet is made. Sheep are generally white or off white. When they get soiled, lanolin in their coats repel soil which works as a natural stain repellent. Because of this, wool carpets come with two types of stain resistance.
For our Pacific Northwest homes, wool's composition is naturally hostile to mold, dust mites, and bacteria. Its fibers act as a net catching floating dust, dander & pollen until vacuumed, helping with allergy and asthma relief.
The reason most customers choose wool carpets however, isn’t because of performance, cleaning or healthiness. It’s because wool doesn't look like any other carpet. If you go to any carpet store and examine all the carpets up closely you’ll notice the wool styles have a very unique look. In fact, wool carpets have a distinct look, smell and feel. There is no synthetic carpet made that can replicate the beauty of a wool carpet. At only 40% more, wool carpets are a complete steal.
We offer wool carpet and area rugs by every major supplier at all three Marion's locations - Portland, Ridgefield, and Wilsonville. See some of our inventory online here, and visit the nearest Marion's location to see all available wool products.