I always consider Godfrey Hirst as a good quality manufacturer and I'm not familiar with any issues. Perhaps the problems were due to improper specification? Wool carpets are wonderful but they need to be in the right place and cared for properly.

We sell and install Godfrey Hirst and they carry absolutely gorgeous wool carpets. They make a strong durable carpet that will last for many many years. Bad reviews for this type of high quality carpet is usually because the installers did not install it properly or don't work with it often. We happily warrant the installation of those carpets in ANY of our customer's homes as long as they have it. So that should say enough about how we expect it to hold up over the years. I'd say about 95% of the bad feedback are because of bad installation or user not taking care of their wool properly or understanding how a wool fiber should wear & clean.

Hope this helps!

emilystclare I hope that we have put your mind at ease and you'll choose the Godfrey Hirst carpet. You will absolutely love it, I'm sure. I've used it wall-to-wall and also I've ordered yardage which I've had cut to size and bound or serged on the edges to make a custom area rug. Make sure you get a nice quality pad for underneath it. Best of luck to you. Thank you for asking about this product.

Thank you for the feedback! Much appreciated!

The carpet I'm looking at isn't their wool line though...it's the Big Sur style made of their proprietary Spectral fiber. http://www.godfreyhirst.com/na/carpet/product/big-sur-na

I'd love wool, but was advised against loop carpets with the golden retrievers.

I cannot recommend this manufacturer. We had the 50/50 wool nylon carpet installed in the living/dining room of our century farmhouse last fall. I chose a loop pile and a carpet that was rated residential heavy duty/stairs. I wanted a durable, pet-friendly, warm carpet. While it is warm is it anything but durable. After just six months the carpet is visibly pilling and fuzzing in traffic areas. High-priced product not as advertised. Unbelievably poor customer service. DO NOT BUY.

I had Godfrey Hirst - Cape May installed less than a year ago and the manufacturer is now refunding my cost as the carpet (3 separate installs all the same issue??) looks worn and old after less than a month. Where no one walks the pattern is perfect - the walk area is worn and looks like it is 20 years old. I won't have the mfg replace mine - I want a full refund but that is not happening either! Don't buy!

I've had Godfrey Hirst wool carpets for over 25 years and they are amazing. Pure wool carpets are the only carpets that you can clean--spill and coffee and it will wipe clean with soap and water. I would never go back to non-wool carpets.

emilystclare, what did you go with? We are looking at the Godfrey Hirst Big Sur line also. Thank you.

I can't comment about the special fibres, but I love wool because you can clean it. In my experience, you can only get stains out of 100% wool.

I have had a Godfrey Hirst wool carpet and certainly do not recommend you purchase from them. Within 6 months my carpet has faded and variation of navy blue and light grey stripes pattern has melded together looking like old gry worn carpet. This carpet is in guest rooms with little or no wear, and no direct sunlight. Their after sales service is dreadful and their assessor is paid by them and not independent. Stay away.

Unfortunately Central Real cannot recommend Godfrey Hirst as we had a disappointing and unprofessional experience with them concerning floorboards installed in one of our developments.

I would run for the hills.

their lack of integrity is outrageous.

i have made several complaints and they refuse to acknowledge them in writing (and have verbally said as much).

Stay well away from Godfrey Hirst products, services and poor quality.

The whole industry knows that GH had many issues with poor quality carpet backing when they went away from original hessian backing to reduce costs. Carpets simply do not hold their stretch resulting in major rucking and corrugations.

Through out the industry it is also common knowledge that GH is the worst supplier and manufacture to deal with for any poor quality or any warranty issues. GH will go out of their way not to settle any warranty claim and try and put all the blame back on the consumer rather than accept accountability and responsibility. GH makes FALSE unqualified statements in an effort to remove the blame from the quality of their products.

I strongly recommend if you are after flooring solutions look at other professional brands and do not consider Godfrey Hirst.

Wow... Glad I found this thread, as I was leaning toward a Godfrey Hirst wall-to-wall carpet (in their Gibraltar line which is 100% wool). I love the colors, and thought it would look and wear well. Sounds like that's not the case.

What brands to people recommend for wool carpet? I love the way it looks and feels compared to the man-made fibers, but I'm nervous to purchase it without knowing how it holds up. We have cats, so that's a concern, but I find wool generally easier to clean (in our area rugs) so am really hoping to find decent quality wall-to-wall wool carpet for our bedrooms.

Does anyone have experience with Unique Carpet Ltd (UCL)? I was at a carpet store recently looking at both the UCL and Godfrey Hirst. I will now stay away from the GH, but would love to know more about the UCL wool. Thanks!

We bought Unique Carpet in the end. It's been great so far (just about a year old) but so much depends on the installer.

Thanks Emily! I'd be curious to know which line you went with. Have you had any spills and did they clean up well? I much prefer the look of the wool over nylon, but wondering if stains will be a problem. (It will be in the bedrooms and loft of a townhouse style ski condo. The main areas are hardwood.)

We bought the hybrid Apollo Stone Slate hybrid floor tiles.

Unfortunately the pattern is not easy to match - in fact we spent more time trying to match the pattern than actually laying the floor - which was most frustrating - compared with other hybrid tiles we have laid..

Additionally, it seems it has to be laid only in one direction as in sunlight the tiles show two quite different colours (black v grey). Also, at the joins, the tiles seem to curl up slightly, which makes the joins very prominent and obvious in sunlight.

So for the money, not recommended.

Its not meant to match the pattern. What are you even talking about?

We selected Godfrey Hirst Hycraft wool carpet for our home based on the "Extra heavy duty residential" and "heavy duty commercial" ratings as approved by the ACCS. After less than 2 years of being installed, our carpet looks absolutely terrible. Flat, lifeless, Colour faded (which the carpet is apparently guaranteed not to do). It looks as though it's been down for 10 years. We use a motorised vacuum cleaner head with a beater as recommended by the manufacturer, and we vacuum at least 3 times per week. We do not wear shoes inside the house, and the carpet is mainly installed upstairs which is where our bedrooms are, so it's hardly a high traffic area as we only go up their to go to bed at night.

They sent a representative out to have a look and he took photos with his iPhone to compare colour fade with an offcut piece that we have them. How accurate is that test I wonder?? He claimed that the carpet looks as he expected after nearly 2 years of being installed.

Be warned, their warranty excludes them from any liability whatsoever. Very disappointed.

Previously our home had a cheap nylon/polyester type carpet which was 10 years old, and it looked in better condition than our supposedly high quality wool carpet from Godfrey hirst.

Look elsewhere.

Has anyone had an issue with a foul odor from Godfrey Hirst Brookhaven III carpet (Style G2187)? We had ours installed in February and it absolutely wreaks! Guests have asked if we smoked weed in our home. (How embarassing!) It literally smells like skunk. I broght it to the store owners attention. He told us the odor would go away within a couple months. 2+ months and the carpet still smells awful. I am curious if we got a bad batch of wool, or if all wool carpet from Godfrey Hirst has this offensive odor.

^^^

The Hirst broadloom are milled in Australia and New Zealand. It is a very MODERATELY priced wool carpet source.

I've not used it in quite a while for any client, so hard to say. But your local source may have had a very short lead time from Far side of the world to install, and that may be why.

Unlike higher end wool broadloom, it is not milled in the USA. ( Primarily Georgia ) and is generally priced more "advantageously" than those as well..

Anyone have experiemce with Godfrey Hurst SmartStrand Xpressions line? wear and tear? Matting? TIA