There are soft smartstrand carpets, I had a soft one installed in my previous home. I had that carpet for 5 years and it looked brand new until the day I sold that house. People always asked how it stayed so clean with zero traffic patterns. It cleaned up with water, including a red wine spill, mustard, and cat barf. Amazing carpet. If I remember correctly smartstrand does not actually have scotch guard on it, it's stain resistance is built into the actual carpet fibers making it super durable and stain resistant for the life of the carpet without having to re apply a chemical.

I knew nothing about this other kind of Mohawk carpet.

You probably will get more people with experience in the flooring forum since that's where the flooring professionals hang out. Ask there.

I guess I didn’t realize how to post specifically to flooring... still trying to figure out Houzz!. That’s a great idea and thanks for the tip on the smart strand! Maybe I just haven’t found the right one

Mary, I would strongly recommend against Mohawk Smartstrand carpet based on my personal experience. We had this type of carpet installed when we moved to our new home, and have regretted it ever since. Now, barely six years later, it is going to be necessary to replace the carpet - which given all the hype should have lasted up to 20 years! The intention was to have Stainmaster carpet installed (which we've had good experience with throughout the years), but the guy at the "big box store" was really pushing the Smartstrand carpet as being the best thing since sliced bread. We were drawn to it partly because of the "eco" features & lower static fibers, but mainly because it was advertised as being highly stain-resisitant. The demo done at the store on a sample showed how juice & coffee did not travel down the carpet fibers, and washed right out with nothing more than a clean cloth & water. I'm now convinced the carpet samples were doctored in some way to prevent any liquids staining them! We are two seniors, with no pets or children coming into our house, yet within two years of this carpet being installed it was already very stained in the main "foot traffic" areas - even though we never wear outdoor shoes inside. Complaints to Mohawk resulted in nothing more than sending bottles of their spray-on spot cleaner - which, in addition to everything else tried, has also failed to remove the stains. Yes, the carpet is soft to walk on in bare feet ...... but, at what cost? We would never have invested this kind of money in Smartstrand carpet had we known it would be totally ineffective against stains. We could have bought cheaper carpet and had it replaced twice over for the cost of this one installation. By comparison, we had Stainmaster carpet in another house (with a cat that had digestive issues), and after over 12 years of stains being cleaned off it, the carpet still looked better than the Smartstrand did after only 2 years! For reference, if you choose any of the softstrand type carpet, a regular vacuum cleaner will not move easily over it. We were not advised of this at either the time of purchase of the carpet, or by the installer. Ultimately, we had to invest in a new (expensive) vacuum cleaner that would work with this carpet. If you do a search for consumer complaints about the Mohawk Smartstrand carpet, you will see that many others besides myself have had a very poor experience with this type of carpet. Hope this helps!

Walking on carpet with bare feet is often times worse than just wearing shoes in the house. The oils on your feet mash into carpet fibers which then allows dirt and dust to stick creating a nasty build up.

I only wear socks or house shoes (tennis shoes only for inside) and I give bearfooted guests socks to wear since they have to take off their shoes at the door. Shoes and feet are disgusting.

Cami, just to clarify, when I said we never wear outdoor shoes inside I didn't mean to imply that we walk around in bare feet - we don't! Like you, we have "indoor only" sandals, dedicated specifically for that use. This is why I find it unbelievable that Mohawk's Smartstrand carpet can stain so badly, and become worn down so quickly compared with other less-costly carpets we've had for more than twice as long previously. Many consumers (me included!) are convinced that the Smartstrand carpet is defective. At the very least, the stain protection appears to have not even been applied to the fibers at the time of manufacture. Of course, Mohawk will not stand behind the warranty or admit to anything.

We had Mohawk Smartstrand installed in our previous home. It was a very light color, called Siesta Sands. We had it for about 5 years before we sold and moved out. It still looked great the day we moved out. I found it to be very easy to clean and to get out all the stains that come from three children living in the house. Only our most high traffic area looks slightly more worn than the rest, but even that wasn't very noticeable. We were so impressed that we will also be getting Mohawk Smartstrand in our new home. Neither of us wanted to look at another brand of carpet; we were relieved to see our builder supplies Mohawk. This time we are going with the Tender Moments line in the color River Pebble. We like a soft carpet, but with not too high of a pile. We did find some of the other Smartstrand lines to not feel very soft, but Tender Moments seems to be quite soft. I hope my experience helps you!

sml 3, whenever I hear such positive comments about the Mohawk Smartstrand carpet, it makes me even more convinced that the Smartstrand carpet we (and many other consumers) had installed is defective! Based on your report of how well it has cleaned with 3 children (much more traffic throughout the house than with us 2 seniors!), there is most definitely a problem with our carpet when it could very quickly begin to stain from "indoor only" sandals. If Mohawk had acknowledged there is a problem with their Smartstrand carpet (as reported by a good number of consumers), and had been willing to replace the said defective carpet, I would have considered staying with the Mohawk brand. By the way, I do realize that a carpet is only as good as the underlay - and how important it is to have high quality cushioning beneath carpet. We even paid for a pricey, higher quality underlay that was recommended for the Smartstrand carpet. Like I said, it's almost as though the stain-resistance was left out during the manufacturing process, because it's simply non-existent on the carpet installed for us!

Why carpet at all do a hard surface floor wu=ith area rugs and relax.

Mary, just another thought when considering which carpet to go with is how long you would like it to last? I know people who are quite happy to change out their carpet every 5 years or so, and they consider that to be "durable". Our budget doesn't allow for such frequent changes! We invested a lot of money in the Mohawk Smartstrand carpet, because we thought we were getting a high quality carpet that would last 20 years. A major consideration also is the hassle of moving furniture when your carpet has to be replaced. As seniors, we considered this carefully because we have a large wall unit that would have to be emptied of its contents by us, even if carpet installers moved the actual furniture. Having our carpet installed before our furniture was moved into the rooms of our new home was ideal, but now we absolutely dread the thought of moving everything for a new carpet installation.

Patricia, we've considered doing just that! Most of our house is tiled, with wall-to-wall carpet in the bedrooms & living-room. However, while I'm fine with tile in the other areas, I feel it might be too cold during the winter months - even with an area rug. Also, in a stucco home with lots of tile, I don't want the noise to "echo". Carpet in the bedrooms and living-area definitely adds warmth in both insulation and appearance.

Carpet in the bedrooms and living-area definitely adds warmth in both insulation and appearance.

So would wood floors or LVT.

Sorry, but what is LVT? Wood floors are a no-go for my climate (AZ).

Thanks everyone for your input. Maybe they have fixed the problem. I did a little more digging on the perfect passions and it appears that is P.E.T. Isn’t that a type of polyester?!?! It’s made from recycled plastic bottles. I’m not comfortable with that much plastic all over my 3 small children that will be laying all over the floor. The reason I don’t want to do hardwood in the bedrooms is because hardwood is significantly more expensive and THEN I have to buy an area rug to go over it. I also just don’t feel like it is as cozy for children laying around on the floor. And annoying to vacuum the edges of a rug. We are putting in home finished hardwood across the entire main level of the house, and I think it will be fantastic. But I want carpet for the bedrooms!

Wish I could put in hardwood - it will look beautiful! I think you will be happier with wall-to-wall carpet in the bedrooms. Good luck with choosing the right carpet to meet your needs!

I may reconsider the luxury vinyl tile, my husband is a contractor and we actually sell it, pretty nice stuff too, I just head carpet in my head... I really appreciate everyone’s input

Thanks for the info about the LVT, cpartist - I'll look into that! I think I'd still prefer wall-to-wall carpet in our bedrooms, but the LVT may be an option for our living-room.

I'm getting ready to put new carpet in our guestroom and was doing online research before going to the carpet store. The Mohawk website isn't very user friendly IMO, but here's a page I found that has a lot of clickable links with more information

About Mohawk Carpet

From what I can tell, Perfect Passions II is made of nylon, not polyester (recycled plastic bottles). The above link will get you to a Weardated Allure brochure if that helps.

I installed Mohawk carpet in our bedroom 6 years ago and it still looks great, but it's not a high-traffic area. I wanted to get more of the same for the guestroom, but my paperwork says we have Mohawk Voyager and I can't find that type anywhere on the internet, so I assume it has been discontinued. I'm pretty sure that the salesman told us it was made of corn. It's super soft.

I have wall-to-wall carpet in my formal living room and all bedrooms. I like the way it looks and feels and it's soooooooo easy to take care of. I invested in a carpet cleaning machine and try to clean each room 2 or 3 times a year. That and weekly vacuuming is all it takes to keep it looking good. I use Bissell OXYgen2 for spot cleaning. Good luck with everything.

ETA: Upon further research, I have learned that Wear-Dated Allure is indeed made of polyester fibers, not nylon. I'm sorry for the confusion. Apparently, the Wear-Dated line is made of nylon, but Allure is an exception. I hope someone from Mohawk is reading this. I find their website to be confusing and not user-friendly. It kills me that I gave incorrect information in this post, but I got the information from the manufacturer's website. Can you find it in your heart to forgive me?

This link will take you to the Wear-Dated Allure brochure.

Wear-Dated Allure

msokie, I'm Jordan and I work for Mohawk - I'm really sorry to hear about your experience with your carpet! Did you file a claim on the carpet through your retailer, and the claim was declined?

Hi @Jordan. Are you able to tell me what this carpet is made out of?

We had smartstrand in the bedrooms of our last home. It lasted about 5 years before it looked like it needed to be replaced. Just the two of us, no kids. No carpet made these days is really made to last all that long. Most carpeting, in most homes, spends way more of its time looking like it needs to be replaced than it does looking good. Just take a look in the homes you visit that have carpet...most of it looks less than great, like it needs replaced. Plus, it's a never-ending cycle of expense to replace it, over and over again.

Carpet is also dirty. Even right after they're finished professionally cleaning it, if they cleaned some more, the water coming out of it still would not run clear. If you've ever seen carpet being removed, the amount of dirt on the back of it, and underneath, is astounding.

We have all hard floors now and we will never go back to carpet. Area rugs are easy to get thoroughly cleaned and they are easily replaced when they wear out.

Hi @MaryMcAdams! Wear Dated Allure is a premium soft PET carpet. I'm afraid the link from cdee18 goes to a no-longer-active page. This is the brochure for Wear-Dated Allure.

https://mohawk.blob.core.windows.net/mohawkflooring/pdf/brochure/WearDatedAllure.pdf

Jordan, sorry for the late response - I only just read your post. Nobody at Mohawk even told me until this past week that I should file a claim through the retailer! The retailer has now filed a claim on my behalf, and I'm waiting on further contact to let me know what the plan is - i.e. assessment by an inspector, replacement of the carpet?? After being brushed off by Mohawk each time I've previously contacted them about the carpet, it wasn't until I submitted a claim to the Better Business Bureau recently that anyone at Mohawk seems to have taken me seriously. I'm hoping for a positive outcome, however, I honestly don't have much faith or confidence in Mohawk any more.

I just realized that I hadn't provided any update to Jordan from Mohawk's question, and my response about a claim. The claim for the Mohawk carpet was submitted, and I was given the run-around for weeks. Although Mohawk indicated that they would pay for the carpet if the inspector found the problems were a result of a manufacturing defect, they kept putting off an inspection. While waiting on Mohawk to take action, I discovered a high number of complaints about Mohawk's Softstrand carpet not living up to its advertised features or quality. Clearly there is a serious problem with this particular carpet. Mohawk continued to give me the run-around until I became tired of their nonsense. They have closed the claim without taking any action at all. My only recourse now is to take legal action against them. I would not purchase anything made by Mohawk again - there are many other flooring alternatives ……. and, companies with more professionalism and ethics than Mohawk.