1. Wool is durable. While not as durable as nylon, wool still
is durable and resilient. Resiliency refers to how a fiber
"bounces back" and wool has very good resiliency and is also
strong.

2. Wool can be good at hiding soil. The wool fiber has very tiny
scales, which can aid in soil NOT attaching to the core fiber so
wool has an ability, initially, to resist dry soil. Wet soil is
another issue, but we will talk about that later. Wool also has
an ability to hide soil but, again, this can actually be a negative
in the long term and we will talk about this later.

3. Flame Resistance. Wool is naturally flame resistent. It really
doesn't burn, but it chars. Basically when exposed to heat it turns
to ash. This is a good thing as it rarely contributes as a good fuel
source for a fire.

4. A Large Variety of Colors. Wool is easily dye, that is one reason why it also stains easily, which is really good when it comes to finding a color you like for your home.

These pluses of wool as a fiber for carpets are real and are valid.  Wool can be an excellent fiber if put into the right environment - but there are issues that you should know about.

The Negatives of Wall As A Carpet Fiber

1. At Linton's Carpet Cleaning the biggest negative we see in wool
is it's ability to absorb much more water than a synthetic carpet fiber,
which leads to a number of issues that can be serious.

Those issues are:

A. If a fiber has the ability to absorb a lot of water it also has the
ability to absorb anything IN THAT WATER. So staining of wool is much
easier than with a synthetic fiber.

B. Dry times. Since wool absorbs so much water it also usually takes much
longer to dry (conditions being equal) to nylon or olefin (polypropylene).
Dry times can be critical in carpet cleaning. Extended dry times can lead to secondary issues such a foul odors and, in some cases, damage to other furniture or walls in the room.

2. Wool can hide a huge amount of soil. While this is good initially, over the
long run a wool carpet can accumulate much more soil than you actually think is in the carpet. Even nylon carpets can hold much more soil than you might think, but wool (because of its scales) can hold surprising amounts of soil.

This hidden soil eventually starts to wear the carpet out because it acts like sandpaper on the fibers when there is any type of traffic on the carpet.

Also, when cleaning any carpet it is much more difficult to flush that carpet of large amounts of soil than if the carpet was lightly to moderately soiled.

3. Wool can be very expensive. Wool is a luxurious fiber and because of that "luxury" you will end up paying quite a bit more than if the fiber was a synthetic fiber. For some people this might not be a big deal, but when carpeting your entire home with wool it can get quite expensive to do so.

A good quality wool carpet can be considerably more expensive than a similar quality synthetic carpet.

4. Besides being more expensive than synthetic carpets wool is almost always going to cost you more to have cleaned. Why? Because there are unique challenges to cleaning wool and most professional carpet cleaners are going to charge more to clean wool carpet because of these challenges.

What Kind of Situation Is Good For Wool Wall-to-Wall Carpeting?

If you are family with children, and pets, we would highly advise you to avoid having wall-to-wall wool carpet. Wool can easily be stained and we all know that with children and pets there are going to be stains.

For most families we would advise getting a high quality nylon carpet. If you are a smaller family, no young children, and no pets then wool carpeting can be fine to have in your home.

But for most families wool carpeting is not going to be a wise choice.