Corn Carpet and Rhino Carpet – What’s the story?

When some of our customers told us they had corn carpet or rhino carpet, we were perplexed to say the least! We thought we’d take a look into what they are and what makes them so durable.

Corn and Rhino carpet are made from Triexta carpet fibres, which is the first new carpet fibre to hit the market in 50 years. We’re impressed with it because the latest incarnations look and feel as good as high end nylon carpets.

You might be more familiar with Triexta’s brand names, SmartStrand and Ecoplus. But where did the more colourful terms Rhino carpet and Corn carpet come from?

Rhino Carpet

Question: What do you get when you put carpet in a rhino enclosure for 2 weeks?

Answer: An awesome story to sell stain-resistant carpet.

Think of the dirtiest possible environment you can. If you thought of a zoo enclosure, you’re on the money! Now put brand new carpet down in there, let the animals do what animals do for a couple of weeks and now try to clean the carpet. Sounds ominous, right?

Here’s what happened. Mohawk Industries installed its SmartStrand carpet in the rhinoceros enclosure of the Birmingham Zoo for 2 weeks then had it cleaned. The results were astonishing, and the carpet looked like new after a thorough clean.

It was a fantastic way to sell a product, all while giving some pretty impressive evidence of the carpet working its magic. Here’s the Youtube video of the SmartStrand challenge.

After the initial challenge Mohawk Industries did it again, this time expanding their perimeters to include elephant and camel enclosures in the testing. Again, the Mohawk team carpeted the areas, left it for 3 weeks this time around and then cleaned it afterwards. The marketing ploy was definitely a little gimmicky but the results speak for themselves – check out the promo video here.

Corn Carpet

It’s becoming more and more important that we look after the environment. Triexta carpet can be engineered with up to 37% corn sucrose, which is great because it replaces a large amount of the oil derivative products typically used in synthetic carpet fibres.

Ecoplus Carpet was created by company Godfrey Hirst and by using this technology, generates 63% less greenhouse gases during the manufacturing process than an equivalent nylon carpet.

Does Ecoplus or SmartStrand carpet have any downsides?

The carpet isn’t actually made from corn husks, although there are salespeople who have misinformed customers of this! The product uses renewable energy and less greenhouse gases, reducing your environmental footprint, which is a definite win in our books!

While the carpet has many positives, we do disagree with Godfrey Hirst’s advice that it just needs to be cleaned with cold water. Godfrey Hirst is actually referring to spot cleaning stains with cold water – remember that the warranty requires professional cleaning every 18 months.