Brian’s Blog

Bond Products will host our 5th Annual Spring Open House on Thursday, April 25, 2019. This event, like previous open houses, is open to the public. We offer our customers, whether DIY homeowners or carpet professionals, a chance to observe carpet binding skills and ask any and all questions about binding and serging, repairing or maintaining their carpet binding machines.

Most people attend our open houses to take advantage of the hands-on training our in-house professionals offer. They love to learn how to properly maintain their binding machines along with seeing techniques for binding area rugs with a wide variety of borders demonstrated. We also train customers to time their machines, thread them, and keep them running properly. On April 25, repair labor will be free for portable binders*, so bring yours in if it’s having problems. We’ll get it running smoothly for you. You only need to pay for replacement parts.

At our Spring Open House all supplies are 10% off to retail accounts except for machine parts. Also this month we are offering 10% off on our Model PBB-1X carpet binder. Enter the code “APRILSPECIAL” to take advantage of this sale.

Bond sells everything necessary to finish carpet edges and make custom area rugs. We offer a variety of equipment and supplies, as well as parts and accessories, including thread, needles,  bobbins, machine parts, and different types and qualities of tape. We also have tapestry equipment to bind wider borders. If you have valuable carpets that need restoration, we work with rug cleaning people to re-fringe/re-serge and restore them to their original luster.

If you need staples, staple guns, mallets, mallet caps, L-cleats, or finish nails for your flooring project, shop our Pro Drive HD™ line of supplies. 

Bond also has a variety of clearance items for sale – certified refurbished equipment, parts, and machines – to our clients who want to upgrade their carpet finishing capabilities without paying new prices for equipment. Browse our used equipment page for good deals! We do trade evaluations on older equipment too, if you are interested in trading up to a new binder with more capability.

Finally, there will be free food and plenty of nice people to talk shop with. So come and see us on April 25. Our 5th Annual Spring Open House promises to be the best one yet!

*Free labor is limited to portable binders only with a limit of two per customer. If you would like to take advantage of this service, please call us at 1-888-800-2663 to schedule an appointment beforehand. You will need to be present to see us repair it. This is a very valuable training opportunity as we will show you how to keep it running and maintained. Repairs are limited to basic tune ups. Any work needed beyond 30 minutes is subject to additional billing.

 

As as online buyer, you often wonder about shipping and how fast your order will reach you after you place it with a company. Here we will answer some frequently-asked questions about Bond Products’ shipping and order return policy.

How Soon Will Bond Ship My Order?

We process orders placed on our website or with a customer service representative very quickly. Most items are shipped within 24 hours. A few of our products do require 2-3 days before we can ship them. These include: rug backing, faux leather style Instabind, and 1-1/4″ 425 polyester binding tape.

How Long Will It Take before My Order Arrives?

After we process your order, we ship it either via UPS or USPS Priority Mail. Priority Mail typically takes 3 business days to arrive anywhere in the United States. UPS Ground delivery varies based on where we are shipping to. Shipping to anywhere on the East Coast takes 1-2 days. It takes 2-3 days to ship to a location in the Midwest, 3-4 days to ship to Texas, and 4-5 days for a location on the West Coast.

What Is Your Returns Policy?

Bond Products does accept returns from customers. Our policy is:

• All claims are to be submitted within 10 days of the receipt of your order.
• No merchandise is returnable without written permission. There will be a 20% re-stocking fee on items returned.
• No merchandise may be returned if it has been cut, treated, or altered in any way. Bond Products’ responsibility is limited to the value of our product for credit or replacement at our option when combined with or attached to another material or product.
• Any custom cut orders are non-refundable.

If you have any questions about shipping or returning items to Bond Products, please contact our customer service department. We are always glad to answer questions about our products or how much of a specific product you might need in order to complete your project. Our toll-free telephone number is 1 (888) 800-BOND (2663).

 

 

 

Bond Products announces another addition to our catalog: our new automotive marine felt binding tape. As we’ve highlighted before, there are so many automotive uses for our binding tape. Our customers use it to bind carpet in cars, boats, recreational vehicles, and even limosines. We have the photos and reviews to prove it!

This new product has many great qualities which we will go over here. Our automotive marine felt binding tape:

• Is available in 7/8″ or 1-1/4″ widths.
• Is made of non-woven fabric that will not fray or unravel. You can use it with confidence that it will last even in cars or areas of high traffic. It may outlast the carpet itself!
• Has a high heat resistance.
• Cuts easily to any shape or size.
• Resists stains, mold and mildew which makes it ideal for boats and recreational vehicles that are exposed to rain, lake or sea water, or mud.
• Has a uniform appearance without any linear patterns. It will not clash with a patterned carpet.
• Is made with Ecofi solution-dyed polyester for excellent colorfastness and UV protection.

If you want a binding tape that can take whatever the elements can throw at it, whether earth, wind, fire, or water, this is your product.

Our new automotive marine felt binding is eco-friendly too. It is made from 100% recycled material. If you support reducing the consumption of the earth’s resources and recycling materials for a new use, this is a great product line.

Bond Products also offers a swatch color card that displays all 12 colors of our automotive marine felt binding tape if you would like to show your customers all of the options they have for this product. Call us today for more information about this or any of our other binding tapes. Our customer service representatives would be happy to discuss which products would best fit your needs.

 

The new year is here, and we are now fully in the winter season. Winter is a great time to tackle some of the homey DIY projects that you might have wanted to do (like replace the binding on a rug or piece of carpet). It’s also challenging in terms of getting around, staying healthy, and keeping the house clean. And when it comes to your area rugs, the season can be brutal. This is because road salt is a rug killer.

Road salt is a life saver, but not for your rugs. Anyone who has driven on snowy highways knows that salt helps keep your car on the road. It melts snow and ice, and it gives tires the traction they need to propel themselves forward. Unfortunately, road salt doesn’t just stay on the road. You can see it everywhere in the winter – on the sidewalks, on the bottom of your car, on your windshield, on your boots, and on the floors in your house.

What Damage Does Road Salt Do?

Road salt leaves unsightly looking stains because of the magnesium and calcium chloride content in the salt. When the water the salt is dissolved in evaporates, it can leave behind a crust. This crust is alkaline. When it remains on fabric long enough it can break down the fibers and even permanently damage them.

What Can You Do to Save Your Rugs?

There are many small things you can do to keep road salt away from your carpets and rugs. These include:

• Putting down doormats on the inside and outside of any entryway and scraping your shoes on them when you enter the house
• Taking off your shoes before you enter any living areas of the house and encouraging all family members and guests to do the same
• Covering your nice carpets with a thick, less valuable winter rug when the weather is really bad
• Wiping the paws of your pets before they come inside from walking or playing in the snow
• Sweeping and vacuuming all floor surfaces regularly

If you do track rock salt in the house, don’t panic. You can remove it with this simple cleaning method: Mix equal parts of white vinegar and water and pour it ianto a spray bottle. Spray this mixture on any area with salt. Rub it gently with a brush or cloth to bring the salt to the surface of the rug. Then press a clean cloth into the fibers to soak up the liquid. When the area is dry, vacuum it thoroughly.

If you do find that road salt has damaged one of your rugs or carpets, there are additional steps you can take. You can have your rug cleaned professionally. You can replace any damaged parts like rug fringes, or you can cut out the damaged parts and bind the remaining fabric into a smaller rug. If you need help with any of the replacement parts or binding products for your rugs, call us at Bond Products. That’s what we are here for!  

 

Bond Products is continually in the process of adding more and better products to our inventory in order to better help our customers with their carpet binding needs. In 2018 we added a number of items to our extensive catalog of carpet binding equipment and supplies. In this blog we’ll go through these 2018 new additions.

New Products at Bond

The new faux leather style Instabind™ – This year we also added another style of Instabind for our customers, one in faux leather. This product mimics standard or traditional binding without showing any stitching and is tougher than traditional carpet binding. It reinforces the carpet’s backing along its cut edges. Faux leather style Instabind is available in 14 colors and in standard 48-foot rolls or in custom size lengths (at a slightly higher price). If you want to improve the sturdiness of your carpets and their look at the same time, binding with faux leather Instabind is a great way to do it.

The new automotive marine recycled felt outdoor binding – We offer this product for our customers who bind and replace carpeting in their cars, boats, or recreational vehicles. Its recycled felt binding is made with Ecofi solution-dyed poly and is available in 7/8″ or 1-1/4″ widths. The felt binding is extremely colorfast, has a high heat resistance, will not fray or unravel, and can be cut easily to any shape or size. Because it’s mold, mildew, and stain resistant, this product is ideal for “indoor/outdoor” vehicles.

Staples – Bond also offers a line of staples, or flooring fasteners, for all of our customers who install carpet. Choosing the correct type of carpeting staple is a crucial to getting a job done right, so Bond’s inventory contains a full selection of staples to make the work quick and easy. These include narrow crown wood staples, divergent PAD staples, divergent electric staples, and underlayment staples. For staples, staple guns, mallets, mallet caps, L-cleats, or finish nails for your flooring project, shop our Pro Drive HD™ line of supplies. 

At Bond Products we’re proud of our catalog of products designed to make binding or installing carpet a much easier task. The above are our 2018 new additions, but there are so many great products in our catalog to peruse. If you need help deciding which are best for you, our customer service department would be more than happy to assist you. Call us at 1-888-800-BOND anytime Monday through Friday from 7:45AM to 4:15PM EST.

 

 

 

 

In our last blog we talked about how competitive our prices are when buying items like serge tape in larger quantities. Bond Products offers good value for our regular customers, but we have also created smaller package deals for customers who have never tried our products, who don’t work with carpet all of the time, and who just want to tackle a small, manageable weekend project.

For instance, if you browse our Instabind package deals, you’ll see that we have collected everything you need to take a carpet remnant and turn it into a rug. We offer these packages for 5 types of Instabind:

• Regular
• Rope style
• Cotton binding style
• Synthetic serge style
• Cotton serge style

In each package, you get:

• Over 50 feet of Instabind in any color
• 1 pound of latex glue sticks (½” in diameter x 10” in length)
• A Bond 305 glue gun
• A long extended glue gun nozzle tip
• Scissors (you choose the length)

Each item in these packages is discounted 10% from its normal price, and, additionally, each package ships for free. This is a great starter kit for anyone who wants to try out binding a remnant because it’s an inexpensive way to add a rug to a room that needs a good floor covering. For example, Vera tried out Instabind because she had two young kids, a house floored mostly in tile, and a limited budget:

“Since our family room is centrally located and open to most of the other living space, I really wanted a large rug to help define the area a bit more. Unfortunately, the price tag of a 9×12 rug was way more than what we wanted to spend at this point in time of our lives with two walking mess-makers (aka, our children).”

Vera spent about an hour and a half working on a remnant with the help of her husband, and was very pleased with how the bound carpet turned out and how it balanced out her family room space. Her experience was similar to what we’ve heard from many of other other customers, and that’s that working with Instabind is simple, inexpensive, and straightforward. It allows regular people to make their own rugs, floor mats, and runners look professionally done without involving carpet professionals. Instabind is available in the above styles and a wide range of colors, so no remnant is impossible to finish yourself.

We love hearing back from people about their successes with our products. If you have an experience you’d like to share with us involving Instabind package deals or any other product we sell, please let us know, and we will highlight it here on our blog.

 

Good value – what is it? Most people’s shopping experiences are about maximizing the value for the dollar spent and going after a good deal. Everyone loves to get good value. It’s very satisfying. We at Bond Products believe that the inventory of supplies and products we offer our customers are great value, and we’ll go over the reasons why here.

Price – per Yard or Foot

Our customer service representatives often get calls or questions about our prices, wondering why are they are “higher” than our competitors. One of the things that we ask them to do is to price out our products by the foot or yard. For example one of our competitors offers 25 yards of serge tape for $36. Their price per yard is $1.44 and their price per foot is $.48. To compare Bond Products sells a 2×36-yard roll of serge tape for $42. This calculates out to be $.58 per yard or $.20 per foot. If you compare the two, our serge tape is less than half the cost either per foot or per yard! That’s some savings. Buying by the roll may not be cost effective for the weekend DIY-er, but that is why we offer Instabind package deals that come complete with everything a customer would need for a smaller project. Customers who do work on large volumes of carpet appreciate the value of buying in larger quantities.

Quality

Another aspect to factor into your buying choices is quality. Bond’s narrow fabrics are made in America and manufactured in house. We are proud of the quality of both the materials we make and any products we offer for sale.

Customer Service

We are also pleased to offer excellent customer service. If any of our customers has a question, we are available to consult either over the phone about a product or in person for those who have questions about the specifics of carpet binding or which machine would be best for their specific needs. We’ve been in business for over 70 years, so if you have a question about carpet, we can find the answer for you. Our technical support department is also available to provide help for anyone who gets into a snag with one of our machines and needs to consult an expert.

For all of the above reasons, we at Bond Products believe our products and services are not just competitive, but go above and beyond the value of other products on the market. They’re the definition of good value. If you need help finding the right choice for anything carpet or rug related, give us a call. We would be more than glad to help!

 

 

 

 

Your rug’s fringe. It adds something special to your carpet, but a dirty or damage fringe can ruin the carpet’s appearance too. There are a number of problems possible with rug fringe, but at Bond Products we’ve found that they can be fixed with a combination of time, patience, and the right materials and equipment.

In our previous blog, we explained why rug fringe exists: “On a traditional antique or Oriental rug, the fringes are the warps of the rug itself tied together to finish off the rug. Rug makers hand tie strands of wool or silk into knots around these warps.  The warps are as long as the rug itself. The fringe is the way the rug maker secures the foundations of the rug. He gathers together bundles of warp strings at both ends of the rug after it’s been cut from the loom. The fringe knots keep the pile knots and end finishes tight and in place.”

For these traditional rugs, the fringe is entirely practical and necessary. If you cut off the rug fringe, the rug will unravel, and you will have lots of individual strings instead of a rug. Machine made rugs are not made in the same way, however. They are more of a piece, and the rug fringe that “finishes” off the rug is only there because people believe nice rugs should have fringes.

The problem with fringes is that they are the most vulnerable part of both handmade or machine made rugs. The strings separate and wear. They get dirty and break. When you vacuum the rug, the vacuum cleaner often yanks the fringe strings, sometimes pulling them off the rug completely. The rug’s fringe is practically guaranteed to be the part of the rug that looks the gnarliest over time.

So what can you do?

Have the rug professionally cleaned – Professional carpet cleaners and rug professionals know how to restore a rug to its previous condition and have it looking clean and beautiful for you again.

Clean the fringe by hand – This will take time and care, and it will probably be awkward because rugs are heavy and can’t be dried in the same way towels or tablecloths can. Still, if you’d like to save money, it’s very possible to clean your fringe with water, ammonia, and vinegar and then dry and brush the tassles out.

Replace the damaged fringe – This can only be done on a machine made rug. At Bond Products we use a lock-stitch TMB sewing machine to re-fringe a rug. If you have a heavy duty sewing machine, you can select a new rug fringe (Bond has many rug fringes to choose from), remove the old, damaged one, and replace it with the new one.

Hide the tassels underneath the rug – If you have a handmade rug and you can’t handle the fringe, there are ways to conceal it and keep it from getting dirty or damage. Some people tape them up on the underside of the rug, but this will cause more damage over time – which is important to avoid if you want to maintain the rug’s value. The best way to conceal fringe tassles is to fold them under and then sew a piece of fabric over them, creating a sort of pocket on the underside of the rug.

A rug’s fringe might be annoying to keep clean and tidy, but when it’s in good shape it adds something special to your rug. If you need any help replacing your fringe, contact Bond Products. We will be glad to assist you with any of your carpet and area rug needs.

 

People’s nostalgia for the style and aesthetic of the 1960s and 1970s has exploded and, with it, a demand for the shag rug. The shag rug has an interesting history, and a fun look and feel, but there are some considerations to keep in mind if you are planning to add one to your home decor.

The History of Shag

The Ancient Greeks were the first to experiment with shag rugs as early as 331 B.C. They were known as flokati rugs then, and the Greeks wove them by hand from goat hair. They were popular because they were comfortable to sit on and warm, and their use spread throughout the Greek Empire to Turkey and Central Asia. As you might imagine with any kind of hand woven rug, flokati rugs were “high end,” acquired by kings and rich men for their luxurious homes and palaces.

In the 1960s, as Americans moved out to new homes in the suburbs, they wanted something completely different from the types of carpeting and rugs their parents had been using for their new spaces. The shag rug with its unique and odd look was perfect. The wall-to-wall shag rug was so popular that it’s become associated with this period of time in the same way the colors rust and avocado green are. It’s such an iconic look – which is why it’s making a comeback now.

What Is Shag?

A shag rug is a rug that has a high pile made of strands of yarn or upright loops – tall tufts that lay down instead of standing straight up. These long strands make the carpet look “shaggy.” Shag rugs are a fun and relaxed decor choice, but they can also be challenging to keep clean. If you have shag rugs or carpeting, you need to have a vacuum that is strong enough to clean under the blanket of fibers but gentle enough not to pull them out of the carpet’s backing or otherwise damage them.

A frieze rug is a cousin to the shag rug. Its tightly twisted fibers give it a similar look, but they are shorter and curlier. Frieze rugs are very durable. Both frieze and shag rugs’ “messy” look can hide small stains that a flat carpet or rug cannot.

Adding a frieze or shag rug to a hardwood floor makes for an interesting visual contrast. Every hard floor needs a nice area rug, so if you’re looking to make a change in your space, consider shag. Or, for a little more money and greater luxuriousness, invest in a flokati rug. They’re still being made by hand and enjoyed by homeowners today.

 

You may already part of the growing green flooring trend – or perhaps you’d like to be. Many people are looking to add more environmentally friendly options to their home decor, including cork and bamboo flooring, reclaimed wood, recycled carpet, and wool rugs and carpet. They love a more natural look and low impact or organic products. Another trend in flooring and home decorating are sisal rugs. If you don’t know what sisal rugs are and why they are so popular, read on.

What Is Sisal?

Sisal is the material that sisal rugs consist of. It is a plant fiber that comes from a plant called Agave Sisalana. This plant is a succulent and grows in very dry, desert climates. Because sisal is now very popular among consumers as a sustainable, biodegradable fiber, there are now sisal farms in places like Brazil and Africa. They use very few herbicides or pesticides (in the desert there are far fewer weeds or pests), so sisal is an environmentally friendly fiber in many ways.

Sisal is used to make ropes for use at sea. It’s also used on farms and in factors. For decorative use, it’s woven into rugs. By itself sisal can be a bit coarse – think “walking on rope” – but it’s also frequently combined with other fibers like wool to make a softer, more comfortable rug.

Why Choose Sisal Rugs?

Sisal is very durable and strong as a fiber. It also stretches. It can take a beating from lots of feet and wears well over time. It softens with foot traffic and vacuuming.

Sisal’s composition pulls humidity from the atmosphere, and so it’s anti-static. This is a great flooring choice for rooms that will have many electronic devices working all of the time.

Because sisal rugs are a light, natural color, they combine well with a wide variety of color and furniture – even other rugs. If you like the layered rug look, you’ll love sisal rugs. If you prefer natural materials like wood and stone, sisal will pair wonderfully with them for an outside-inside look.

If you’re thinking of using sisal carpets in your living room or bedroom, keep in mind that it can watermark if you spill lots of liquid on it. To avoid this possibility, have your sisal rug treated with a stain resistant sealer. Adding a fire retardant is also a good idea. These rugs are easy to maintain by vacuuming and using a dry cleaning process on any stains that occur.

Bond Products sells a wide cotton binding that we call wide cotton sisal binding because it’s perfect for sisal. The wide cotton is necessary to both have a natural fiber to keep the rugs “green” and also get a better “bite” in off the edges when sewing as the narrow bindings would pull off easily due from the cut edges of the sisal weave. Sometimes we still latex the cut edges to seal them before binding. The wide binding quickly became a designer look. We do a lot of blind stitch work with our PBL-TX tapestry binder on sisals as well.

At Bond Products we love rugs – all kinds of rugs from antique to modern, and from painstakingly restored to recycled. If you love rugs too and are looking for a new type of rug to try in your home or workspace, why not try sisal rugs?

 

 

 

 

Carpet trends go in and out of style, but the gray carpet interior design trend should have some traction for the foreseeable future. Why? Because gray is a very versatile neutral color that blends well with a variety of earth tones, and it’s easier to maintain a gray carpet than a white or beige one.

We’ve talked about other carpet trends in recent blogs, including the use of waterproof carpet throughout the house and the carpet runner trend. The increased use of gray carpet is a bit different, though, because it’s part of an over trend to use the color gray in interior (and exterior design). Gray is just hot right now, so gray carpet is seeing more use.

The Color Gray

Gray has been the “it” color for about five years now. It overtook beige and other traditional neutral colors first for walls and then in accents like pillows and rugs. From there it moved to furniture, kitchen cabinets, flooring, and – yes – carpet. Gray is a cool color, bordering on metallic, which means it can give your space a more contemporary look than a tan carpet would. It goes great with stainless steel appliances and bathroom fixtures. Gray complements many other colors, including black and white, but also aqua, green, red, and even pink. Bold colors go great with gray. Everything goes with gray.

Why Gray Carpet?

Gray is a great choice for wall-to-wall carpet because it hides so much. Dirt, paw prints, and food stains all disappear on gray. People with pets and small children can relax after they install gray carpet. It can take general abuse without having to be professionally cleaned too often. Gray area rugs work well with hardwood floors because the cool of the gray balances out the warmth of the wood. Other area rugs can be layered over gray carpet or area rugs easily too.

Interestingly enough, carpet weavers in Tibet, Nepal, and India are now weaving rugs in their traditional patterns, adding in various grays to accommodate the current demand for the color. If Tibetan rug weavers have taken to gray as a deliberate choice for their time honored art, you know it’s arrived.

Instabind also is available in gray if you are looking to cut down a gray carpet remnant or rebind an area rug with gray accents. Or if you’d like to try out some gray in your home or on your floors, painting an accent wall gray or putting down a gray runner in your kitchen are inexpensive choices for weekend projects. Bond Products has a range of gray colors – C912, C320, and C167 that are all available in ¾” and 1-1/4” regular cotton binding and 1-1/4” serge tape. Why not get in on the trend and add some gray to your home and floor this summer?

 

 

 

 

There’s no doubt that wall-to-wall carpet has become less popular over the past decades. Hard floors are much more trendy, and hard floors require area rugs. Combining area rugs and hard floors allows you to experience two great things together: the clean, hard aesthetic of the floor with the comfort, warmth, and beauty of rugs. One rug trend we’ve seen surface lately (pun intended!) is the floor or carpet runner.

Why Is the Carpet Runner Trendy?

Area rugs in general allow for splashes of color that can complement furniture or the look of a room without the overpowering visual that a bright colored or patterned wall-to-wall carpet would give. A good area rug adds interest to a room in the same way a painting does.

Carpet runners can do this for spaces that are too narrow for full rugs. Why should your kitchen or bathroom be bland when it can be amazing? Don’t be afraid to add a carpet runner just because these rooms get harder use. Because they are smaller than area rugs, runners can easily be beaten and cleaned or dried if they get dirty or wet. We would recommend, though, that you use a rug backing or non-slip product on rugs especially in hard-to-maneuver places like kitchens and bathrooms. Slip-and-fall accidents are a real hazard in the home.

If your floor is physically cold, carpet runners can make it cozier. You may not want to have a high pile or plush carpet covering the entire floor of your living room or bedroom, but placing a runner by the side of your bed can make a difference for your feet when you get up in the morning. The great thing about smaller rugs is that they are less expensive and can be switched out in spring and fall to accommodate the temperature or if you want to change up your decor seasonally.

If your space isn’t very generous, a carpet runner can help. The design will draw the eye to the floor and the rug and away from how narrow the room or hall is. Runners are great for practical spaces like walk-in closets or laundry rooms.

Best of all, carpet runners can be crafted very inexpensively with carpet remnants and Instabind. If you are open to a weekend craft project, you can find a high quality but oddly shaped remnant locally and bind it yourself to fit your space. Here is a great tutorial from a satisfied Instabind customer that gives step-by-step instructions on how to how to bind carpet.

If you’re bored with your space or want to make it more comfy, try adding a carpet runner. It’s a simple way to make a noticeable difference in any space.

 

As carpet manufacturers change and adapt to new consumer demands, they are beginning to shift to a new demographic: the Millennials. One of the defining characteristics about Millennials is that they are more focused on environmentally friendly products. How does that affect the flooring industry? First, it means reducing the use of disposable carpet, specifically the carpet that will be installed, pulled up within a decade, and then tossed into a landfill. By choosing the option of hardwood floors plus area rugs, homeowners have already been making more environmentally friendly decisions for decades. The next frontier is recycled carpet.

Not Just Recycling, Recycled Carpet

Manufacturers have been sourcing carpet material from recycled materials for years. What kind of recycled materials do they use? Today’s carpet is made primarily from plastic fibers, so they are sourcing material from all of the plastic people recycle every day, particularly plastic water and soda bottles. Foss now produces carpet tiles made from beverage containers. They are easy to install and replace if they get damaged which is good because to make one square of carpet tile, it takes approximately 50 two-liter bottles.

The goal is that by producing carpet with already recycled materials, this carpet will also be recyclable. This could save at least some of the 3.5 billion pounds of carpeting that goes into a landfill annually. Carpet America Recovery Effort is working with carpet manufacturers to make that a reality. Right now carpet is being sourced to make composite lumber that is used to build decks and rails that are easy to clean, stain resistant, water resistant, and UV light resistant. Also, unlike wood decks, decks made from plastic lumber are not consumed by bugs like termites – which means they do not attract those bugs to homes either as rotting decks so commonly do.

Since 2002, CARE has kept 3.6 billion pounds of carpet out of landfills. If you are looking for a collection site near you to recycle your carpet, check out their national map.

Reduce and Reuse

Of course, Bond Products has always encouraged our customers to create their own rugs with Instabind. Anyone can bind a remnant and make an area rug from a piece of carpet that might otherwise be tossed out. We also offer a spectrum of supplies that let you take an antique rug that needs some help and revitalize it for your floor. It’s less expensive and more environmentally friendly to clean that carpet and add new rug fringe. If you are an environmentally focused homeowner, check out our catalog for products that can make your light footprint design ideas happen.

 

Every hard floor needs a nice area rug – but what about walls? Did you know that there are many places in the world where rugs are hung on walls for decoration? One of these places is Russia. Can you guess why?

If you guessed the reason was for insulation and warmth, you’d be right. If you ever visit Russia and are invited inside people’s apartments, you’ll notice that many if not most apartments have oriental rugs hanging from the walls. Up until the country’s recent transition to a capitalist economy, most apartments were built by the government – out of thin concrete. This kind of building gets very cold in Russia’s winter climate. Many Russians were at the mercy of the state for their heat, so they ingeniously hung large wool rugs or wall hangings on their walls to keep that heat inside. The walls tended to be very thin as well, so rugs kept the noise from traveling and allowed families a bit more privacy.

Parts of the Soviet Union, including Tadjikistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan, were places where rug making has been a tradition for millennia. As in the rest of the world, rugs were something only rich families could afford to decorate with until modern times. Hanging rugs or tapestries was also common in castles and large estates for the same reason as in Russia. There was no central heating in castles either, and they got very cold.

There are other reasons to decorate your walls with rugs or tapestries besides warmth. Many rugs are art, and we already hang art on our walls. Rugs can be a surprisingly affordable form of art too, especially compared to original paintings or sculpture. Fabric crafts like rug making have become far more popular among young people today, and our walls are a great place to display our own efforts and masterpieces. For couples on a budget, a rug can double as a headboard for a mattress and a box spring.

Another reason walls are great for rugs is because walls are far less dirty. For truly valuable rugs, a wall is a much safer place than a floor. People who love rugs but also have small children may want to display their treasures on the walls until their kids have passed the age where spilling is a constant problem. Pets can be incredibly hard on rugs too. If you have a pet with a health or bladder issue, hanging a rug up is a great way to keep using your rugs until the problem is resolved.

Of course, whatever your rug needs, Bond Products has the materials you need to keep your rugs maintained and repaired. If you find a beautiful rug with a torn fringe in a thrift store, we can help you. If you want to bind the rug you made yourself from remnants, we have products for that too. Call Bond for all of your rug related issues whether you plan to use it on your floor as furniture or hang it on your wall as art.

 

People are most familiar with artificial turf as an easy maintenance ground cover in football fields and soccer stadiums. It’s incredibly useful in sports settings because it doesn’t have to be mowed, reseeded, or fertilized, it won’t cause damage to uniforms, and it’s also softer than actual earth so using it cuts down on injuries for the athletes who play in these arenas. These same qualities make artificial turf useful in so many other situations. Let’s go through some of them.

Playgrounds – The softness of artificial turf is also easier on little behinds than either grass or bark chips, and installing it means that schools, daycares, and parks will see fewer injuries and lessen their liability.

Gyms – What’s good for professional athletes is good for amateurs too. Turf makes for easy footing for runners and competitors and adds a splash of green to indoor environments with no natural light. It’s not just for putting greens and mini-golf courses anymore.

Dog kennels and runs – Cleaning dirt, leaves and grass out of dog fur is not fun, so people who work with pets regularly use artificial turf which is easy to clean and sterilize as well. If you don’t like filling in holes and reseeding the dirt when Fido digs, turf is a good option.

Business landscaping – We’ve already talked about how artificial turf is a new trend in areas of the country that have experienced drought because of the significant savings of water and money. People are installing turf even in places that get adequate rain, though, because it’s so much simpler to care for and always looks nice no matter the weather, the time of year, or the budget of the property owner. You can pay the landscaping company every month or you can pay to have artificial turf installed and spend your money elsewhere.

Basements, patios, and balconies – Turf is an excellent indoor/outdoor carpet option as it can be hosed down with water or a bleach/water mix when it gets dirty or mildewed. People in cities who don’t have access to grass but want a green, outdoorsy look are increasingly embracing the use of artificial turf. If you want something softer underfoot, but can’t afford to replace it regularly, artificial turf is an excellent choice.

In your decorating – Do you feel like you’ve run out of ideas for making your home or office different, interesting, and tactile? Embrace turf as an option. Pinterest has its own board for turf ideas. Have you ever considered making a table runner out of turf? Place mats? Pillows? Installing it on walls for a wild, jungle look? The sky’s the limit for this more unusual type of fabric. If you can carpet it, you can turf it. If you can upholster it, you may be able to turf it as well.

Whatever your artificial turf uses, Bond Products has what you need to install it easily in your home or business. If you need staples, staple guns, mallets, mallet caps, L-cleats, or finish nails for your flooring project, shop our Pro Drive HD™ line of supplies. Call us today to stock up on what you’ll need for your turf project to be successful.

 

Last year for Thanksgiving we talked about the original celebrants, the Plymouth Pilgrims, their struggles, and why there were grateful to celebrate the First Thanksgiving. After everything they’d gone through, it was completely natural to them to take time to feel gratitude and give thanks to God. In modern society, however, we don’t work much on feeling or practicing gratitude. Did you know there are very practical reasons for taking a pause and putting the challenges of life into perspective? Even scientists have noticed the benefits practicing gratitude can have on health and wellness.

A study published in The Journal of Psychosomatic Research found a link between gratitude and quality of sleep: “Gratitude predicted greater subjective sleep quality and sleep duration, and less sleep latency and daytime dysfunction.” Why? Thinking positively potentially soothes the brain and readies it for better rest and relaxation. Some people even keep a gratitude journal and write in it at the end of the day before bed. It’s a good way to keep track of the blessings in your life.

Gratitude may help you keep the pounds off as well. Not only has a daily gratitude habit been found to correlate with increased patience; it’s also been found to influence willpower or self control. Both of these are important in losing weight because impulsivity is a dieter’s enemy. Many people binge on food for comfort when they are feeling sad or angry. Focusing on the good things in life can help break this habit.

Finally, it’s not surprising, but creating an attitude of gratitude can help control depression. One specific technique, called the Three Good Things, has been shown to alleviate depression and improve happiness. This is similar to keeping a gratitude journal. Subjects were asked to write down three good things that happened each day and then the reason why these things had happened. It helped them to refocus their attention on the positive and see that good things often come from effort – which is something they have control over. This makes them feel less helpless and fated to be unhappy.

No doubt the original Pilgrims would laugh at the “psychology of gratitude.” They believed in being grateful to God for the blessings he sent them. Still, it’s clear that these people were able to accomplish amazing things in a new world entirely unfamiliar to them. Their faith and attitude of gratitude was a part of that.

If you haven’t made a practice of thinking about the blessings in your life, this Thanksgiving Day would be an excellent time to try it. Here at Bond Products we are thankful for our customers, our workers, and the opportunities we have to operate our business in America. Happy Thanksgiving to you from all of us at Bond Products!