Texture Appearance Retention Rating [TARR] System for Commercial Carpet

CRI’s New TARR Brochure Takes the Guesswork out of Specifying Carpet

For an architect, interior designer, or construction specifier, there’s more to choosing a carpet for a commercial facility than deciding on the color and texture. Besides the aesthetic characteristics, there are choices about sustainability and VOC emissions, to name just a few attributes that must be taken into consideration. And, there's also texture appearance retention and how to rate it.

We’ve talked on this blog about the ANSI/NSF 140 Standard for Carpet Sustainability Assessment and how it makes it easy to choose an environmentally “green” carpet. (See the earlier blog post titled CRI Sustainability Manager Jeff Carrier On NSF 140 Standard for Sustainable Carpet.) And how all of the carpet styles certified under NSF 140 are listed on the CRI website.

We’ve also talked about how CRI’s Green Label Plus certification identifies carpets that have been independently tested and shown to be low-level emitters of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs). Every carpet certified to this stringent standard is also listed on the CRI website.

Always looking for ways to simplify the process of choosing and specifying carpet, CRI has added another easy-to-use tool to its collection: the Texture Appearance Retention Rating System, or TARR, which functions as a model specification that arms design and construction professionals with the correct information for choosing the best carpet for the job at hand. The idea behind TARR is that carpet performs best when the carpet used is suited to the environment in which it is installed. CRI’s new TARR brochure explains it best:

A moderate, heavy, severe, or special end-use classification is established for each application based on the level of expected foot traffic in the specific area. For example, private offices or conference areas are classified as moderate use, while corridors or common areas are classified as heavy or severe use. Special end-use involves carpet in transportation settings such as buses, elevators or airports.

Additionally, carpet carries a texture appearance retention rating that gives buyers and specifiers a better indication of how well a particular carpet will perform in a specific end-use application under typical traffic for that application.

For moderate traffic, carpet should carry a TARR rating of no less than 2.5, heavy traffic requires a TARR of 3 or better, and severe traffic calls for a TARR of 3.5 or more. There’s also a “special” classification for other uses not included in the first three.

The TARR brochure is available on the Carpet and Rug Institute website. It also includes information on choosing backing types, and recommended cleaning and maintenance schedules.

Specifying carpet is a little like matchmaking – you need a good fit for a lasting relationship. Sticking to that metaphor, I guess you could say CRI’s new TARR brochure is like online dating for carpet.

~ Bethany

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