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[quote=Anonymous]This may be TMI but here goes...

One of the ways to tell a fabric's durability is to look and see if it has a rub count/test number.  There are two common references:  Martindale and Wyzenbeek.   Generally, for upholstery fabric that will be used in a household and experience normal household use, you will want a rub of 25,000-30,000+ using the Martindale scale, and 20,000+ for the Wyzenbeek score.  To find the rub counts you will need to scan the specs for the fabric.  You may see it as "Durability" or "Abrasion" or "Double Rub" or something similar.

One caveat:  you cannot infer a Martindale score from a Wyzenbeek score, and vice versa.  It seems tempting but the scores are different and there is no numeric correlation between the two.  The Wyzenbeek score is a double rub (back and forth) while the Martindale test is a figure eight.

High performance fabrics will be in the 100,000+ range for Martindale.  The trade-off for a high-performance fabric is that it is less soft and they tend to cost more.  Low-performance fabrics will be in the under 15,000 range for Martindale.  The trade-off for low-performance fabrics is that they will not hold up as long.  That's why some fabrics are great for draperies but not very good for use on your dining room chairs or, even worse, on your sofa.

Here is an example, using Schumacher and JoAnn's sites.  I love both fabrics and would use either in my home.  The first fabric has a Martindale 20,000 score while the second has a Durability score of 30,000.  Note that while the JoAnn's fabric doesn't say either Martindale or Wyzenbeek but at 30,000 it is sufficiently high for upholstery use under either scale.  If it were me, I would use the Schumacher fabric on dining room chairs or on our living room sofa (our more formal room) but I wouldn't put it on a family room sofa, which get a lot of use because at 20,000 I don't think it would hold up to regular wear and tear in my family room.  However, the second fabric, from JoAnn's, at 30,000+ would hold up and so I would use it on my family room sofa or in the dining room or living room.

[url]https://fschumacher.com/179442[/url]

[url]https://www.joann.com/upholstery-fabric-54in-playback-cerise%C2%A0/14445944.html[/url]

I hope the links work![/quote]

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