Start by separating what you are buying. A flatweave durrie is woven through the warp with no pile, and its wear is a fibre question. A knotted pile carpet adds a second axis: knots per unit area, which sets the definition of the drawing and the amount of hand time in the piece.
Second, decide the traffic case before the design case. A corridor, a lobby seating area and a guest room floor are three different specifications. In a flatweave, the failure mode is abrasion at the edges and the shed lines opening. In a pile, it is crushing in the standing line and pile loss at the threshold.
Third, ask for the construction to be stated in the sample, not the style. Warp material, weft material, pile fibre, knot type, pile height before and after the first clean, and total weight per square metre. A sample that arrives without these numbers is a photograph, not a specification.
Fourth, buffer the calendar honestly. A loom produces a limited area per week, and a batch of matching panels may be split across several looms to hold a date. Splitting solves volume and creates a colour risk, so the golden sample must be sealed against a lot rather than a piece.
Fifth, plan the site. Hand-knotted and hand-woven floor textiles travel in a crate, not a carton, and they should be unrolled and rested before the final lay. Say how the piece must be packed, because a crushed corner on a flatweave edge does not recover.
The durries in our current records are hand-block printed cotton at 120 by 150 centimetres with a stated batch quantity, and a digital-print flatweave at 125 by 175. Both are documented as floor textiles rather than wall pieces, and both are quoted FOB Nhava Sheva.
A sample without construction numbers is a photograph, not a specification.
