Before you call anyone about an oriental rug, turn one corner over and look at the back. If you can see every knot of the pattern, crisp and clear, it's very likely hand-knotted. If the back is covered in a canvas or a glued mesh, it's machine-made or hand-tufted. Both can be beautiful. They just need different care, and knowing which one you have makes the conversation with us a lot shorter.
How we handle a rug like this
Hand-knotted rugs, Persian or Turkish or otherwise, are built from wool or silk on a cotton foundation, colored with dyes that can be stable for a hundred years or run the first time they get wet. So everything we do starts from caution.
Inspection and fiber check
Your technician starts with the weave and fringe, then the foundation. Then the fiber itself. Wool and silk are the usual answers, though a synthetic dressed up to look like wool turns up more often than you'd think. We test each dye color on a hidden spot. We also look for problems cleaning can't solve, like broken warps or moth damage. Dry rot in the foundation is the worst of them.
Dusting
A dense wool pile can hold pounds of fine grit down near the knots, where you'd never see it. That grit acts like sandpaper every time someone walks across. We work it loose and remove it before any moisture touches the rug.
Spot work
Oily traffic marks and food spills get a gentle pre-treatment, pet accidents too, that's safe for wool and natural dyes. Nothing harsh, nothing with bleach in it.
The clean and rinse
Our carbonated solution lifts soil to the surface with very little water, then extraction pulls it away. Keeping the foundation from getting soaked is what keeps the rug from shrinking or buckling. It also stops color bleed, which is the one mistake nobody can undo.
Odor and allergens
Thick pile traps dander, dust mites, and smoke smell. A treatment aimed at those goes on during the clean, which helps a lot in a bedroom or a house with allergy sufferers.
Grooming and a final look
We finish by grooming the pile by hand in its natural direction so it lies flat and the colors read right. Then we go over it with you. Most rugs are dry in a few hours and back in place the same day.
Everything happens in your home
We don't pick rugs up or haul them to a plant. The rug stays on your floor the whole time, which also means it never rides around in a truck or sits in a warehouse with a ticket stapled to the fringe.
That said, in-home cleaning isn't the answer for every rug. If the dyes move during testing or the rug is falling apart, we stop. You'd be better served by a rug repair or restoration specialist, and we'll tell you so plainly. Honestly, losing the job beats gambling with something your grandmother brought home.
How often
For a rug in a dining room or a formal living room, every year to eighteen months is plenty. A rug in an entry, or one the dog has claimed, wants attention closer to once a year. Vacuum it regularly in between, without the beater bar on fringe.
Cost
Oriental rugs fall under the same $25 rug coupon as everything else that lies on a floor (see coupons). You get a firm price at the end of the inspection, and nothing gets wet until you've agreed to it. The 100% satisfaction guarantee covers oriental rugs like any other job.
Questions about a particular rug are welcome at 803-310-3848. If you'd rather write, the contact page takes a description, and a photo of the back tells us more than a photo of the front.