The exquisite beauty of the handmade carpet make it one of the world’s treasures. If properly cared for, your rug can last for generations and be an endless source of pleasure in your home. Here are a few basics to ensure your rug is afforded the best protection:
Have Your Rug Professionally Cleaned In Santa Cruz, Aptos, Scotts Valley & Watsonville
Why Wash Your Rugs?
Oriental rug experts agree: the proper way to clean a rug is by hand, in water, without harmful chemicals and machines. This hand cleaning is the same method used for thousands of years. It is time consuming, but preserves these beautiful works of art and is thus worth the time and effort.
Washing your treasured handmade rugs is the best protection you can give them. Careful washing will save your rugs from destruction by accumulated dust, lint, dirt and sand.
Continued use of a carpet that contains common household soils and grit accelerates the wear of the carpet by literally cutting the fibers and encouraging mildew and pests. In-home surface cleaning of these carpets does not remove the particles from the foundation of the carpet, and is not recommended nor endorsed by any authority on oriental rugs.
What We Do
These are the steps we take when we accept your rug for cleaning:
1. Extensive, thorough inspection and documentation. The inspection will reveal whether a rug is machine- or handmade, what its likely country of origin is, and its fiber content. These factors are important to a determination of the rug’s suitability for washing. Visible pre-existing conditions such as tea-washing, old spotting attempts, tears, sun-fade, residue from past cleanings, unraveling, excessive soiling, stains, and other damage will be noted and discussed with the client prior to cleaning. Each rug is digitally photographed and the photo is saved in the client’s file.
2. Dye Testing. “Bleeding” of dyes is caused by many factors, made more complicated by the fact that weaving techniques are being imitated by rug producers in many countries. It is not possible these days to look at a rug and determine by inspection alone that the dyes will not bleed. This is why we test every rug before cleaning. If your rug has twenty colors in it, we will do twenty tests. If we determine that your rug’s dyes are likely to migrate, we will discuss alternative cleaning methods with you.
3. Dusting. Particulate matter is removed from the rug prior to washing. After the rug has been washed and is dry, we dust again.
4. Washing. Your rug is next washed with flowing water and given a gentle bath. This bath thoroughly cleanses, refreshes and brightens the rug. The shampoo is a neutral-balanced solution that has been customized for your rug based on our testing of its color and fibers. The rug will also be conditioned in appropriate cases.
5. Grooming. Your rug will be inspected, dusted, brushed and prepared for return.
6. Drying. The water is removed from the rug by hand – no wringers or rollers. Once as much water is removed as possible, the rug is hung to dry naturally. This usually takes 24 to 48 hours. In some cases, we may determine that it is safer to dry your rug flat.
7. Results. You will be delighted by your rug’s fresh, bright appearance!
We also offer affordable In Home cleaning of hand tufted and synthetic rugs.