Oriental rug cleaning, fine area rug cleaning and rug repairs
for rug owners in New Hampshire and Vermont
Here is how one client described the result. "The rug has been in my family many years and I was certain it couldn’t be salvaged. The odor and stain are completely gone and the rug looks better than it has in decades. The area we thought was sun faded now looks as bright as the rest of the rug.”
How do we deliver this result? Watch the video on the right. It details the difference between carpet cleaning and rug cleaning.
We clean rugs by washing them in cold water in a rug cleaning plant. It's a facility designed and equipped solely to clean rugs. This means we’re cleaning in a controlled environment where we can:
1. adapt cleaning procedures to match the needs of each rug we’re cleaning,
2. quickly dry the rug when we've finished washing it, and
3. re-wash very dirty and contaminated rugs when necessary.
It also means we regularly wash rugs with unstable dyes, and get them clean without ruining the rug. If you own an oriental rug you'll find more about oriental rug cleaning and the procedures involved in cleaning fine area rugs here.
If your concern is pet accidents and guaranteed pet odor removal, you'll want to visit this page.
And here's the download link to the Free PDF mentioned in the video. It's a short list of questions you can use to determine if a rug cleaner is qualified to clean your rug.
The standard carpet cleaning techniques, equipment and chemicals used to clean wall-to-wall carpeting can damage oriental rugs and don’t work on natural fibers. But many carpet cleaners either don’t know or don’t acknowledge 
this. The photo on the right shows what can happen when carpet cleaning chemicals and techniques are used to "clean" an oriental rug. When it came in for cleaning the owner thought the carpet cleaner had ruined it. And it still smelled of urine. The photo below it shows the same rug after we washed it and corrected the dye bleed.
As the owner of a valuable rug you should be a bit paranoid about who cleans your rug. Most wall-to-wall carpeting is made primarily of synthetic, non-absorbent fibers: nylon and olefin. We don’t clean wall-to-wall carpeting. The proper way to clean it is the method known as hot water extraction. It’s endorsed by carpet manufacturers and often includes the use of highly alkaline chemicals and very hot water.
This cleaning method can ruin a handmade rug – or any rug that includes wool or silk yarns. Hot water and alkaline chemicals can distort wool fibers and cause the dyes to run or “bleed”. For example, if you were to wash a brightly colored, hand knitted wool sweater with hot water and ammonia (a highly alkaline cleaning agent) it would probably be ruined.
Every rug is unique so we clean one rug at a time and alter, add or subtract from the standard procedure depending on the needs of the rug. For example, a hand knotted Persian rug with white cotton fringes, an Aubusson style needlepoint rug, a Greek Flokati and a hand hooked rug made in 19th century New England require different cleaning procedures to achieve a similar result.
Antique rugs and fragile rugs require extra care so we vary what we do and how we do it depending on what the rug needs. If you want to know every step we’ll take in the process of cleaning your rug your rug we’ll have to see it.
Please note: we may not be the right company to clean your rug. If any of the following is true, you may want to look elsewhere to have your rug cleaned:
- You bought your rug from a discount store or mass market outlet or
- It was cheap or
- You don’t really care about the rug or
- You’ve had rugs cleaned by a dry cleaning plant or a carpet cleaner and were satisfied with the results.
But if you do value your rug, feel free to call. You'll be talking with Katharine or Keith
Call us today with your questions: 603-678-8142 or 802-651-7000
