I just had the privilege of speaking to a group of CFI members up in the Inland Empire. (That is the Carpet & Fabricare Institute, which is a professional trade association that covers cleaning and restoration professionals throughout California, Nevada, and Arizona.) The topic was… I know you’re shocked… RUGS! =) After several hours of [...]
Pet puddles on rugs. (Uh oh, urine trouble!)
You’re in trouble indeed… It’s all fun and games until the valuable oriental rug in the den gets a pet urine stain that’s not coming out. Pet urine is at the top of the “uh oh” chart of rug disasters. The stains are usually permanent. But if the field has a busy design that might [...]
Why some rugs buckle.
I receive a lot of “help me” calls from rug cleaners and rug owners on rugs that are buckling. They want to know what to do. And my answer is usually… it depends. That’s because there are a number of reasons why a rug is buckling on someone. Some of these reasons are correctable. Others [...]
House plant damage to rugs. Your options.
Watering a potted plant near a rug can lead to a big ugly dry rot hole in a rug if it’s left undisturbed for too long. If you want to know why this happens, please read this => Don’t Water The Rugs! That’s what happened to this runner. The moisture from a potted plant was [...]
Silk rugs. What you need to know.
Silk is known as a fabric, and fiber, of luxury. People think you need to baby silk items, but silk is actually a very strong – and beautiful – fiber. (Unlike rayon and viscose, both names for artificial silk rug fibers, which are incredibly weak, yellow, lose color, and break at an alarming rate under [...]
Rugs & Fine Fabric Care Webinar (May 11th)
Those of you in the professional cleaning and restoration industry, just a heads-up that on May 11th Jim Pemberton and I will be teaming up on a webinar through Cleanfax Magazine covering some of the most pressing questions cleaners have about rugs and upholstery. Nothing better than THAT… except perhaps that it is FREE (thanks [...]
Why rugs are not cleaned in the home.
The recommended cleaning method for wool oriental and specialty rugs, is washing them. For as long as rugs have been woven, they have also been washed. Though in the past with a bit more “low tech” methods than are available today. But before the washing even begins – the beating does! Rugs – ESPECIALLY wool [...]
Oriental Rug Dyes. What you need to know.
True or false - A colorfast wool rug can bleed? => TRUE. The rug may be colorfast in CERTAIN situations. For example, with a regular cleaning or wash, with a neutral or acid side cleaning solution, the rug could be perfectly fine. No dye migration (aka “bleeding”). But, under different circumstances, it could absolutely have dyes migrate [...]
Rugs and Floods. What to do.
With the number of home floods escalating due to severe weather, a number of rugs will be exposed to flood water. The longer a rug remains wet the more likely it is to have dye migration that is not correctible. Rugs that are not washed properly, and not dried thoroughly, can end up with mildew [...]