Mold and Dry Rot in Rugs.

There is a fungus among us… …and there is nothing “fun” about it. One of the worst conditions that can befall a rug is DRY ROT. Mold, mildew, and dry rot are various types and stages of particular fungi. Where you can sometimes kill and remove the first two groups without much evidence left behind [...]

Rug Dyes. What makes them bleed.

The biggest fear most rug cleaners have regarding rugs is that the rug might bleed while in their care. The fact is, with proper training and the right tools and solutions, even the most fugitive dyes in a rug can be successfully cleaned… …you just need to know what you are doing. And interestingly enough, [...]

Pottery Barn rugs to run from…

I like Pottery Barn. They have some cool household items and furnishings, some of which are good quality at a good price. Their rug department however, is a different story… and in the rug cleaning world the term “POTTERY BARN RUG” is becoming synonymous with “PROBLEM RUGS.” First of all, Pottery Barn does carry some VERY [...]

Rugs with material on the back.

Most professional rug cleaners should know this, but in case you don’t… … wool rugs with material on the back like this one, are called TUFTED rugs: Some have a loosely attached material like the above one from China, and some have material that is more firmly in place like this one from India: I [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Why some rug dyes bleed.

There are a variety of reasons a rug might “bleed” on you. Let’s go through different scenarios for a wool rug like this one, where the red dyes have migrated into the neighboring off-white areas: What could create this type of dye migration? Several things. FUGITIVE DYES – if the red is shown to not [...]

Don’t water the rugs!

If you have plants anywhere near your rugs in your home – or if you are a rug cleaner and see plants near rugs you are picking up to clean – you want to watch out for this particular problem that often is not discovered until it’s too late. Even the most careful person spills [...]

Hidden danger – bleeding rug wefts.

Every professional rug cleaner knows how to test a rug to see if the dyes are colorfast or not. At least they should know how to. =) Especially since a good percentage of new rugs today have dye colorfastness “issues.” I walk through the steps in my post on dye testing, and the video on [...]

Good equipment + bad training = RUG DISASTER

A really BIG franchise carpet cleaning company brought us a rug to “fix” for them. They are “certified” – they hired the southern contingent rug training duo to teach them the IICRC course – so they were able to memorize the facts to pass the test… and they bought the products the instructors were selling… [...]

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