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 [...]

Afghan rugs, the trade-off for new tribal rugs.

Rugs are loosely lumped into two general categories – “tribal” rugs or “city” rugs. City rugs come from “bigger” weaving operations that tend to produce rugs with more intricate designs, higher knot counts, and tighter quality control. This is a broad generalization of course. Tribal rugs come from smaller operations, or nomadic weavers who weave [...]

Watch out for Tea-Washed Rugs in the home…

Tea-washed rugs are rugs that have had a brown “tea-like” dye solution applied to the rug to make it appear darker, older, or to hide some underlying flaws (like past dye bleed damage). The “tea wash” solution, tends to be on the basic pH side, so that it will “hold” to the acid pH original [...]

Frankensteined Custom Rugs.

That’s what I call rugs that are haphazardly designed using very different fibers or construction types in order to make a “custom” rug. Just like Frankenstein, they grab random pieces to put together the resulting monster. Some look attractive. The question though is – can you safely clean it? Because in many cases, you can’t. [...]

Braided Rugs – What To Watch For

I’ve seen braided rugs come in all colors, sizes, and ages. New product from stores like Pier One, and some from the 1930′s with a story from the owner about how their neighborhood tore clothing into strips to create a community rug when she was a child. These rugs are braided. Fabric strips braided into long [...]

That Rug LIES! (Or it is lays…?) :)

Just like Tammy Faye used a lot of makeup to cover up her “real” look to try to appear younger … certain rug dealers can use some “tricky” cover-ups to make a rug look OLDER. (Interesting, huh?) Tea wash, henna wash, antiqued wash – these are the culprits. It is a brown or gold dye, applied [...]

What's Lurking Beneath The Dirt???

That’s a really good question.  I mean, take a look at this rug right here: What could be lurking here? Plenty of pre-existing dangers – old stains, old dye migration, old repairs, abrash, sunfade. You could be the BEST rug care specialist in your city, and yet with this rug, you could be unable to [...]

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