Area Rug Care
You will find that most area rugs require very are for a lifetime of enjoyment. Below are some tips on how to care for your area rugs.
Quick spot cleaning guide
For a sudden spill or stain, blot the area first with a wet sponge. Immediately blot again with dry paper towel or cotton towel. Please keep in mind that the wet area may look dark until it dries. Once dry, if you still notice a stain, try some liquid detergent and water solution with a soft scrub brush.
For gum, magic marker or crayon accidents, try wiping the area with some nail polish remover on a towel then repeat the above steps.
Cleaning of handmade rugs
For most wool rugs, cleaning of spills is usually done with a water/soap solution. In most cases if the spill is fresh, try wiping it with a wet sponge at first. This usually handles many household spills.
If the stain is more stubborn, use a mild soap and water solution. Add some mild liquid detergent from your kitchen sink to lukewarm water and mix the solution to make as many suds as possible. Scoop the sud with a small scrub brush and brush the area of the stain gently. This should work for most spills/stains.
For wine, coffee, juice and tea spills, blot the area with club soda. Puor some club soda directly on the affected area and then blot out with a towel.
For gum and grease, usually blotting out with paint thinner resolves the issue and then the soap and water solution to follow.
Vacuuming
Most types of vacuums are safe to use on hand made rugs. Vacuum as often as you would like.
Overall cleaning
Handmade rugs are not meant to be cleaned as often as carpet. You should send your hand made wool rug to a professional rug cleaner every three to five years, depending on the use of the room. Since small dust particles accumulate in the foundation of a rug over time, the rug cleaner should beat the back of the rug first to remove this dust and then proceed to wash your rug.
Silk and Art silk
This material does not react well to soap so stay away from cleaning it with a soap mixture. To clean spills on silk and art silk rugs, just use a damp sponge and wipe in the direction of the pile. When sending your silk rug for professional cleaning, please advise the company that you have a silk rug.
Please note: Animal stains generally do not come out when they are dry. If there is a possibility that your animal can have an accident on your rug, please be aware of this and try to blot it up as soon as posisble. In most cases when the mistake is discovered once dry, the stain is permanent and the mell can be just as extreme!
Cleaning of machine made rugs
Machine made rugs are similar in cleaning to hand made rugs with wool. Since a vast amount of machine made rugs are made from synthetic fibers, extra care is needed for these types of rugs. Generally, all wool machine made rugs can be cared for as with the wool handmade rugs with simple water or a water/soap solution. When cleaning stains from synthetic machine made rugs, extra attention should be taken as to the amount of water used.
The dyes in synthetic materials may bleed into each other when exposed to heavy amounts of water. the best way to test this is to clean a very small area of your rug tyo test the dyes' colorfastness. If the dyes do not bleed, then you may continue cleaning with the water or soap and water. If the dyes do bleed, then you may need to use special cleaners available in your local hardware store. Make sure that it is noted on the cleaner that it is safe for synthetic materials such as nylon or polypropylene.
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