How to clean your oriental

[drcollie]

I've often asked how to best clean expensive oriental rugs? I can tell you that you don't want to use a rug shampooer on it, any rental equipment, or any of the chemical cleaners such as the HOST system, and if you send it out to a cleaning surface, be SURE you know how they are going to clean your rug. Some commercial cleaners will put your rugs in a vat with other customer's rugs, and you will get a dye transfer into your rug from that. Most noticeably, your rug will be clean, but lost some of its color vibrancy, and have a 'grayish' look to it overall. That's what happens when washed with other rugs.

You don't really need to send your rug out to clean it. Its surprisingly simple to do yourself, all you need is:

* Water
* Liquid Tide
* Soft scrub brush
* Elevated Drying Station outdoors
* Two days of mid-70 degree weather with no rain and low humidity.

I have washed all my rugs in my house for the past 20 years after learning how to do it from my rug supplier (or rather watching how they did it at their import facility).

Take your rugs outside on the deck or patio and if they are over a 5' x 7" size, place them atop some elevated structure so air can flow underneath (old wood shipping pallets are ideal for this, and easy to get).

Flood the rug with water. Get it completely saturated.

Take your Liquid Tide (not too much!) and dilute in a bucket of water, then scrub the rug down with your soft brush, using plenty of rinse water as you go. You'll see the dirt and stains come out as you scrub and your colors brighten noticeably.

When done scrubbing, flood the rug with rinse water until all the soap is gone. Then leave outside to dry (will take 24 to 36 hours for most rugs on low humidity days).

Smaller rugs can be draped over a balcony railing to dry, but 7' x 9' and larger are too heavy to move when waterlogged, and you won't be able to pick them up. Hence the need to have them elevated off thr ground level in some manner to allow air flow underneath.

When you bring them back in the house, you won't believe how much brighter they will be and cleaner smelling as well. Best of all, costs you virtually nothing to do but a hour's work and your rugs stay pure and not contaminated by others.

[organic_smallhome]

Thank you so much for this information. I've been putting off sending my two largest rugs (5x8) off to be professionally cleaned because it's so expensive. Does this system work with Karastan rugs, too, Duane? The one thing I would be worried about is fading from the sun because I have no shaded area outside my house for them to dry.

[drcollie]

Absolutely. It will work on Chromium based dye rugs like your Karastan's and the Vegetable dye runs like I have in my home. No worry about sun fade, they won't be out there long enough for that to be a concern. Karastans are not too thick, so they're dry quicker, too.

[zheng]

Hi Duane, I just bought a used silk rug. It is 14 years old, and in a good condition overall. I want to give it a wash before I place it in the house. I read some online information and it seems that cleaning silk rug is pretty tricky (no hot water, no chemicals etc...). Can I just follow the instruction you give in this thread to clean silk rug? Thanks.

[drcollie]

I have zero experience cleaning silk rugs...none! Best call a few dealers that sell silk rugs and chat with them about it....good luck!

[zheng]

Thanks Duane. Read a lot information online. Going to try a water and vinegar mix next weekend. Hope it will work out fine.

I have zero experience cleaning silk rugs...none! Best call a few dealers that sell silk rugs and chat with them about it....good luck!

[alexradden002]

Thank you so much for the helpful information...this will definitely come in handy

[Rugman219]

Hi, all

A general reply

I am a "professional rug cleaner." I have been for over 35 years.

One of the most crucial steps in the rug cleaning process is dry soil removal. This step is the key to eliminating insoluble dirt from rugs. We use commercial machines for this, but a vacuum with a beater bar front and back to dislodge silty, sand-like soil. Neglecting this can significantly impede the cleaning and drying. Frankly, for some rugs we spend more time removing this dry soil than actually washing of rugs.

I suggest NOT using Tide. It's formulated for cotton and synthetic clothing, not natural fibers with perborates and enzymes that are not ideal for wool. Hand dish detergents are milder and work better. Planet, Seventh Generation, Orvus paste, and Dawn all work well.

The biggest issues we see with home cleaning is color bleeding, incomplete cleaning ( usually not enough dry soil removal), which causes soil to wick to the fringe or knap of the rug, leaving it crusty and dingy, and stalled drying.

Since most rugs and oriental rugs are made of highly absorbent materials, wool, silk, and cotton, they can weigh 6X their dry weight when wet and are difficult to move. A large rug with the idea of draping over a fence or hand rail is met by a rug now too heavy to get it there.

Living in the NW, we have days that are 70-80s and nights in the 40s with high relative humidity that can stall drying and facilitate mildew growth. So. check your weather before you clean. In my area, from March to June and September to October, we do a fair amount of drying and cleaning of home-cleaned rugs.