I bought a rug

[drcollie]

Be careful buying rugs off EBAY. I've purchased several off EBAY in years past and most arrived filthy, some with pet urine impermeated into the rugs, most every one needing repair. Out of ten or so rugs I have bought off EBAY, only one was as expected. Make sure you have a right of return or avoid.

[EddieWade]

I bought a rug on ebay and ran into what you were talking about. Dirty like my girlfriend after party, stinks a little less, but the same incredibly beautiful I do not want to throw it out, I want to clean it. I think I fell in love with this rug. I will write later when I understand how to clean it properly. I'll post a photo here.

[drcollie]

Here’s how to clean it.

Pick a nice sunny day with low humidity. Take it outside. Saturate it with water until its fully soaked. Get Liquid Tide and a soft scrub brush and get on your hands and knees and start scrubbing hard on the rug, really get after it. You can't hurt it. Rinse well. Will take 24 hours to dry outside, so start early in the morning on it. Have the rug off the ground a few inches to dry so air can circulate underneath it.

This may seem primitive, but this is how the pros do it, they just do it in a warehouse with huge fans. This is how they are done in the middle east, not much difference except they are in the river and put them on the rocks to dry.




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[EddieWade]

Here’s how to clean it.

Pick a nice sunny day with low humidity. Take it outside. Saturate it with water until its fully soaked. Get Liquid Tide and a soft scrub brush and get on your hands and knees and start scrubbing hard on the rug, really get after it. You can't hurt it. Rinse well. Will take 24 hours to dry outside, so start early in the morning on it. Have the rug off the ground a few inches to dry so air can circulate underneath it.

This may seem primitive, but this is how the pros do it, they just in a warehouse with huge fans. This is how they are done in the middle east, not much difference except they are in the river and put them on the rocks to dry.




.

Thank you very much! I'll try to do as you recommend. I hope everything will turn out for me, otherwise I will have to spend a lot of money on professional service.

[drcollie]

Be careful of "Professional" rug cleaning services - ask questions. Many places will put them in a huge vat with other rugs and agitate the rugs, think giant washing machine. Other rugs can leak dyes and colors and kill the colors in all the other rugs in with them in the vat. They will come out clean, but muted and may have a slight grayish tone. Scrubbing it yourself really is the best way, I do mine like that and I learned the technique from one of the top importers of Turkish rugs in the USA. (Ideally you put the rug on wood pallets to scrub it, but not many people have a bunch of wood pallets at home to do that in the driveway)