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Jute is a plant fiber that we used to only see in a small number of older American hand hooked rugs…

American hooked rug with wool loops and jute mesh foundation.

…and some more contemporary European latch hook, embroidery, and needlepoint rugs.

Portuguese needlepoint rugs woven on jute foundation.

But lately jute has become the cheap and plentiful fiber of choice for many rugs we see coming out of India (the world’s #1 jute grower) and other countries. If you go into any of the more popular home furnishing stores today, from Pottery Barn to Restoration Hardware to Crate Barrel, you are going to find rugs with jute in them as face fibers or as the backing material.

Jute backed rugs are commonplace in today’s home furnishing stores.

The pluses are that it’s cheap, it’s quick to grow, and it’s environmentally friendly because it’s biodegradable.

The minuses (you just KNEW there would be minuses!) are that it is an extremely difficult fiber to handle if you do not know anything about it beforehand, and problems are very tough to correct.

Here are the three major challenges with jute.

Jute Browns Yellows Like No Other Fiber Out There.

If you are a professional carpet cleaner who has ever had to tackle installed wall-to-wall wool carpet, which happened to be woven on a JUTE backing, then you know how absolutely dangerous this situation can be.

Get that jute even a little too wet, and the white wool can turn shades of coffee brown.

Jute gets brown and yellow when it’s wet. It releases oils that brown. So, when the way to get rugs clean is to WASH them, this can create a technical nightmare.

Cotton rug with some jute weft threads that like to brown with spills.

Something as heavily soiled as this rayon and jute rug needs to be washed to clean thoroughly, but both fibers like to yellow when wet, so what is a cleaner to do?

Spills and spotting attempts do not go over well with these rayon and jute rugs.

Jute Holds Odor Like No Other Fiber Out There.

Jute is super absorbent, and can hold on to odor causing contaminants like pet urine even throughout multiple washings.

The label says 100% polypropylene, but these weft threads are all hefty JUTE fibers.

Rug labels tend to only list what the face fibers of a rug are. So a hand woven rug may say “100% wool” even though the warps and wefts of the foundation are all usually cotton.

With synthetic rugs, you will see “100% polypropylene” (or acrylic, nylon, polyester) – but most have heavy jute weft threads in their foundation. This makes removing odors like pet urine from these rugs very difficult because you have to try to remove the source of the problem, and it is often absorbed into the middle of these innermost fibers.

If there are pets in the home that are not trained, jute would not be a good choice… unless you just plan to get cheap rugs on the floor that are jute, and just buy new ones when they get badly contaminated.

Jute Will Rot And Get Brittle Like No Other Fiber Out There.

Jute will dry rot faster than other fibers.

Unfortunately rug cleaners discover this fact when they are inspecting rugs with some age to them that have been woven on jute. Over time it just disintegrates, and these sometimes very wonderfully woven textiles just fall apart.

Chainstitch needlepoint rug woven on a jute scrim that is cracking and splitting along the edges where it’s folded.

Sometimes spills will make the jute rot quicker in specific areas:

Silk parachute cord shag rug, an area weak with age has split open because the burlap jute foundation is rotted in this area.

When the jute throughout a piece has become brittle with rot or age, there is nothing that can be done to salvage it. It’s as if your skeleton began to crumble apart, you cannot support something with no strength left in it.

A remnant of a chainstitch embroidery needlepoint rug. The stitching was done on a jute foundation which is splitting and deteriorating. Beautiful textile just falling apart. =(

If you do not catch this deterioration BEFORE the cleaning process begins, you could literally have the rug fall apart on you unexpectedly.

All the edges of this jute backing are breaking and unraveling.

Tips On Cleaning Jute Rugs

BROWNING/YELLOWING: If the rug looks like it already shows signs of a cellulose browning problem, you may opt to only surface clean the rug to expose the jute backing to as little moisture as possible.

Jute foundation is already showing strong signs of yellowing on the back of this Stark wool rug.

You could also clean with a dry compound or low-moisture bonnet cleaning method.*

(* – I personally am not a fan of dry compound or of encapsulation cleaning of rugs, because I do not feel they truly “clean” the rugs. I would rather see someone surface clean with an upholstery tool to try to clean the rug without getting the backing very wet instead of these other choices. That said, when the rug has a serious browning problem and moderate soiling, your dry compound or encap methods may be the only viable option.)

If you fully wash a rug with jute because it needs a thorough cleaning, then having an acid rinse can help lessen some of that cellulose browning.

Also, sometimes if you dry the rug flat and face down (fuzzy side down) on a CLEAN surface, and put some high speed air movers on it to dry, you can  often make the wicking of the browning problem move to the back side of the rug instead of up on the front side of the rug.

I love the Airpaths to speed dry rugs!

ODOR REMOVAL: If the odor is strong in a rug with a jute fiber foundation, and the rug is polypropylene, then you can use some of the new oxidizers on the market to remove the odor, such as OSR or Oxcelerate. (Be VERY careful to NOT use this on wool rugs – only synthetic, and of course test first.)

BRITTLE FIBERS: Unfortunately, when the jute foundation fibers are splitting and crumbling away, there is not much you can do.

Spanish wool rug with jute foundation wefts that have rotted and have no strength left to hold the corner together anymore.

With smaller decorative hooked and needlepoint rugs woven on jute, especially the older ones, it may be time to prepare them for hanging in order to keep the foot traffic from tearing the rug apart completely. You have to see how much strength is left in the jute fibers to allow it to be hung because the weight of itself may be too much for even that.

=

With jute, the main protection again getting caught having to pay to replace a rug is to be obsessive compulsive about your pre-wash inspection process.

Look for jute, and when you find it, go over those 3 major concerns: browning, odor, and brittleness. Discuss the options with the owner BEFORE the cleaning, and don’t be afraid to turn away a job if it looks like it could end up becoming a rug disaster.

Hope these tips and warnings help you.

Happy Rug Cleaning!

- Lisa

P.S. If you are looking for rug training, as of 4/12 there are a handful of spots left in my upcoming Rug Secrets “Get Started” course. You can find the details at Rug Secrets Course.

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2012/04/jute-rugs-what-you-need-to-know/

We’ve recently had several orders with some serious bug problems.

Some were rugs that were improperly stored by their owners for years and made a meal for bugs that, unbeknownst to the owners, had hitched a ride to the storage unit.

Total moth devastation. Most of the knots of the rug were eaten away in storage.

Others were rugs that have been down on the floor for years without being moved or vacuumed, and moths and carpet beetles made a meal in undisturbed areas under furniture.

End of rug under a sofa became a meal for carpet beetles.

Because there does not seem to be a website that clearly lays out how to handle bug infested rugs, or even how to properly store rugs, (a Google search just sent me back to a few posts I’ve made in the past on these subjects) I thought I’d lay out a “how to” post that I hope will be useful to rug cleaners and rug owners.

As a disclaimer – (as you know everyone from litigious California is highly skilled in disclaimers!) – I am NOT a pest control specialist. I am a rug specialist.

These tips are what we’ve learned over the years, and what we’ve experienced in handling a number of wool rugs in storage to see how to keep them safe over years. If you require more in-depth education on specifically killing pests, then please reach out to a pest control professional.

(Here was one page I found on getting rid of carpet beetles that might be useful to you. It is ultimately a sales pitch for their products, but it still has some good data on the little buggers. I’m always wary when anyone says their product is “completely safe” while it also kills things… so take everything with a grain of salt.)

Okay, here we go!

RUG STORAGE TIPS

If you are placing a rug into storage, here are the preparation guidelines for proper care of the textiles if they are natural fiber (wool, silk, cotton).

1) Wash the rug thoroughly.

Washing not only removes potential bug hitchhikers in the rug fibers, but it removes all of the soil and contaminants from the foundation fibers of the rug as well. Compacted, ground in soil in a rug over time can dry out cotton foundation warps and wefts in a rug and lead to dry rot.

If you’ve ever seen an old rug that can crack in some areas when you roll it, then you know what dry rot looks like when caused from too much soil in the base or past improper cleaning (by carpet cleaning machines surface cleaning them instead of true rug washing) that has left too much soapy residue in the fibers. This is one of the reasons why rugs are never cleaned in the home.

A proper rug washing facility will also have “insect repellents” that can be used as a final application on the rug, front and back, that will leave the rug “not tasty” to bugs so they will go elsewhere. At our facility we use Repel by Masterblend, which is approved for use on wool and also approved for use in California. Other states will have access to many more choices than we do in our hyper-sensitive state.

2) Roll and wrap in Tyvek paper.

Folding rugs is something you will see done in many rug galleries in order to conserve space, but can cause undue stress on the foundation fibers of rugs over time. (You can lessen this stress by folding the rugs with the fuzzy pile OUTWARD which allows the foundation fibers to bend less, but it also gets the rugs dusty easier so I rarely see it done this way.)

Ideally rugs should be completely cleaned, insect repelled, and then rolled for long term storage. You roll the rug from the bottom end first to create a tight roll.

(To know which end is the bottom end, pet your rug and see which direction when you pet is going WITH the nap, and which is going AGAINST it. When you are petting WITH the grain it takes you to the bottom end. This is the end where the weaving began. Roll from this end.)

With silk rugs, or more fragile older wool rugs, you can roll the rug with the pile pointing outward to allow for less strain on the foundation. Also big shaggy rugs roll tighter with the long shaggy fibers pointing outward as well.

Most rugs can be safely rolled normally with pile inward. Then you need to wrap the rug in PAPER, not plastic.

Some people use brown Kraft paper. To me that punctures too easily and tears, and with rodents that might be too easy a target. We use it for short term wrapping, but not long term storage.

We like to use Tyvek paper for long term storage which is tear resistant, water resistant, but also still allows the rug to “breathe,” unlike plastic wrap which does not.

Wrap natural fiber rugs in PAPER – either brown kraft or white tyvek.

Wool and plastic should NEVER be combined in storage. Wool has a natural high moisture content (this is why it is flame resistant, it self-extinguishes with flame), so this means if wrapped in plastic and with no airflow, the fibers can “sweat” and create a problem in storage.

If you have ever gotten a rug out from storage that smelled musty and moldy, this is why. Improperly wrapping wool rugs in plastic can create odor problems, or worse, actual mildew problems if the rug was not properly cleaned and then not placed in a climate controlled storage area.

3) Elevate when storing.  Don’t stack heavy items on top of them.

Keeping rugs off the floor allows you to easily see if there are any potential problems with rodents more easily in a storage unit, and since storage facilities seems to often be built in low lying regions, if there are floods keeping the rugs elevated can keep them safer. Not stacking heavy items on top of them can keep strain from causing foundation damage to the rug.

4) Check the rug annually.

If possible, check your rugs in storage once a year to make sure the packaging is secure. If the rug was professionally cleaned, and the insect repellent applied, you can extend your check up of opening up the rug packaging, but it may need to be reapplied after 2 or 3 years.

If you have used Tyvek paper it can be unwrapped and the same paper reused because it is tear resistant. Clear packing tape works best with the Tyvek paper.

THIS RUG HAS BUGS! (What do I do?)

If you find a rug that was improperly stored is infested with moths or carpet beetles, or one that has been on the floor unmoved for too long that is being eaten away, here are the steps to take.

1) Evaluate the damage, make a decision, and get a waiver.

Sometimes the damage – especially from a rug storage infestation where bugs have been left alone for years to feast on rug fibers – is too great. You have to way the costs of cleaning if the rug is not salvageable.

If disposal is the only option, refuse to take the rug into your facility. Have the owner write on the work order, or by email if the owner is not at your location, to properly dispose of the contaminated rug.

Sometimes the infestation is concentrated on one area and there could be a possibility of either reweaving lost fibers, or perhaps cutting the rug to make it smaller but still usable.

You need to weigh the cost of reweaving, patching, reducing, or simply disposal. This is damage from a rug placed under a heavy chest and left undisturbed.

If that is the case, that the owner wants the rug “saved,” then get approval to decontaminate and wash the rug, and evaluate for repair options after that wash work is done.

Often the washing will release more wool knots and create “bald” areas in the rug, so make a note on the invoice of the potential additional visible damage, and photograph the rug to show its state when it came in. (Best to photograph outside so you are not knocking moth larvae or worms into your facility.)

It needs to be clearly understood that any additional damage occurring from washing you cannot possibly be held responsible for. Most bugs eat from the innermost fibers outward, so a cleaner cannot know what the rug can take.

If the rug is woven on a wool foundation (like the prior rug photo) then the damage is complete holes because the bugs eat the wool face fibers AND the foundation warps and wefts.

Many rugs are woven on cotton foundations, so the bugs just eat the wool fibers and the cotton is left in tact, and the rug structurally sound, just looking bald.

Kashan rug moth damage under a chair, bugs ate the wool but left the white cotton warps and the gray cotton wefts alone.

Sometimes the damage is only visible on the back, but with the actual back of these knots gone, it is possible that the front fibers will pull loose and wash away, even if you are very gentle with your cleaning.

Kerman rug back corner eaten by bugs. Blue knots are gone from the back, with cotton foundation visible. These areas may become bald on the front as well after the cleaning.

2) Remove what you can. Protect other contents.

Bringing an infested rug into your rug cleaning facility is a danger, so you need to control the situation.

Wool eating bugs do NOT like direct sunlight or persistent airflow. This is why they attack rugs in storage, or in a home they like to make their meal in clothes in a dark undisturbed coat closet, or eating the corner of the rug under the sofa or behind the drapes.

They also find rugs up on walls as hangings tasty if they are never taken down for dusting.

If the rug coming into your facility has minor bug activity, just a few visible moth casings or larvae worms, then take the rug outside into direct sunlight.

Moderate moth activity in one section on the back of this rug. Moth casings/cocoons look like “sticky lint” – they have not made a meal of this rug yet.

Both the larvae and the caterpillars are fragile, and setting them in a few hours of sunlight (both sides of the rug) can often be all you need to protect the situation. Take a stiff bristle brush and brush away the larvae and worms (outside) from both sides of the rug to physically remove them.

If the damage is more extensive then you need to take more aggressive measures.

Serious bug activity, the rug needs to be contained.

In order to protect your facility, place the infested rug in a heavy plastic bag, and place a lot of mothballs in the bag. Seal it tight.

Moth ball fumes are toxic, so take care to wear gloves and other appropriate protection. These can be purchased at your local drugstore. You need the toxicity of the fumes of the moth balls or crystals to get high enough inside the bag to essentially kill the bugs inside. I would suggest a week sealed, longer if you feel it is necessary.

When the week is up, take care when opening the bag so that you do not breathe the air coming from the bag. Remove the rug in a protected area (or outside), and brush away the larvae and worms – which should not be moving anymore – get them away from the rug as much as you can.

3) Treat with approved products and fully wash.

Check your state to see which carpet and rug products are approved for use in removing bugs like carpet beetles, moths, fleas, or even bed bugs for that matter. I really like the Microban line of products for this, all approved by the EPA and approved for use on textiles, but unfortunately not approved by California’s EPA so we cannot use some of them in our state. I’ve used several in my out of state training workshops though, with great success.

Go to your local professional cleaning supply house to see what is available to you. (These are professional cleaning products and are not available to consumers.)

Ideally you will wash the rug and apply the approved product as directed to ensure that any eggs or other bugs hidden deep inside the rug cannot come back to create a problem for the rug in the future, especially if it is going back into storage.

Because we are limited with our choices in CA, we like to soak the rug in a strong vinegar mix, wash thoroughly, and then give a final application of the Repel product mentioned before. I like Repel because it does not smell like mothballs, and it is not a pesticide but a repellent.

With investment or antique textiles where the application of “chemicals” that leave any residue is not wanted, pests are handled by placing them in a deep freeze to essentially “crack” the eggs (which can lay dormant for years until conditions are more favorable) and ensure all bugs are dead.

Not everyone has access to a deep freeze freezer, especially for larger rugs, but that is your other option.

4) Treat and clean the home before the rugs are returned.

If the infestation occurred with a rug being used in the home, then there are bugs back home to be taken care of.

If the rug owner truly does not want to risk more damage to their rug, then they need to clean the home before it is returned back. A pest control professional should come in to treat all surfaces, and once all bugs are killed off, follow up with a professional cleaning company to remove any of the pesticide residues.

I know many say they are “safe” pesticides, but why even take the risk. I would suggest, as my own personal opinion, to clean after the pest control efforts anyway whether it is sprayed on or fumigated.

Floors, furniture, fabrics, carpeting – it all needs to be cleaned.

5) Quarterly textile inspection. (DUST and DISTURB!)

Rugs should be regularly vacuumed to prevent dust and grit from working its way into the foundation of a rug. Weekly vacuuming is a must for rugs under consistent foot traffic. You do not need a heavy beater bar vacuum, you just want to “lift up” the settling dust that gets on the tips (the same dust that settled on your hard floors and needs to be swept up weekly). Just a quick “sweeping” of the tops of the fibers is all you need.

But quarterly rug owners should be more invasive with their dusting, and with the upholstery attachment on their vacuum – or if they have a canister vacuum – pull back the corners of rugs and vacuum the floor underneath and the back of the rug corners.

Carpet beetles and moths like to settle around the edges of rugs, and usually will eat from the backside of the rug where it’s dark and undisturbed.

A quarterly “dust and disturb” routine will keep them from finding the rug a nice place to sit. They want to place their eggs in a safe spot to have a meal as they grow.

If you disturb them, they will move somewhere else.

Rugs under regular foot traffic should be washed every 18-24 months. If the foot traffic is heavy (or there are pets and kids on the rug a lot) then once a year is recommended. If the rug gets light or no traffic and is regularly vacuumed, then closer to 3 years is not unreasonable.

Rugs that are regularly washed rarely have bug problems, because nothing is more DISTURBING to bugs than having the rug rolled up and taken on a trip for a full service wash.

I hope you find these tips useful, and please let me know in the comments if you have any more questions.

Happy Rug Cleaning!

- Lisa

P.S. If you are a professional cleaner looking for rug care training, but you are not ready to spend thousands on an advanced course quite yet, then take a look at my upcoming Rug Secrets online course. It might be exactly what you are looking for to enhance your rug cleaning skills.

Click here = Rug Secrets “Get Started System”

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2012/04/bugs-rugs-and-storage/

One of the frequent questions I get asked by cleaners and consumers today is “what about SHAG rugs?”

My answer to them is this: “Cool idea… BAD reality.”

Shag rugs out in the market today are far and away the most difficult rugs to clean and maintain.

In theory I understand the “fun” of it. You can get a crazy, cushy, unexpected look in a home that looks like it would be fun to walk on, roll on, and play on…

A few cool looking shag rugs from www.modernrugs.com

…but the coolness factor fades pretty darn fast for the owner, especially when they find out how hard it is to keep many of these rugs looking good, and how expensive it is to have these rugs professionally cleaned. (Though if they know these things before buying them, they can just get something cool and know they will replace it in a few years after it gets too dirty to enjoy anymore.)

At our rug cleaning facility we often charge more to clean shag rugs per square foot than we do to clean much more valuable silk rugs. That’s because there is a lot of additional hand work needed to try to clean what gets embedded in the fibers of these rugs.

The shag rug may be an inexpensive one from Pottery Barn or IKEA, or a pricier one from a designer shop like Modern Rugs (which has a wide selection). Shag rugs of all values ALL present challenges that take considerably more time to get these rugs truly clean.

And more time to clean unfortunately means more cost to the shag rug owner.

Here is what you need to know about shag rugs if you own one (or are thinking of buying one), or if you are a professional cleaner and are going to attempt to wash one.

WOOL SHAG = SHEEPDOG

Much cuter than a shag rug.

Some of the first “shag rugs” were woven Flokati rugs from Greece, which cleaners often refer to as sheepdogs, because it’s a big shaggy construction that is difficult to wash and brush out smooth, as a sheepdog can be.

Greek Flokati wool rug. One of the first “shag” rugs.

If you clean them regularly (before they look dirty!), you can keep Flokatis looking good and staying “fluffy” for years. There is extra time needed to groom and get the rug nice after a wash, so generally cleaners charge more to clean Flokatis versus regular wool woven pile rugs.

Here’s an even older shag rug that came into our shop that is not wool, but is SILK. This was crafted by a client’s grandmother during World War II with silk parachute cord strands:

Silk parachute cord – vintage WWII.

The problem is that this was woven on a burlap/jute foundation which over time has become brittle so the rug is slowly falling apart. But this may be the “oldest” shag rug I’ve seen in my rug career:

Silk parachute cord WWII “shag” rug.

It’s a shame the foundation is weak because this actually is a good fiber to build a shag rug from. The silk cords are strong, so they do not “mush” up and lose their shape. The slickness of silk also keeps the inside fibers relatively clean – you can shake the rug upside down and get much of the dust to simply shake away. The grit does not grab onto the fibers as they do wool or synthetic fibers with this type of shag construction.

Back to WOOL shag rugs…

Today we are beyond just the Flokati type of construction. We are getting rugs that many of us describe as NOODLE rugs, because the wool fibers look like pasta noodles. =)

Wool shag “noodle” rug.

These rugs have heavy twists of wool as the face fibers, and they are loosely woven into typically a heavy cotton backing. Here are some of the drawbacks of these wool shag rugs, both the “noodle” ones and the “shaggy sheepdog” ones.

= These rugs have a felted type of wool, which wants to grab EVERYTHING and hold onto it.

This means if you have pets, you are NEVER going to get the pet hair out. If you have kids that crumble food on the rug, you are NEVER going to get all of the crumbs out of the rug with any vacuum you own. It’s almost like a microfiber cloth, it picks up everything and does not let go of it.

Wool shag that picked up black flecks from a husband’s socks – this won’t wash away, you will have to pick these fiber “dots” away one by one. YOU have to… because I won’t. =)

= These rugs yellow over time.

Wool can yellow over time from exposure to light, exposure to certain chemicals (like laundry detergents), or due to being woven on a jute foundation or with a construction that has used latex to hold it together.

Wool shag rug is yellowing from latex backing and age.

Usually the wool used has been bleached to make it “whiter” in the beginning, and this does damage the wool so it will yellow over time as a result. Sometimes short term “whitening” can be done again using a low percentage hydrogen peroxide treatment, but all whitening attempts do add a little more damage to those already weakened fibers.

= These rugs are very tough to vacuum and to spot… and the tufts can pull out easily.

The construction of these wool pieces makes it impossible to vacuum with a regular vacuum. A Dyson on these rugs would be a disaster. You need a canister vacuum, or an upholstery attachment, to try to literally vacuum the sides of these fibers and in between them row by row.

Wool shag construction tough to get the “grit” in the base of the rug out.

Spills also can be a disaster and need to be gotten to immediately otherwise they work their way down into that heavy cotton foundation, and this is much harder to get clean afterwards.

If your vacuum (canister) is too strong, or your spotting attempt too aggressive, you might pull some tufts out because they are typically not in there very securely.

A good tug on a tuft can yank it out of a rug like this.

Though wool by far is the superior fiber for rugs on the floor, that is when you are discussing short pile woven rugs. With the shag construction, the looser weave construction with wool can grab a lot of lint, hair, dust, and general mess and embed it deep in the fiber base to where you may not be able to keep it clean and sanitary.

There are some higher quality wool shag rugs that have much more fiber density that helps protect that grit from easily falling into the base like these other wool examples I’ve shown.

Here is a sample of a high quality wool shag rug from Unique Carpets Limited, their Shagtastic line:

Shagtastic wool rug.

I had a client bring in this sample to show me because I was trying to dissuade her from buying what I thought was a “typical” wool shag rug. This UCL construction has a very high density of wool in it (8 pounds of yarn per square yard). It also has a very strong backing construction that is not the loose and absorbent cotton style.

But it is also not cheap. The price was $50 per square foot. I have to say though, I was very impressed with the quality of the construction and it’s the first time I’ve told someone “that is a good shag rug.”

ACRYLIC SHAG = FIRE HAZARD!

The synthetic knock-off of wool is acrylic.

For those who “know” wool, they can spot acrylic right away. It lacks the luster and vibrancy of dyed wool, and the texture is scratchier (which makes sense because it is plastic).

Acrylic white shag rug.

As with some of the comments made before about shag “felted” wool, acrylic also (even more so) grabs lint, hair, and “gunk” and does not let it go. These rugs are very hard to keep clean, and the tufts are even easier to pull out as well. These rugs are usually quite cheap to buy, so we are seeing them pop up more and more because they are a cheaper way to have the “look” of wool without the price.

But unlike wool, a big danger of acrylic is that it is HIGHLY flammable.

Up close acrylic fibers.

Wool as a fiber self-extinguishes when lit with a flame. It will literally put itself out (this is due to the high moisture content in the fiber to begin with).

That is one of the pluses of wool as a fiber for clothing or for a rug on the floor or any other fabrics in a living environment. (I don’t know if you’ve noticed when you fly that the interior floor and seat fabrics are generally all wool, which will not burn unless under constant and continuous strong flame, unlike most other fibers.)

Acrylic when it was first used in clothing was discovered to be highly flammable, and government standards had to be established (especially for children’s clothing) which brought the addition of fire retardant to fabrics in clothing and on furniture. You usually see this referred to as “modular” acrylic.

But I am not seeing that same treatment reaching the rug world in our area.  I can tell you that the last few acrylic shag rugs I’ve fiber tested by burning a tuft, have not just burned – they have IGNITED into a big flame and burned very fast.

Anyone purchasing a rug made of acrylic needs to be aware that the screaming deal they got on the price might actually be bringing a serious fire hazard into their home. We’ve seen two client fires this past Christmas holiday, one where a grandchild playing with fire dropped it on to a blanket that caught fire, and then spread to the rug, and then another where a cat knocked over a candle onto a rug that caught fire.

A low pile acrylic would obviously be difficult to “ignite” – but these shaggy construction acrylic rugs, I would not even allow one into my home.

DESIGNER SHAG = PRICEY… and can be COSTLY to maintain.

Then you have a lot of whacky construction shag rugs using synthetic fibers, artificial silk, and even leather strips.

= Leather shag rugs.

I like the look of the shaggy bomber jacket on this rug.

Leather shag rug.

The challenge with leather shag rugs is that as they age, they lose their sizing, their color, and their “look.” When brand new the strips of leather are perky and bright and stiff, and they are quite cool looking.

It is possible to clean these rugs with leather cleaner and not have to fully wash them (washing can remove the sizing that makes them stiffer, and can remove color) – but usually when we see leather shag rugs there has been a dog in the home, and there are pet puddles in the backing material (usually absorbent cotton) and that rug just flat out needs a serious bath or it will just have to be thrown away.

This is an example of a cool idea… but a not super practical choice for a home with pets. And these rugs are understandably expensive if the quality of the leather is good.

= Synthetic shag rugs (polyester, nylon, and viscose).

Then you have a whole host of synthetic designer shag rugs, which even though synthetic fibers are much less hard cost to use, does not mean that the custom rug designs are cheaper. You see prices all over the map depending on the “designer” brand.

Some synthetics are made to look like leather strips:

Synthetic shag rug.

Others are made to look like silk, like this viscose and polyester blend:

Side view construction of viscose-poly shag.

One of the “pluses” of synthetic rugs is that they are all primarily plastic fibers, so they can take the heat (and chemicals) of hot water extraction (“steam” cleaning) which natural fiber rugs like wool cannot. This means synthetic rugs can be surface cleaned this way at much less cost to the owner because steam cleaning a rug takes a fraction of the time as thoroughly washing it does.

Unfortunately, with this type of shag synthetic construction, even with the powerful tools at a carpet cleaning company’s disposal, they also would need to literally try to clean these rugs with upholstery cleaning hand tools because full carpet wands and machines would not work on those long strands. They would pull the tufts out and unravel the rug.

It’s a lose/lose situation.

SHAG RUG CLEANING CHALLENGES

Here are the challenges facing professional rug cleaners AND rug owners when they have a dirty shag rug on their hands:

1) You can’t vacuum them. Even if you have a canister vacuum, or an upholstery attachment tool, you have to literally vacuum in between the fibers row by row to try to get most (but not all) of the “gunk” out of the middle of these rugs. It’s time consuming, but if you love the look of the rug when you buy it new, then you have to commit to the regular upkeep… or plan to replace it in a few years.

You just can’t vacuum it… and it NEEDS it badly!

2) You can’t spot clean. Spills have to be quickly blotted up or just give up. The cotton construction of the backing material can quickly suck up a spill, and if it’s anything food-related you can attract bugs with the contents not removed from the rug right away.

3) You can’t D-I-Y clean. These rugs are much too heavy to move, and impossible to dry if you own one and try to clean it yourself. If you are a professional rugs cleaner, sometimes in a full wash system you can use a softer pressure washer spray (700 p.s.i) to try to clean in between the rows – with some constructions that will help the grime release. Just take care to not cause pile distortion or loss.

Incredibly tough to get this rug super clean. It’s going to flower and fuzz with scrubbing, so what’s a cleaner to do? Sometimes some slightly higher pressure water can help.

4) You can’t get odor out easily. The cotton foundations of many of these shag rugs absorbs urine easily from pet accidents, and you need A LOT of water to get those contaminants out. Surface cleaning is NOT going to solve this problem, in these cases the shag rugs must be fully and professionally washed.  Even then, if the backing has latex adhesive in it, you may not ever get all of the odor out of the rug. That is why these are not the ideal rugs for homes with pets that are not trained.

5) There is no quicker, cheaper clean. Even synthetic shag rugs, which should be steam cleaned, can’t because of the construction. That means the only option is washing them, which is a labor intensive service. So if the cleaning price is more than the price of the rug, you might just plan to buy a new one every 2 or so years. (Rugs under regular use should be cleaned every 18-24 months. If you dust/vacuum them regularly, you can extend it to 30 months, and any longer than that the rug is truly not sanitary after all of the feet, shoes, and paws walking all over it. Just buy another new, clean rug.)

There used to be shag wall-to-wall carpet several decades ago until everyone realized what a nightmare it was to live with and keep clean. Sometimes kids even got lost in those fibers! =)

The same fate will happen with today’s shag rugs… they will go out of style when it becomes apparent how tough, and how expensive, it  is to keep these rugs looking good.

Happy Rug Cleaning!

- Lisa

P.S. If you are looking for rugs and do not know what to buy, here’s a past post on what to look for when buying rugs, and another on the pros/cons of synthetic rugs versus natural fiber rugs.

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2012/03/shag-rugs-what-you-need-to-know/

The biggest fear most rug cleaners have regarding rugs is that the rug might bleed while in their care.

Bled Afghan rug.

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, the biggest bled rug disasters I’ve seen in my career have been when cleaners have brought me rugs that they should have not cleaned in the first place, and they could have avoided their disaster through the simple step of doing a proper dye test.

If you do not know know how to do a proper dye test, here is how I do one.

Lisa’s Dye Test Video Clip

I use hot water for my test, but you can also use a high pH spotter. And if the dye bleeds when you test with either of those items, you need to test with your DYE STABILIZER solution to make sure you can safely clean the rug. If it bleeds with your stabilizer, you are in trouble.

My latest article in Cleanfax Magazine on Why Dyes Bleed is down below. I’ve linked to the entire PDF article so that you can print it out to reference. All of the photos of bled rugs are real rug disasters from cleaners who did not know that the way they were cleaning the rugs was going to ruin them. Unfortunately they were all very expensive mistakes… much more expensive than paying for proper rug training would have been.

Hopefully this helps explain any past dye migration challenges you have had, and gives you some insight to avoid disasters in your rug cleaning business.

Happy Rug Cleaning!

- Lisa

P.S. Looking for more rug care training? Jim Pemberton and I have the most comprehensive real-world textile program in the industry for oriental rug and fine fabric care. If you want to be a Textile Pro, take a look at the details on our Textile Pro page.
Cleanfax – Why Dyes Bleed

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2012/02/rug-dyes-what-makes-them-bleed/

It used to be, about a decade ago, that if you wanted to buy a rug you went to a rug store. And odds are, you’d walk away with a wool rug.

Wool is the best fiber on the planet for rugs. It’s strong, dyes up vividly, always washes up beautifully, and lasts and last and lasts.

Persian rug from mid-1800′s, and still looks fantastic!

Even the lesser quality wool rugs from a decade ago, perhaps the ones more heavily chemically processed from China, still would last you decades. So your choice back then was great investment wool rugs (sold at Rug Galleries) and not-so-great commodity wool rugs (perhaps the ones being sold at Home Depot Expo).

But still, if it was wool, it was worth owning back then.

Today it’s a whole different ballgame. And the market is flooded with SYNTHETIC area rugs.

The synthetic fibers, olefin (aka polypropylene), polyester, and acrylic, are being used to create “FAKE” wool rugs… but as you can see side by side, it’s like putting particle board next to real wood:

FAKE on left (acrylic), REAL on right (wool).

Now, some might think it is great that we now have a lot of inexpensive synthetic area rugs on the market. These people would be wrong, because the low cost rugs end up having a high cost that the buyers need to be aware of…

…because the sales people are not going to tell you this.

Pros and Cons of Today’s SYNTHETIC Fiber Area Rugs

PROS:

1) They are cheap.

If you pay more than $5 per sq ft for a synthetic olefin (polypropylene) or polyester or acrylic rug, you are being RIPPED OFF. You should truly pay next to nothing for these rugs because there is no labor cost in their production (all are machine made) and the fibers are essentially poor quality plastic.

This is basically the big “pro” of these rugs, that they are cheap.

The back of olefin rugs are hard to the touch – they feel like plastic because they are plastic.

CONS:

1) They require MORE cleaning.

The great thing about wool is that those fibers have lots of “pockets” in its construction to hide dust and grit, so they look good even when they are dirty.

That is NOT the case with olefin, polyester, and acrylic, which are plastic fibers and solid and smooth strands. This means there is no place to “hide” soil so it simply sticks to the outside of the fibers, and these rugs get duller, and uglier faster as a result. This means you will want to clean your synthetic rugs after months on the floor rather than after a year or two with your wool rugs. Synthetic rugs get ugly faster.

Because they are synthetic, if there are no issues like pet urine or flood exposure contamination, they can be surface cleaned with Hot Water Extraction (aka “steam cleaning”) and can be cleaned using more aggressive cleaning solutions than can be used on wool.

“Blah” looking acrylic rug. Flat colors. Texture looks like a sponge.

2) They wear and yellow faster.

Because they are plastic, they do not have longevity, and do not wear well with abrasion. In fact, most wall-to-wall carpet in commercial buildings is installed olefin carpet (because it’s CHEAP!). So the next time you are in a commercial building take a look at the entryways and high traffic areas of their carpet, and you will see how worn down that carpet gets after only a few years.

By the way, home improvement stores often carry olefin (polypropylene) carpet for homes (because it’s CHEAP!), but this is the absolute worst fiber to have for residential homes because it simply does not hold up to foot traffic. Look for nylon instead if you want synthetic fibers for your wall-to-wall carpeting.

Olefin, polyester, and acrylic can get worn after just a few years on the floor.

3) They are STICKY and SCRATCHY. (Regular vacuums will not help you.)

The most maddening thing about these cheaper synthetic rugs for their owners, and for the professional cleaners who are asked to clean them, is that they grab everything and are tough to get to release lint, hair, and grime.

These new synthetic shag rugs being sold by stores like Pottery Barn, are next to impossible to get looking super clean because professional cleaners need to literally try to “pull away” what washing does not release row by row. This construction type also cannot be surface cleaned with today’s tools, so sometimes you get rugs that require much more labor to clean, sometimes exceeding what was paid for the rug in the first place. to buy it

With shorter pile synthetic fiber area rugs, you will be tempted if you own one to just get a lint roller to try to roll up the stuff sticking to the fibers that your vacuum cleaner cannot pick up. It’ll use a lot of lint roller sheets though. =)

The only vacuum cleaners I’ve seen effective at getting lint and pet hair off of these types of rugs are the Sebo vacuum cleaners, which are fantastic, and powerful, German made machines, but also not a cheap machine in order to vacuum up a cheap rug.

They also, because they are plastic, are not super soft to the touch. They aren’t rugs that feel great when you walk on them barefoot, and kids certainly are not going to want to roll around on them.

4) They often have JUTE foundations. (If you have PETS, you will hate this fact.)

If you have pets that are not properly trained, you will have a problem with synthetic rugs not because of the plastic fibers.  Actually, olefin fibers though they ugly with grime, they are pretty much stain proof. But these plastic fibers are often wrapped  around jute.

Jute is an absorbent plant fiber that looks like straw:

Front corner of synthetic rug.

Back corner of synthetic rug, see the thick beige jute wefts.

Because nothing can penetrate the olefin fibers themselves (they have no “pockets”), there would technically be nothing to “hold” the odor in them…

…but the jute is another story entirely. And being thick compacted jute fibers, they hold odor like no other fiber can. They are the king of odor-holding fibers!

This means if you have any odor issues with synthetic rugs, you have two choices: one, to know that you will have to likely pay quite a bit more to clean and deodorize your rug by having it thoroughly washed than you paid for the rug to buy it; or, two, go buy another one and hope your pet does not repeat the problem.

Again, if the synthetic rug just is “dirty” and dull looking, it can be surface cleaned with hot water carpet cleaning equipment and chemicals. But if there are ODOR issues, or exposure from a FLOOD, the rugs need to be fully washed and deodorized – or simply replaced if that is the cheaper and easier option.

(FYI: With hand woven rugs, removing odors is not a problem. A proper wash process thoroughly removes the contaminants from urine exposure or flood exposure from wool and cotton fiber rugs.)

5) They are petroleum products, so they are not sustainable resources.

These plastic fibers are made from petroleum. There are some people who are not aware that synthetic fibers are plastic. They may not want to own them due to political, or environmental, or perhaps health reasons.

What’s nice about wool is that it’s a renewable resource…

…it grows back year after year to be sheared.

6) You will never say “WOW” after these synthetic rugs are cleaned.

What’s great about being a cleaner of wool rugs is that there is always a “wow” between when a client brings it in dirty, to when it is clean again.

One of the drags about having more synthetic rugs on the market today is that often the buyers of these rugs are not aware they are synthetic, and after they pay good money for a good cleaning, the “after” look of the rug is better but never a “wow.”

Olefin (synthetic) area rug. It’s never going to look great.

DISPOSABLE rugs vs. ENJOYABLE rugs

When I was growing up in our rug gallery business, the two groups of rugs we had were “investment” and “decorative” rugs.

I was surrounded by antique and semi-antique works of woven art in our gallery. I was always amazed by the stories of how these rugs were literally knot by knot crafted by hand over months, and sometimes years, of weaving.

Today the rug market has been overridden by a lot of really bad product. There are cheap synthetic rugs, and cheap wool tufted rugs, all basically considered “disposable” rugs. The synthetic ones, because of the problems I’ve noted already, and the tufted rugs because of the growing problem with the latex holding them together. The landfills are slowly being filled with these rugs that only last a few years.

There are however, still “enjoyable” REAL rugs out there. WOVEN rugs. Rugs with a part of a weaver’s heart and soul added to the strands.

You might think that to buy a woven rug will set you back financially, but there is actually good quality new woven wool rugs at very affordable prices available. My rug friend Barry O’Connell on his oriental rug website recently laid out a comparison between an average new tufted wool rug price and a new woven wool rug to see what the difference was… it may surprise you.

It basically all comes down to this regarding synthetic fiber area rugs…

…if you need a rug that you don’t want to worry about, you could care less about the look because you are using it for a floorcovering rather than as a decorative addition to your home, and you know you will replace it in a few years – then buy a synthetic rug. (Or perhaps a wool tufted one if you want something that hides soil better than olefin.)

I have both in my house. A few small tufted wool rugs, and a few olefin mats, literally being used as door entry rugs because I did not want feet being wiped off on hand crafted woven rugs… that just seems disrespectful even though a wool woven rug could take it very well. Wool woven rugs are tough.

When I look at a hand woven rug though I see a piece of a weaver’s life in front of me…

,,,so I don’t like wiping my feet on it. =)

And with that, you know more than you probably wanted to about today’s synthetic fiber area rugs.

If you are a consumer, you know whether a synthetic rug is what you really want and need. (You can read up on more rug buying tips if you feel like you want to find “real” rugs to purchase, and if you plan to buy a rug from Pottery Barn, you can see what is good and what is not.).

If you are a rug cleaner, you probably already know some of the challenges being presented to us in the field today with these specific synthetic rugs, and perhaps this post can help you explain these situations better to your clients who own them.

Happy Rug Cleaning!

- Lisa

P.S. If you are a professional cleaner who wants to know how to get trained by “me” in the rug cleaning craft and business, just send an email to my team at textilepros@gmail.com for more information. Jim Pemberton and I are in the midst of compiling a waiting list for our 2012 and 2013 Textile Pro training programs.

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2012/01/cheap-synthetic-rugs-what-you-need-to-know/

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 nice woven rugs coming from Afghanistan in particular. They have some very decorative wool hand woven rugs in their Arzu line. I like that they are funding a craft that is allowing women in Afghanistan to make a living for themselves and helps support education in the region. The ARZU project is a production line to absolutely support.

As you recall, you determine if a rug is “woven” by whether  you can see the design on the back of the rug exactly as you see it on the front, like this:

Woven wool rug.

So the WOVEN rugs that Pottery Barn is selling are very good rugs. But that is just a fraction of what they sell today.

The problems are coming from their “other” rugs, in particular their TUFTED rugs and other specialty pieces using “natural” fibers.

Tufted rugs have a material on the back, like this:

Tufted rugs have canvas material on the back.

Whoever is running their TUFTED rug department (including their Pottery Barn Kids rugs), and their “earth friendly” rug department are choosing some of the most difficult, if not impossible, rugs to live with and maintain.

As a professional cleaner (or a consumer shopping for rugs), these are the ones to keep an eye out for to avoid… or be very careful with:

RUG TO RUN FROM = TUFTED RUGS FROM INDIA

We wash hundreds of rugs a week, so we see “flawed” product relatively quickly because we wash a whole host of natural and synthetic woven and tufted rugs.

Without a doubt, there is something seriously wrong with the tufted rugs coming out of India today, and in particular the lines being sold at Pottery Barn. These are the problems we are seeing on a consistent basis from TUFTED rugs from India:

1) “Burnt Rubber” Odor from the Latex

I’ve discussed this problem on this blog before, the strong pungent odor that comes from these India tufted rugs. The latex is either mixed with filler that has contaminants that off-gas over time, or the latex itself has soured before application. Both lead to a smell that is similar to a mix between burnt rubber or asphalt and stinky dirty socks.

It is AWFUL.  And it is NOT correctible to my knowledge.

And if you don’t want to just take my word for it, here is just one post where SCORES of people post their smelly horror stories with these problem India tufted rugs from Pottery Barn.

To Pottery Barn’s credit, as you can see in the thread over several years of posts, you see that there is an “easy” exchange process for those who want to replace their rugs for ones that do not smell (i.e. the rugs WITHOUT latex used in the construction).

What I do not understand is why with such a high volume of documented complaints on-line, why they would insist on carrying so many TUFTED rugs in their Kids selections. When you have kids crawling and playing on rugs, why would you let them breathe in those *bad* odors?

I keep seeing statements that the odors are not “harmful” – but isn’t the fact that something smells bad enough to get away from it mean your body’s warning system is telling you it’s *bad*?

The problem seems to get worse over time, and becomes more noticeable when rolled up for a time, or closed up in a room with no air circulation. It also becomes more apparent when it gets wet – which means if you ever spill on it, or need to have it cleaned, there will be an issue.

So, in the worst case situations, these rugs are not cleanable. (Why would you own a rug you cannot clean?)

Here’s an example of a backing of one of these types of problem tufted rugs:

Tufted rug. The material is covering up latex, and it smells.

Here’s the labels on the back:

Labels. “Natural rubber latex” tends to be the smelly culprit.

2) Delamination of the Latex

In the India Tufted rugs, we are also seeing today a lot of “filler” being used with the latex mixture that simply cannot hold up to age, being walked on, or moisture. The latex delaminates and crumbles and cracks. One of the reasons they cover it up with that material is because without it you would have a HORRIBLE mess on your floor.

Here’s an India Tufted rug that is delaminating:

Latex is crumbling.

Here’s another one:

Backing has fallen off and latex is crumbling away.

The problem with these inferior grade India Tufted rugs, besides the mess, is that when this latex crumbles away the rug loses both its shape and the fibers themselves. This means that if the owner wants to continue using this rug, the professional rug cleaners needs to wash the piece very carefully, remove as much *bad* latex and filler as possible from the back side, and then apply a new latex coating (without the filler powder) and a new material backing.

This type of repair is NOT inexpensive. So people who choose to buy a TUFTED rug because it’s a bit cheap than a WOVEN rug, will end up having to pay for a wash and a repair – so it ends up costing them more to care for that rug.

Tufted rugs also only last years, whereas woven rugs last for decades, if not a century or more (if woven well and properly cared for). So as with all things, if you pay a cheaper price for it… there is probably a reason why…

…and you will find out soon enough.

3) Discoloration and “Uglying” of the Backing Material

The canvas or linen or jute backing material is covering up ugly latex. When the rugs are spilled on, or when they are washed, this backing gets water marks, latex discoloration, and browning as a result. This is a common sight on the back of TUFTED rugs:

India Tufted rug. Backing gets discolored.

Sometimes the discolorations are some “yellowing” from the cotton/linen/jute used, and can be improved with some additional cleaning of the back:

Tufted rug from China – light yellowing.

But on the whole, if you own a TUFTED rug, and particularly the ones from India with the added filler in it, you will be getting a rug with a blotchy and marked backing after it is cleaned. The material can be replaced, but I find that most people when given a substantial repair estimate do not really care what the back of the rug looks like as long as it is clean and the front looks good. They understand that washing a rug like this, that cotton backing acts as a “filter” as latex, filler, soil, and water all flows through it.

4) Buckling of the Top Side and Shedding of Fibers

With TUFTED rugs, how “square” it is or isn’t is based on that latex and the material backing. So when it begins to delaminate, the shape of the rug gets lost. The top side get waves in it, Sometimes a few:

Waves on top side.

Sometimes A LOT:

Bad latex leads to lots of buckling in the rug.

Coinciding with the deterioration of the latex, as mentioned before, the tufts of wool can pull loose when there is no strong latex holding it in place. You might find full strands pulling away from the rug, or if the rug is made of inferior grade wool (sometimes in India this can come from being sheared from dead sheep), then it will break off and shed.

You will notice when you are on the Pottery Barn website they mention that “some” shedding is expected from wool rugs. This is true. Wool is spun with many short strands together, and then the rug is shaved after being crafted to have an even pile on the front, so yes, there will be some shedding.

However, better quality production will WASH a rug after it is woven to remove many of these loose short clippings. So “some” shedding should be very little. If you have a rug that is consistently shedding, and when you run your fingers across the face it breaks away with pressure or light pulling, then that is a PROBLEM rug. That is a sign of bad wool. which you often will find in TUFTED rugs that are at cheaper prices.

Wool is strong. It is literally the best fiber for use in rugs.

If you ever have a wool rug that feels brittle, or breaks easily, that is a bad sign. Either it was bad quality wool to begin with, or it has been so heavily chemically processed, that it has become weak. You want to run from rugs like these.

RUG TO RUN FROM = CHUNKY WOOL SHAG RUGS

I’m not sure why these rugs were created.  Our nickname for these rugs are noodle rugs, because they look like big noodles:

Noodle shag rug.

They are big chunks of wool strung into a material backing. Sometimes they have latex on the backing, and sometimes they are just loosely strung in, which makes them state that the rug is “woven” when I would not of course ever call these “hand woven” or “hand knotted” rugs.

Here’s the label:

Label says keep in a “well-ventilated area” … which means it STINKS too!

If you see these rugs at first you might look kind of cool, especially in their variety of colors…

…but if you have ever owned a shaggy dog, then you will understand why these rugs are super tough to maintain and care for. The problem is, getting soil, lint, and general “fuzziness”  out of these fibers is as tough to do as combing out those spurs and knots are from your shaggy dog’s fur.

These rugs often require a great deal of extra hand work after cleaning to literally comb through row by row to try to “pull up” anything that was tangled up too much in that felted type of wool to wash away.

This means cleaning these rugs, even though they are not super expensive to buy, will often cost you more to do than if you had gotten that higher price woven rug.

This is one of those rugs that when you first see them, you think they are cool, and then you realize that it was a completely impractical choice for a floor covering and that you should have run from it.

RUG TO RUN FROM = “EARTH-FRIENDLY” PLANT FIBER RUGS

First of all, the MOST earth friendly rug you can own is a woven wool rug. Wool is a completely sustainable and renewable resource that grows back year after year.

But several stores are crafting rugs they deem as “earth friendly” from plant fibers and attempting to imply that these are also good rug choices. These rugs are made from SISAL, JUTE, and RAYON.

The problem with sisal and jute, besides the fact that they feel like wicker furniture instead of a soft rug fiber like wool, is that they both release oil when wet, yellow, and get brittle with age.

What is interesting is that on their website they state that sisal is “stain-resistant” when actually stains are quite difficult to remove from sisal. When a spill gets on it, and oils from the plant fibers release, it makes darker areas that can be tough to even out. And if the owner of the sisal rug has pets, and the spill is pet urine, the rug cannot be soaked to remove the contaminants because the cloth border binding may shrink, or the rubber/latex backing may  have structural problems.

To be safe with sisal, you need to use it in areas where you don’t feel there will ever be any spills, and no pets. And you just need to know that if you have a spill disaster on the rug, that you may have to replace the rug.

With jute, when it gets wet it likes to yellow and brown badly. For some strange reason, jute is being used as a foundation fiber on many of today’s lesser quality rugs. (I guess I answered the “strange reason” – it’s used because it’s cheap! LOL.)

Here’s a cotton rug with jute foundation warps that are creating yellowing in this rug:

Jute on the inside of this rug is creating yellowing in the cotton rug.

When you wash these rugs, a cotton shampoo with an acid rinse can help lessen the browning of both the jute and the cotton, but over time this will become a more noticeable problem (especially if spills occur on the rug).

The problems with rayon/viscose rugs, which is used as artificial silk, are many that I’ve covered in depth on this blog. It bleeds and fades, it breaks, and it yellows.

These rugs all look great when they are brand new, and then they proceed on getting “less pretty” with time.  I know I keep hammering how woven rugs are the better choice, but that’s because after DECADES a good quality woven rug will still look like it did when new…

… but these plant fiber rugs begin to look worse in just a year. And if you spill on them, they look worse even faster.

Here is a Pottery Barn rug that has the TRIFECTA of tricky components: RAYON face fibers, JUTE foundation, and LATEX backing:

When this rug was new, it looked more like “silk” and was whiter. The fibers of rayon and jute, both of which yellow with moisture and age, are giving this rug a yellower look over time.

The label indicated the “fragile” strength of this rug in that it warns against many things: spills, sunlight, heavy furniture, and spot removers:

Warnings, warnings, warnings…

The owner did use some household spot removers on this rug, which due to the rayon did in fact make it lose what color it had in the fibers to begin with:

Sensible spotting led to bad results.

The fact is, if this rug had been wool this result would not have happened. It’s because the fibers are weak and sensitive that there was a problem.

(By the way – for safe spotting tips for spills on wool rugs, here are some safe rug care tips.)

You can see with this rug also, we have the LATEX factor, where a rug with any type of furniture on it is creating creasing problems in the backing construction itself.

Backing is not strong on plant fiber rugs.

Now, the person who bought this rug did so because she liked the look of it, and she believed that it was a quality piece because of the price she paid. She was not aware that the cloth binding material used would begin to buckle, that the backing latex would lose its flat shape, that the jute and rayon would begin to yellow, and that she would never be able to spill anything on the rug without it being a disaster to the way the rug looked.

With plant fibers it is sometimes possible to bleach out some problems, but this is extra work above and beyond regular cleaning, so it makes it more money to maintain this type of rug.

And that is what this all comes down to…

…EDUCATION.

The fact is, when consumers realize the differences between woven rugs and tufted rugs, or wool rugs and plant fiber rugs, and they are given the pros and cons of each, then they feel they can make educated buying decisions.

It’s when they buy a rug they like, and discover problems they were unaware of – strong odor, weak fibers, bad latex – that is when they feel they were sold bad goods. That’s when consumer feel ripped off…

…even if it was not a very expensive rug to begin with.

So now you know some of the common problem rugs being sold at Pottery Barn, and can choose whether to buy them or not – and if you are a cleaner, whether you want to clean them (or CAN clean them…) or not.

My hope is that there are enough complaints coming in about these specific rugs, that they are changing the rugs they carry. I don’t think any company likes to be knows for selling “rugs to run from.” And I know us rug cleaners don’t enjoy cleaning them. =)

Happy Rug Cleaning!

- Lisa

P.S. Just a heads-up that we are currently accepting applications for the 2012 Textile Pro Program, which is an advanced rug and fine fabric care training program by Jim Pemberton and myself. We are currently choosing the companies that we will be working with throughout 2012. If you think you might have what it takes to be a Textile Pro, then send an email with the subject RUG TRAINING to textilepros@gmail.com.  Merry Christmas Happy New Year!

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2011/12/pottery-barn-rugs-to-run-from/

Rug dealers as a “group” get a bad rap.

Everyone has heard a story, or seen an exposé, on someone being ripped off on a rug purchase. They were sold an “antique”…when it wasn’t. Or they were sold a silk rug…when it was actually viscose or mercerized cotton.

It’s an industry that is similar to the “carpet cleaning” industry in that it’s a small percentage of unethical bad apples that ruins the reputation of the group at large. And just as not every cleaner is a bait-and-switch operation, neither is every rug dealer a bait-and-switch retailer. There are great retailers selling great textiles out there.

Beautiful Persian rugs for sale.

When I hear a “horror” story on a rug it usually comes down to this one factor – that the buyer did not get any education on what they were buying beforehand. So they were at the mercy of the rug villain.

Whose fault is that exactly? Yes the scheming dealer saw the person as a mark…

…but the buyer should not have been a “mark” in the first place.

So this is a post to help educate rug buyers out there in some of the basics of a “good” rug. This is based on my experience of growing up with parents in the rug business (selling antique rugs) and with my mother and brothers and team running a rug washing and repairing facility today in San Diego.

Me and my mom Kate.

This gives me the retailer perspective (and it is hard work to run a retail shop today…especially in California) and also gives me the perspective of the caretaker of these textiles, so I know the bad fibers and dyes and manufacturers to avoid.

So if you are looking to buy a rug, and truly are starting from ground zero and are nervous about it, here are some guidelines that I hope will help you feel like a more confident consumer.

Rug Buying Tips For Nervous Rug Shoppers:

1) Find the right COMPANY.

Just over a decade ago you found woven rugs only in galleries. Today you find them all over the place, and all different qualities. Especially now that synthetic rugs and inferior goods have moved into our market, and they are getting good at making a lot of low quality area rugs, it’s getting tough to know what’s worth paying for and what is a complete waste of money.

A mass market budget store is not going to be selling high quality merchandise in rugs. If you are looking to buy a quality rug for your home, and you are looking in Home Depot or Lowes or Costco, you are not going to find them there.

But you knew that already. =)

They may have some good commodity rugs to use in places you need a rug to get beat up in. I have a couple wool tufted rugs that I use as entry mats because wool is great at grabbing and hiding soil, and lasts longer than synthetic fibers. I like my woven wool rugs too much to make them my entry rugs. They are my rug friends, much older than I am, and I just respect and enjoy them too much for putting them at the front door.

So, if you are looking for rugs of quality, with great colors and character, you are going to find these in several places:

= Rug Galleries: Yes there are still galleries that sell only hand woven oriental rugs around. New and antique textiles. The stores who are perpetually running “going out of business sales” need to be avoided. This is where flawed merchandise is trucked in for a “tent sale” to move items that were not good enough to sell to begin with. This is absolutely an area to ask around for who others refer to you as a good company.

A good place to ask who to buy from is your local rug cleaners. We cleaners see new and old rugs, hundreds and hundreds a week, and we absolutely know what the good rugs are and what the garbage is. So ask your trusted cleaner who they think is good to buy from.

A peer of mine, Barry O’Connell, has a list of some of the rug dealers he knows and trusts across the US. If you are in the San Diego area (my town!), a great gallery to visit is Prospect Rug Gallery in La Jolla for “real” investment grade oriental rugs. And if you ever find yourself in Jacksonville, Florida, the most amazing gallery of rugs and art I’ve ever been to is Mussallem Galleries. You must add it to your trip, it’s worth the visit, trust me.

My niece Katie (when she was little) with a little Navajo weaving.

= Furniture Flooring Stores: Rugs “finish” or can “make” a room, so you will see with stores that specialize in furnishings, or specialty hard floors, that they also carry rugs. These stores do not have the staff research that 100% rug stores have, so they may have rugs that look good but are not high quality. With tips later in this post on determining quality you will be able to make a good choice, but you can often find good rugs in some of these better quality furniture and flooring stores. You just need to know what you are looking at.

= Antique Stores Consignment Stores: You will often come across some real treasures in some of the hole-in-the-wall antique shops and consignment stores in your town. Often the owners are not knowledgable on rug quality, or pricing, and you can sometimes get great rugs here at good prices as well. But I personally just love to find new places to go “discover” hidden rugs that are beat up, dirty, and that I know I can bring back to life back at our shop.

1930′s Fette Chinese rug and hand crank antique washtub wringer I found at a local antique shop.

2) Find the right RUG.

A rug is only as good as the ingredients and skill that went into making it, so if you are looking for a quality rug you want to see good fibers, good dyes, and good construction.

FIBERS: The good, the bad, and the ugly.

The best fiber for rugs is by far wool. It is the strongest, most vibrant, and most resilient fiber to be walking on. A low quality wool rug will outlast the best synthetic fiber (nylon, acrylic, polyester, olefin) all day long. Plus wool is fantastic at hiding dust and soil, so it also looks cleaners and better longer than other fibers.

Wool is the best fiber for rugs.

Wool is also the only true “green” choice if you are trying to save the world =), because it is a truly sustainable resource (sheep replenish the supply annually!). All of the synthetic options are made from petroleum by-products (i.e. they are plastic).

That said, there are some inferior qualities of wool. The lesser quality wool feels more brittle, and it breaks and sheds. Rub your thumb over the wool and see if it has a smooth but firm feel, or if instead it feels more like “straw.” Brittle wool can be due to inferior breeding in the sheep, or wool that was sheared from ill or dead sheep. It can also be due to heavy chemical processing that has made it “lifeless.” But on the whole, there is a lot of really good quality wool rugs out there.

Silk is also an excellent – but pricy – fiber for weaving some amazing rugs. This is an area where I will see the most “rip-off’s” of people trying to pass off inferior “wild” silk blended with rayon/viscose as the real deal.

Quality silk rugs have a high knot count, vibrant colors, and a thin pile.

Silk fibers are strong (not as strong as wool fibers are in terms of being walked on), but I have always had a problem with silk rugs being used on the floor. With silk textiles sometimes having as many as 1500 knots per square inch, truly incredible detail, I like to see them mounted on the walls as tapestries rather than having feet, shoes, and paws all over them. But that’s me. =) Since many silk rugs will bleed when spilled on, we take the risk?

Reference past posts on real silk rugs and also fake silk rugs, for more tips on identifying the quality silk merchandise and the lemons that are “rugs to run from.” Viscose rugs are truly the worst rug choices out there right now, you can read why on my past post: “Viscose rugs are garbage.”

There are trade-offs depending on what you are after. If you want cheap rugs to put on the floor, you are going to be buying synthetic fibers. The trade off is they are not as nice looking, and they “ugly” faster because they do not hide soil as well as natural fibers do so you will be cleaning them more often.

Here is an acrylic (synthetic) Tabriz design rug:

Acrylic machine made Tabriz design rug.

Now… this acrylic rug was made in Iran. Machine made, and synthetic fiber, but given the “Tabriz” design I can guarantee that the person who purchased it was told “this rug was made in Iran, it’s a Tabriz” and technically that rug dealer would not be lying. And the owner may have paid believing they purchased a Tabriz (a well known hand weaving city) that would have resale value down the road. But this one is not worth much at all. Synthetic fiber rugs never are.

Here’s a “real” Tabriz corner, a wool rug that is hand woven in Iran. (Note the rich colors and sheen, you do NOT get those colors in synthetic plastic fibers.)

Tabriz hand woven wool rug.

I lump FIBERS into 3 broad categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

GOOD = natural fibers (wool, silk, cotton).

These are the strongest, best to dye, and best to walk on fibers. They will also be what is used in hand woven rugs, which will tend to be your more valuable rugs to own. You will also see wool used in the higher quality machine woven rugs like Karastan.

BAD = synthetic fibers (nylon, olefin/polypropylene, acrylic, polyester).

These are the “fake” rugs that are trying to look like wool but are a poor substitute. You should buy these only if you know they are cheap product and you need a rug that you consider “disposable” after a few years.

UGLY = crummy rug fibers (rayon/viscose, sisal, jute).

These are fibers that really are a horrible choice to use as a rug. Rayon and viscose fibers are weak, they yellow, they bleed, and they shed. Sisal and jute you can’t have spills on because they release oils and discolor in a way that is truly tough to correct without using some bleaching agents. We often turn away sisal rugs as “un-cleanable” because the rubber they like to glue on the back, and the fabric binding they like to border the rugs with, are all cleaning headaches.

DYES: The good, the bad, and the ugly.

With dyes in terms of what is “good” and what is “bad” besides whether they are visually appealing to you is whether or not they are colorfast.

I lump DYES into 3 categories: the good, the bad, and the ugly.

GOOD = colorfast dyes.

These can be natural or synthetic dyes. It’s tough to “test” dye stability in a store. You can take a close look at the back and look for any visible dye migration already there as many rugs have been chemically washed  before going to market. You can also take a handkerchief and get it damp to test for any “easy” migration. Ideally, if you can take the rug out on consignment, you can do a proper dye test. If the transfer in the “test” is very slight (just a hue of color), then this is a strong dye, especially if the test was done with hot water as the video shows.

BAD = fugitive dyes.

These are the dyes that are not colorfast. So if you spill on them, they will bleed. It may be that the dyes are not strong quality, or it may be that the fibers have “excess” dye in them due to not being thoroughly rinsed before the weaving process. We see this sometimes in tribal rugs (like American Indian weavings or rugs from war-torn Afghanistan where water resources may be scarce). If the issue is “excess” dyes, then the first thorough washing will help remove this extra dye.

Testing the dye of an Afghan tribal wool rug.

When I say the dyes are “bad” this means either the original dye processing was not exceptional, or there were steps skipped during the production (like the lack of thorough rinsing away of excess dye). It is my experience that rug makers do not cut corners in just one area. Usually poor quality fibers are matched with poor quality dyes and poor quality construction. So a warning sign in this area of dyes is a trigger to look at the rug even closer before you buy it.

UGLY = over-dye treatments.

Some rugs are “colored” after they are woven. One popular treatment is “tea wash” over-dyeing. This is similar to a wash-in dye for your hair. It gives you color that washes out over time. You often see a sign of this treatment on the fringe, that instead of being white it’s beige.

Tea washed rug has beige fringe that is “blotchy.”

Some tea wash treatments are better than others, just like some hair dyes are stronger than others. It’s important to do a dye test to see what the quality of the rug is you are looking at. If the test shows little or no transfer, then yours will last years and through several washings. But some others are obviously bad jobs:

Bad tea wash treatment.

Sometimes tea wash treatments are used to hide past damage or flaws, especially past dye bleeding or stains, so carefully inspect the back of the rug to look for any flaws.

The other UGLY dye is the practice of some unscrupulous rug merchants to sell rugs that have been colored with ink. Some use India Ink to darken areas of wear to disguise them, or to blend away past stain damage (like pet urine stains).

The problem with ink is that it cannot be stabilized when cleaning, and so this will bleed all over the rug when washed. When purchasing an older rug, ask the rug dealer if there are any areas that have been dyed or colored. If he does not point any out to you, then have it written on the invoice as well, just to reinforce his commitment to you on that point. Then if anything ugly happens, you have a course of action to get your money back if you were lied to.

But even skilled rug eyes can sometimes miss the work being done by someone to intentionally hide damaged areas. Being able to take the rug on consignment and do a dye test (or have the rug dealer do a test in front of you at his shop) can show you any areas that may be painted.

One more point on this. This is “ugly” when it is not revealed to you in advance. Then it is meant to hide something that has devalued the rug you are looking at. However, with older rugs with worn areas, it may not be possible or financially feasible to reweave those areas and so repairs involving some dyeing and repiling is not unethical – it’s a way to support and protect those worn areas, while also making it look better.

What is unethical is NOT disclosing that work to you and implying that the rug is all original.

When you have a rug that is a hundred years old, it is expected to have wear and some “signs of age” (we all do!). But if a rug has been heavily painted, it will be a problem to have on the floor and used. If you are not sure of the condition of the rug you want to purchase, always consider getting an opinion from your trusted rug cleaner.

He/she will not be able to tell you value of the rug (that is the appraiser’s job), but cleaners can absolutely point out any problems with fibers and dyes in regard to it being used on the floor, and eventually being cleaned. It’s our job as cleaners to protect and maintain textiles, so we know what to look for as hidden dangers.

Patchwork rug, with pieces over-dyed in ink that comes off with spills and with cleaning.

Ink is a problem. In this rug above small squares of hand woven flatweaves are made into a patchwork rug, which is a really cool idea (we often make remnants of rugs into pillows) – but what is NOT cool is the excessive ink being used to color some of the squares. You can see spills on this rug where the ink has been wiped away and off. This will be a nightmare of ink if gotten wet by an untrained rug cleaner, and these rugs are selling for a lot of money likely without letting the buyer know that the ink can bleed as easily as it can (even underneath on to the floor under it).

It’s a situation where designers like the “look”…but have no idea of the dangers they are giving to their clients who buy the rugs they recommend.

I find that rug owners who are told that their rug is not cleanable get a bit upset that they were not told of this problem when they purchased their rug. So let’s talk about rug construction types, because I find that today rug owners are not being informed on the different types of rug constructions and why some are better than other – that they are only focusing on the “look” of the rug.

RUG CONSTRUCTION: The good, the bad, and the ugly. 

When you are purchasing a rug, I think it’s important that you know everything up front so that you can make an educated buying decision. Let’s keep with the same three categories, these are general groupings, obviously there are more detailed choices within each of these groups.

GOOD = woven rugs.

When I get a call about a rug to clean, I ask them if the rug is woven. If they say they do not know, then I ask them to flip over the corner of the rug. If they can see the design on the back the same as the front, it is woven. It may be hand woven, or machine woven, but it is woven nevertheless. And woven rugs, especially wool ones, should be washed professionally.

Flip the corner. If you see the design on the back – it is a woven rug.

To determine if the rug is hand woven or machine woven, takes a bit more skill (and determining what country it was woven in takes a great deal more skill…), but the basic rule of thumb is hand woven rugs have the “knots” tied around the warp threads – and those warps make up the fringe tassels.

Hand woven rug – wool fibers are wrapped around the warps. Those cotton strands running vertically make up the fringe tassels.

With machine woven rugs the tufted are wrapped around thick weft strands, and the fringe is typically sewn on afterwards with a sewing machine, and the sides are machine surged as well.

Machine woven rugs have the wool wrapped around the wefts (wefts run “weft” to right). Fringe is sewed on by machine and sides sewn on too.

From a construction standpoint, both hand woven and machine woven rugs, with good fibers (wool!) and good dyes, are going to be good rugs. The hand woven will obviously be a higher price, which we will address in the next section, purely due to the labor involved. But if you are looking for a sturdy good rug that is going to last you, you want to look for a woven rug.

BAD = tufted and tufted-hooked rugs.

If you flip the corner of your wool pile rug and see a material backing, then you have a tufted rug.

Tufted wool rug from India. The material hides latex holding it together.

Tufted rugs are what I call “fake” rugs, because they are constructed to create the look of a woven rug from the top, but they are actually made using a lot of shortcuts. The reason there is a material back is because the wool tufted are punched into a canvas with a tufting gun, and latex is poured all over the back to hold it together. There are a host of issues that can come up with tufted rugs related to their construction, the most important being they do not last anywhere near as long as woven rugs do under normal use.

Tufted rug with the backing material removed.

Tufted rugs can be quite decorative. And some do in fact use good quality wool and dyes. The issue is with that latex, which besides being ugly (that is why it’s covered up with material), can have a tendency to delaminate, crumble, and powder.

Tufts are simple loops so when the latex crumbles the tufts fall away easily.

Tufted rugs are to real woven rugs as particle board furniture is to real wood furniture.

IKEA sells a ton of particle board furniture. It’s nice looking, it’s easy to put together, and it’s cheap to buy. But no one is thinking about passing on those pieces to their children down the road, because they know they will not last, and will not have any resale value.

Likewise, many stores are selling tufted rugs. The problem is, many buyers are not aware that they are buying “particle board” quality merchandise, and they are not aware of the challenges that come up with these rugs.

Tufted rugs MUST be placed on a hard floor, because if it is placed over a soft floor (carpet) and furniture is placed on top of it, that latex will crack and break at those points of furniture. Sometimes a heavy pad will help avert this problem, otherwise the rug will get buckling and fiber loss over time.

Tufted rugs are VERY tough to remove pet urine and odor out of it. Once the urine penetrates the glue, your chances of getting the odor out is low. Full washing is the only way to get the contamination out, but tufted rugs by their very construction do not hold up well to long soaking to remove odor causing contaminants.

Tufted rugs with STRONG odors when they are new are flawed, contaminated merchandise. Sometimes lower quality tufted rugs from India have a bad odor that is like a mix of strong rubber and smelly socks. This is a sign of the latex souring before it was applied, or being mixed with bad contaminated filler, and this odor is NOT removable. Take the rug back for another one.

When people ask me what kind of rug they should buy, and they have pets or children who will be rolling on the rugs, I always direct them to getting woven rugs. No matter how much the makers of tufted rugs tell me the odors are “safe,” I know that when my nose tells me “YUCK” that something is not good. I would not let my kids roll around on tufted rugs.

And with pets, any accidents on that glue will lead to you likely having to buy a new rug, so unless the tufted rug is really cheap, I’d get a woven rug you can wash fully when you need to. (Or give your pets a nice backyard instead.) =)

That said, if you like the tufted rug you are looking at, and it’s the price you want to pay, and you don’t have pets, then go ahead and buy it…especially if it is wool. Like I mentioned before, I have some tufted wool rugs that I use as entry rugs, and they take the abuse well and I don’t have to feel guilty about having my hand woven nice rugs taking that beating. Tufted rugs absolutely serve a purpose in some cases. (Just don’t let anyone sell you a new tufted rug at a woven rug price, because that is wrong.)

UGLY = custom and crazy rugs.

Decorators and designers like to come up with great “unique” custom creations for rugs involving all fibers and fabrics imaginable. We are seeing today lots of “shag” rugs made of acrylic, polyester, wool, and leather.

Leather strip shag rug. Very tough to clean.

The toughest pieces are the “frankenstein’ed” custom rugs where a maker pieces together incompatible fibers or fabrics that each require different cleaning chemistry and methods.

Natural and synthetic fiber mix, and a poor backing construction.

Often these rugs need to be cleaned section by section to not create any disasters, and this often takes more time and will cost the owner more money. We charge extra to clean shag rugs like this one:

Shag rugs are tough to clean, and cost extra.

If any of you own shaggy hair dogs, you know how tough it is to both clean and brush that fur. It’s no different with rugs, except that while you may be cleaning your dog monthly, you usually only clean your rug once a year, so that shag gets super dirty…

…and tangly. These rugs need to be cleaned row by row, and with the new synthetic polyester shag rugs, you literally have to “pick” the lint and grime off the tufts because it gets caught up in the plastic weave.

Many of these new pieces being sold today we are turning away because it’s easier to have them buy a new rug when it gets super soiled versus them paying for our labor hours to clean the rug for them.

It may have looked like a cool design to begin with, but if you can’t easily clean it, it can become a costly “cool” purchase. If you are planning on making a designer rug purchase, you might take a quick photo and send it to your cleaner and just make sure it is cleanable first. Just to be safe.

So again, I’m partial to woven rugs, because they are the easiest to care for, and they last the longest.

And the question comes to this… you are looking at a rug, and you know it’s woven (because you see the design on the back same as the front), so is it a good price?

3) Find the right PRICE.

 ”What should I pay for an oriental rug?” is a question I get a lot. Especially from my clients getting ready to travel overseas on a trip to weaving countries.

The prices of rugs are all over the place. Over the past few months I’ve seen in our rug shop a rug that a client paid $200 for, and another who paid $200,000 for hers.

Rugs are like real estate, and the prices are based on location, quality, age, and how badly others want it too.

Photo by Temple Rugs Cultural Tours, used with permission. 3 DOBAG weavers crafting a Turkish rug by hand. www.templerugs.com.au

This hand woven rug will take 3 Turkish weavers approximately a year to weave a 9×12 rug. When people ask me why some new rugs are “so much” I ask them how much they would charge me to craft something 6 days a week for 12-14 months. Hand woven rugs are a piece of someone’s life, and to those of us who appreciate that type of artistry, we do not see the prices as “so much.”

When someone is traveling and asks me what to spend what I tell them is if the rug is wool, and they look at the back and see that it IS indeed woven, then if the price is $10 per sq. ft. – buy it.

A woven wool rug, even if it is not high quality, will be worth at least $10 per square foot. You will either be getting a fair price on new merchandise if the quality is “average” and a great price if the quality is great.

Without me seeing the rug, it’s hard to give a blanket price, but you are always safe at that $10 mark.

Now, there are MANY rugs selling for hundreds per square foot, including the rugs woven by the Turkish weavers you saw above, and these will be the rugs being sold in the higher-end quality rug galleries. But if you are traveling to random “rug sales” or searching antique stores for hidden treasures or want to buy a rug when you are traveling abroad, that is a good price to hold in your head if you are scared about getting “ripped off.” You can’t get ripped off at ten bucks a square foot.

That said, value will always be in the eye of the beholder.

We often get rugs in that “appraisers” would place no value on because it’s not “collectible” or has no real “market value” in today’s market.

But when I look at a rug, I can see the workmanship that goes into these creations, and I always see value where others may not.

I have an old Peking rug (circa 1915) on my wall at home. I know an appraiser would not place much value on it because it has some significant areas of wear. Heck, it’s a century old!

Peking rug. I like it… and that’s all that matters. =)

But what I love about “my” piece is that it’s from a period in Chinese weaving before they began creating a lot of commodity rugs that were heavily chemically washed. Back then they used the best indigo dyed wool, and I am a huge fan of indigo.

So when I see the rug, it makes me smile. It’s about a hundred years old, and it still shines like it always has, and I love to look at it.

And that’s what you are looking for when you buy a rug, that type of connection. It means something to me that this rug was crafted entirely by hand. All of the rugs I have in my home I have because they have “character” – they are my woven friends. Some have some wear, some damage, and some flaws…

…but so do I, so it’s okay. I don’t need perfect rugs, I just want “real” rugs that have lived a “real” life that I can surround myself with and appreciate.

Having hand crafted items, whether textiles or art or fabric or pottery or furniture, that’s just part of what I appreciate. It reflects on what I admire and appreciate in the artisans of this world, and their past work.

If you don’t  really “like” rugs, and could care less what is on your floor, then you have a whole host of places to find inexpensive, and lesser quality rugs – Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Home Depot, Lowes, lots of places.

Just keep an eye out on the fiber, dye, and latex problems I noted before to keep yourself from buying a rug that may end up costing you more down the road in cleaning or repairs than you planned for. It’s not uncommon for us to have to completely relatex some tufted rugs from India within a few years after their purchase because they are crumbling, and this is a repair that costs a few hundred dollars.

India tufted rug. It is delaminating and putting powder on the floor. These get messy over time.

If you do “like” rugs, then focus on the different woven rugs you come across to discover what types appeal to you the most. If the rug you are looking at is more than the $10 mark I’ve given you (and if you are in a quality store with true quality goods you absolutely will be paying more than $10), then you want to learn more about the rug.

- How does the wool feel? Is it smooth but strong? (Brush over it with your thumb to see if it is brittle or sheds.)

- How do the dyes look? Are they vivid? Is there a big difference in the colors from the front to the back (sun fade may be a sign of inferior dyes)? Do the colors test as colorfast?

- How is the shape of the rug? No rugs are perfectly rectangular, but make sure the rug does not have any glaring weaving flaws that are causing buckling.

- How does the rug look when you walk around to both ends? Every rug has a “light” and “dark” direction, so take a look from all angles to truly get the richness of its look.

- How does the back of the rug look? Do you see any flaws in the weaving tension that are creating creases? Do you see any areas of discoloration or past dye bleed? Are the sides or ends unraveling?

- How old is the retailer telling you the rug is? Take a photo so you can research the rug’s origin on-line, or take the rug out on approval so you can hire an appraiser to verify the rug if it is being sold to you as an “antique” if the price is significant and to verify you are buying an investment grade rug.

- Are there any “care” conditions you need to be aware of? Take the rug out on approval to show your trusted cleaner to see if they see any issues with the fibers, dyes, or construction. (When clients bring us rugs we ask them to NOT tell us who the rug dealer is so that we can give our feedback without getting involved in the middle of a potential sale. Do not get your cleaner in the middle either because if the sale does not happen this may lead to bad blood and the cleaner may stop offering his two cents to help.)

Beautiful old Kuba Kilim with a great Navajo under it.

It comes down to whether you feel good about the price you are paying, whether it is $200 or the $200,000. You want to be able to walk into your room, see that rug, and just feel really good about it. And if you know it’s good wool (or silk), good dyes, and good woven construction, and it was in the budget you had for the piece, and you like the person who sold it to you…

…then it’s worth what you paid for. Even if others would not pay that for it.

Hope this gives you some things to look for when you are rug shopping so that you don’t have to feel nervous about going into a rug store.

Happy Rug Shopping!

- Lisa

P.S. If you want to expand your education on oriental rugs, some great websites to visit are Emmett Eiland’s Oriental Rug Blog, Barry O’Connell’s resource website,  Hali Magazine’s website (awesome magazine to subscribe to – BEAUTIFUL rugs in every issue), the Rug Rag, great site on tribal rugs Nomad Rugs, and a fantastically written historical rug blog Tea and Carpets.

(WARNING: Once you get the “rug bug” you will not be the same. =) And once you get to recognizing rugs you enjoy, you may become a collector with a hobby that may get expensive. But, I can tell you as someone who truly loves textiles and the creation of them, it’s a fun world to be a part of. And thankfully I have appreciation for the hand crafted rugs with character that don’t cost me $200,000 to have. LOL.)

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2011/11/buying-rugs-tips-for-the-nervous-rug-shopper/

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:

Tufted rug from China. Loose cotton material backing.

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:

Tufted wool rug from India.

I call tufted rugs “fake rugs” because these are commodity rugs that are quickly constructed by punching tufts through a canvas backing, and covered in a great deal of latex adhesive to hold it together, and then they shear off the top loops so that it gives the illusion of a pile woven rug from the top side, when it’s not woven at all.

Woven rugs take months, sometimes years to weave. They are pieces of art.

Tufted rugs are a way to get the “look” of a real rug (to the untrained eye), at a fraction of the construction time and cost. Most are “commodity” rugs. These rugs take days to craft, as opposed to months, and they will last you several years of use as opposed to woven oriental rugs that often outlive several generations of owners.

So, as with anything where corners are being cut to create a faster, cheaper version, there are consequences. And especially consequences – and limitations – if you are cleaning these tufted rugs.

Regardless of the type of material on the back of tufted rugs, they are all covering up this ugly mess of latex on the back holding the tufts of wool in place:

Latex backing of a tufted rug.

It is much prettier when covered up with material, don’t you think? =)

We mentioned the “plus” of tufted rugs, which is primarily that they are crafted faster and as a result are much cheaper to buy versus woven rugs.

(There are some high-price exceptions like Edward Fields hand crafted tufted rugs, which are much higher quality than what I’m showing here, but that is 1% of the tufted rug market, so I am talking about what you are seeing coming out of China, India, U.S., and other countries today.)

Let’s talk about some of the “consequences” of choosing a commodity tufted wool rug instead of a woven wool rug, so you are not surprised when any of these challenges come up.

BUCKLING

If you take a tufted rug and place it on a soft surface (like putting it on top of wall-to-wall carpeting) and then set heavy furniture over it, you will be in for a surprise.

Tufted rug buckling from furniture.

Though a good amount of latex is used on the back of these rugs, it’s still susceptible to cracking when too much weight is focused on specific points. If there is not a durable pad under the rug to support the furniture, then these lumps in a rug like this may not be correctible.

Back of Chinese tufted rug.

These rugs, to keep their shape, need to be on top of a hard surface when used. These face fibers are not twisted around warps like woven rugs are, but rather are looped in the shape of a “U” – so the only thing holding them in place is a thin dollop of glue. Take a look at these fibers falling away from this torn corner of a tufted rug:

Tufts falling away from a damaged corner.

There really is not much there to hold those “U” fibers in place. In fact, even with brand new tufted rugs, if you grab one fiber and tug, you will be able to pull it out.

Because of this latex construction, you want to take care on what you place on top of it, even if the rug is brand new, because it can’t take too much weight and bending.

DELAMINATION

Over time latex will degrade and deteriorate. In the past this meant a bit of crumbling and cracking, but in some of today’s tufted rugs, delamination is a MUCH messier situation:

Backing deterioration from water exposure and inferior quality latex.

Some of the lesser quality tufted rugs, in particular some coming from India today (and also some US hooked rugs), are using latex mixed with “filler” to help extend the batch of the adhesive and also to provide a firmer application to give the rug some shape.

This filler is sometimes marble dust, and sometimes concrete. But it is always a MESS when it gets wet.

This is by far the biggest danger facing rug cleaners today in handling tufted rugs, is the fact that some of these rugs cannot be soaked without having to deal with a big ugly mess. The rug not only cracks, crumbles, and powders all across the back and often “poofing” up through the front also…

…but it also leads to the rug losing its shape, because it was that heavy latex and filler that was making the rug stiff and square in the first place:

Tufted rug lost its shape after the latex deteriorated from a flood.

If you need to wash the rug (because it’s quite dirty), pull off the material on a corner and see if you might be unleashing a disaster with getting the rug wet.

BACKING DISCOLORATION

What do you think happens when you have an ugly, messy latex application, and then place a nice clean cotton material backing over the top?

At first, it looks great. Then, over time it begins to yellow (wouldn’t you if you were laying up against glue 24/7?)…

…and then when you wash it, and the glue residue, soil, dyes, and other “unmentionables” go through that cotton, like a filter – what do you think that does to the cotton? Well, I’ll show you:

Water marks, dye marks, browning marks on the back of a clean tufted rug.

One of the unfortunate consequences of owning a tufted rug is that when it gets washed, that backing gets marks all over it.

If the tufted rug is not heavily soiled, then a cleaner may opt to surface clean it as best as he can, and not mark up the backing, but in most cases rugs that come in for cleaning need a good wash. And soaking these rugs, which gets them the cleanest, will change the look of the backing material.

Water marks and browning on backing material.

Some of these marks can be improved with additional cleaning on the back side with an upholstery tool, to try to remove some of the browning on the cotton material. It adds additional cleaning time, and cost for this, but many people often do not care what the back side of their rug looks like, as long as the top side is nice and clean.

If the additional cleaning time does not improve the backing enough for the owner, it is also an option to pay to replace the material backing with a new piece (sometimes that is easier than trying to carefully clean the back and strip out those discolorations).

STENCIL INK BLEED

Another problem that is sometimes uncovered in the lesser quality hand-tufted rugs is the use of stenciling ink (usually pink or blue) to mark where tufts are places, and this ink can wick out and bleed when wet.

Back of tufted rug – stencil ink bled into backing material.

If you are not careful when cleaning rugs with this type of manufacturing flaw, then washing the rug can wick that ink to the top side of the rug’s fibers, and create large ink stains, which can be difficult to remove.

It’s important to look for “clues” on the back side that indicate stenciling marks were used. You can also grin the front fibers and look for anything noticeable from the front side.

Stenciling can be a messy problem. If you see the ink in your inspection process, and it is heavy, and bleeds in your dye test, then you may opt to only surface clean the rug.

It’s not the most thorough cleaning process to surface clean it, but it will be the only safe option for you in that case, especially if you are not equipped with the right type of equipment to quickly remove the water from the tufted rug and dry it quickly.

DECONTAMINATION CHALLENGES

Decontaminating tufted rugs to remove pet urine odor, or to decontaminate from flood exposure, can be tough.

Repeated pet urine contamination on a tufted rug can be next to impossible to remove the stink. Think about it… urine penetrating heavy glue. Do you really think a quick cleaning can get the contaminants out of that adhesive?

Tufted rug – flood contaminated.

Whether the tufted rug was a pet toilet, or was involved in a flood, it needs to be fully soaked to wash and decontaminate. But, with the earlier problems mentioned, the longer you soak these rugs the more problems you have.

It’s a catch 22.

You need to soak it to remove the odor causing contaminants, but soaking it can contribute to delamination, yellowing, water marks and discoloration on the backing material, and possible stencil ink bleeding.

What’s a rug cleaner to do?!?

Communicate all of the dangers, and the options, and have the rug owner tell you what they want done. Just be sure if you go ahead with the wash that you have a release of liability in case the “worst case scenarios” unfold during the soaking. The cleaner should not be punished for limitations created by poor rug construction.

ODOR THAT IS NOT COMING OUT

On some tufted rugs, the odor will not be coming out no matter how long you soak the rug.

Tufted rug bad odor.

With a certain percentage of tufted rugs from India (including many of the problem India rugs being sold through Pottery Barn, at least in the San Diego area), the rugs have an awful odor present in brand new product.

The odor is a smell that is like a combination of burnt rubber and dirty sweaty socks. It’s rancid, and it gets WORSE with cleaning.

It appears to be situations where the latex has gone bad and soured, and they still use it anyway. This is a manufacturing flaw, and the rug should be returned for a problem-free one instead.

HOW TO HANDLE TUFTED RUGS:

If you own a tufted rug, and you’ve bought it from a reputable rug merchant, you will likely have no issues taking it to be professionally cleaned. Do not clean the rug yourself. These rugs take considerably longer to dry, and you open up yourself to a whole host of problems (and mess) if you try a D-I-Y clean.

These rugs also should never be cleaned in the home setting. Though there may be no warning signs on the rug itself, you open yourself up to potential damage to the floor underneath (yellowing, dye transfer, latex powder residue).

If you are a professional rug cleaner, these are the things you need to take into consideration, because today’s tufted rugs hold many more challenges than those from even a few years ago.

Your pre-wash inspection process needs to include front and back close evaluation, and grinning open the front tufts to look for stencil ink dangers. Give the back of the rug a whack and see if any powder POOFS out to the front, especially in areas where you see there have been spills on the rug. This will show you delamination dangers if you are unable to pull away the backing material to evaluate the strength of the latex.

Tufted hooked rug. Latex back.

It is always best to communicate expectations BEFORE the wash. Share how the rug is constructed, and why it has material covering up the back, and that this will get blotchy after cleaning.

It is possible, when rugs delaminate, to re-latex the back and put a new material backing on the rug. This takes time and adds a significant repair cost to the cleaning. But if the rug has gotten heavily soiled, or contaminated by pets or a flood, it may be necessary to fully wash and then fully repair the rug in this way.

And the work may end up approaching what they paid to purchase their rug to begin with, so you might give them the opportunity to buy another rug instead. Especially if there is a chance that the odor in the rug won’t be coming out of that glue. Unfortunately some of these rugs end up being “disposable rugs” when they get contaminated badly with pet urine, because getting the odor out can be tough.

When corners get cut to produce a product that is cheaper for the buyer – someone ALWAYS ends up paying.

I just wanted to point out some of the dangers lurking in some of these tufted rugs so professional cleaners don’t end up being the ones who end up paying. =)

If you are thorough with your pre-inspection process, you will see the warning signs to keep you on safer ground.

Happy rug cleaning!

- Lisa

P.S. Those of you anywhere near Fort Myers, Florida – I’m teaching an afternoon class at Excel Supply on Wednesday, November 9th. I rarely make it down south so come learn some valuable rug basics, and bring all the questions you have about this business and how to be the best at it. Sign up by calling 1-800-909-3590. See you there!

Article source: http://www.rugchick.com/2011/11/rugs-with-material-on-the-back/