Cut Rug

[ultraclean]

Rug store that i do work for asked me about this rug. It well and truly over my head but I am interested to see if you guys think it can be repaired.
While unpacking the rug the (former) employee cut thru the packaging and the rug with a box cutter.
the rug is hung up in the display area and has been for a number of months. The damage has been poked and prodded at and as a result some of the face yarns around the cut are missing. the only thing I could suggest is that the area around be sealed to stop it fraying more than it already has.

Oh Yeh its only a cheep rug(well it is now)

 

[ksokalski]

If you are familiar with sewing techniques, you could definately use some to correct this. Will it be 100% better...probably not...but would repair the damage and take it to an acceptable level of appearance for sale and use in a home.

 

[Stevea]

Kris,

From the photos I would say it could be repaired and made very acceptable. It can always be different when seen in person but I do not see any reason this would not be repairable to the point of being acceptable.

Here is an example of one of three that had several areas of damage and fairly severe on the edges of one. All three were repaired to stop the damage and hide what was possible. I took before and after photos and when I delivered them back to the consumer I gave them 8x10 color photos of the before and after, they were very pleased and I even got paid.

Here is just the outline to show, hope this helps and makes sense.


SA

 

[Jack May]

Andrew, if you could, I'd almost be offering to buy it, play at repairing it and then try selling it... :shock:

Could get caught so consider carefully before you do, but I've done that a few times and done ok.

John

 

[Harry Myers]

That really is an easy repair. The price and the silk I believe is what is scaring indivisuals. I posted a hand sewing diagram in the tool room. When I was a beginner at sewing I sewed anything . Practice is what makes perfect.

 

[harryhides]

I wonder what it would cost to ship to Steve or Harry.
I know that Ken Snow ships rugs to his crew of repairers in Egypt.

 

[Stevea]

Tony,

That would be a really nice room project!

SA

 

[The Great Oz]

The pictured damage is really a job for someone with some expertise working with hand-knotted rugs, as the finished repair should be next to invisible from front and back, and would use no adhesives. While a repair could be made that would stop further damage and not show from the surface, anything less than expert repair will devalue the rug; possibly more so than doing nothing.

Maybe you can do this retailer a favor and find a local that can fix hand-knotted rugs for him. I would suppose that even if there were no formal workroom, every large metropolitan area would have an expatriate capable of fixing Oriental rugs properly. Not being up on differences in exchange rates and import duties I don't know how to figure the "list" price on the tag. A proper repair of that cut should cost less than $200 US, and a Chinese silk of that size and quality in the US should retail in perfect condition for maybe less than $3,000. If the rug would have to shipped to the other coast for repair it might be better for the dealer to mark it down rather than fix it, but fixing it and selling it would be better than it spending months in the rug store while people make the damage worse.


PS: Only when the repair becomes very time consuming is it worth sending abroad. For example, we were asked to re-pile a heavily worn rug, and figured the time involved would cost the customer over $35,000 and would take over a year as we worked on it around other jobs. The repair was very nicely done in Turkey in under six months, and even paying middlemen the cost to the customer was $7,000.

 

[ultraclean]

The original price on this rug was $31,650.00 they marked it down to $3,500.00 and has been at that price for the last 6 months they have just marked it down again to $2,800.00 still know body will touch it.