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:

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!

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.)

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!

I receive a lot of “help me” calls from rug cleaners and rug owners on rugs that are buckling. They want to know what to do.

And my answer is usually… it depends.

That’s because there are a number of reasons why a rug is buckling on someone. Some of these reasons are correctable. Others are not.

Here is the list of different causes of buckling:

Weaving Characteristics

No hand woven rug is perfectly symmetrical. There will always be a little bit of variance in the width and length, and some fluctuation in the weaving tension throughout the rug itself.

A city rug (woven in rug factories in weaving cities) will of course have more quality control than rugs woven by tribal weavers. I personally prefer the tribal rugs because they have more character and personality.

Weaver using a horizontal loom.

That said, in some tribal weaving centers, especially in areas that are war-torn like Afghanistan, the consistency can vary beyond being an interesting weaving characteristic to being seen as a weaving flaw in some extreme cases:

Tension along end of this Afghan rug causes buckling.

Buckling from weaving tension changes, or width or length variations, are not unique to Afghanistan. You see examples of this in all weaving countries. And in most cases they are seen as unique characteristics of a rug’s personality. Like a few great laugh lines on a smiling face, or dimples, they are what make the rug have character.

And as with those lines or dimples, you can’t just take a steam iron and make those go away. There is no “Rug Botox” to use.

Sometimes a weaver – especially if the loom is a nomadic one – will not know the rug has a “buckling” problem until after it is completed and cut off the loom. In some cases a rug manufacturer will apply a sizing to the rug (similar to starch) to try to make the rug stiffer than it would naturally be.

The problem with sizing is that it will wash out, and it may be difficult to have it re-applied. So if you are buying a rug, or you are getting ready to clean a rug, you want to look closely at the shape of the rug and if you see any evidence of problems on the BACK side.

Creases can be clearly seen on the back of this Afghan rug. These are causing buckling on the front.

Sometimes a rug can be stretched to help it lay flatter, but this is a strenuous process that may damage the rug.

Stretching an Afghan rug to help it lay flatter.

In these cases you need to think about weaving variations as no different than one of your feet being a bit larger than the other. Think of what you would need to do to try to make them perfectly equal, and then apply that though to a rug, on the work that would be needed to make a side that may be an inch longer than the opposite one even.

It is often impossible to do. So your expectations need to be realistic, and if the variations are too much, then pass on purchasing the rug.

Material Backings

With embroidery, needlepoint, and hooked rugs, the buckling is often due to the construction especially if that construction includes a heavy material backing.

Embroidery needlepoint rug with a heavy cotton backing.

This type of weaving, though often very elegant, can also often not be perfectly symmetrical. And when you have two independent pieces – the hand crafted needlework and the material backing – that are loosely stitch to one another, this can create some buckling and waves.

Crewel stitch (aka chainstitch) needlepoint with material backing.

Hand crafted custom rugs using different fabrics and fibers can also lead to buckling, especially along the seams of there the pieces are put together.

Seam tape can split and buckle.

Seam tape can split under foot traffic, or with age, or from cleaning (especially if the individual piece are made of different fibers and may react differently during the cleaning process. Some fibers swell when wet, others condense. Some are stronger when wet, others are weaker. Some absorb more moisture and dry slowly, others dry quick. And these variances can split a seam if you are not careful.

Tufted Rugs (Latexed Material Backing)

Tufted rugs are the rugs you see with latex holding it together. Latex over time deteriorates and crumbles away, so often it is covered up with material to hide this kind of ugliness:

Old latex delaminating on a tufted rug.

Rugs are meant to be on a HARD floor, and not over soft wall-to-wall carpet. But, sometimes a soft floor is your only option.

While woven rugs (rugs you can see the design on the back of the rug same as the front) have some “give” to flex when over a soft floor, a tufted rug is not so forgiving.

Heavy furniture on top of a rug that is over a carpeted floor can stretch the fibers of a woven rug, and in worst cases create tears and holes. And with tufted rugs, which have a latex backing holding them together, they can create waves in the rug you won’t be able to get out.

Buckling in a tufted rug from furniture.

With these rugs, once they have been stretched from heavy furniture, and the latex backing cracks and bends, it’s damaged and will be very difficult to make flat again. It’s like when an elastic band gets over stretched, you can’t get it back to its original shape.

With woven rugs, you have a better chance of washing and reshaping a rug that has gotten buckles from furniture. And to protect BOTH types of rugs, short of putting them on top of a hard floor instead, you can seek out a stiff pad to place between the rug and the carpeted floor.

If your rug is tending to want to move and buckle even when it’s on a hard floor, then often a good rug pad will keep you from having any safety risks of people tripping on it. (Plus pads are “shock absorbers” for rugs and keep them from wearing from foot traffic as fast, and they also tend to deter bugs from wanting to find a home under your wool rugs. I personally love Durahold pad for rugs on hard floors.)

Edge Finishes (By Machine or By Hand)

Sometimes the ends or sides of a rug are finished a bit too tightly, or overdone, and this can create curling of a rug.

Heavy side cord wrap by hand on this dhurrie rug makes the corners curl up.

Machine serging of edges created curling of this rug.

The curling may be immediate, or only evident when the rug gets wet or damp. The level of buckling depends on how the fibers react to water. Some fibers get tighter when wet, and loosen when dry. This is especially evident on oriental rugs that are tightly woven, and the cotton foundation fibers tighten up when wet. (Think about your clothes when you take them out of the washer. Your cotton items are smaller and tighter, and your wool items are looser and stretchy. Most woven rugs are wool face fibers twisted around cotton foundation warps and wefts, so “wet” they can create some buckling that will go away when dry.)

Side curls on this damp Sarouk rug that is drying face down.

Leather or vinyl strips are sometimes sewn along the sides to help keep them flat on the floor.

If a hand woven wool rug is perfectly flat when dry, but curls when it is wet, then it will regain it’s proper shape when dry. Don’t panic.

An exception is Navajo and other American Indian weavings. Often the outside wrapping threads are not pre-washed before being used in the final weaving, and these strands may shrink a bit during cleaning, which can give the illusion that the overall rug has shrunk, when it is in reality just the outside cords.

Navajo rug from a flood, the outside cords have shrunk creating a buckling of the rug.

On the very first cleaning of a Navajo rug, the outside cord will need to be adjusted to make up for the shrinking of the cords, and future washes will not be a problem as far as buckling. (There are other concerns when handling American Indian textiles, from potential dye migration to wool fuzzing, that require an expert’s touch when cleaning. These rugs can be quite valuable, so always seek out someone with expertise in handling these pieces, as well as any investment textile or rug.)

Floods and Extraction Equipment

When rugs are exposed to flood water for extended periods of time, buckling can result from the absorption of the water in the cotton foundation fibers. In most cases, this buckling will be correctable. Though you need to follow the right steps to make sure you thoroughly clean and decontaminate any rugs exposed to flood waters.  Click here => for tips on handling rugs from floods.

Heavy extraction equipment (Rover and Xtreme Extractor) though excellent at pulling out the water, can sometimes create some buckling on looser woven rugs that may or may not be correctable. Whether it’s this type of equipment, or other extracting wands, it is better on the rug to extract from the BACK of the rug to try to avoid any marks or buckles from equipment. When using a wand it can help to have someone stand on the edge you are extracting to help hold the rug flat while doing the work.

Most rug cleaning facilities have roller or spinner wringers to remove water, which removes the buckling risk. Especially with the rollers, which tend to flatten out the rug smoothly for the drying process. But if extraction is your water removal method, you just want to make sure you are not too aggressive in this step.

Buckling in field of a rug from extracting.

Hanging Rugs To Dry

There are a couple negatives to hanging rugs up to dry if you do not have a professional climate controlled drying tower like the large rug washing plants have.

Hanging up a rather wet rug can bleed the dyes into the fringe. It can also create browning and discoloring of the fringe.

It can also, from the weight of the water, create a creasing of the rug that is difficult to remove, especially if the rug is tufted.

Some ways to lessen the risks are to try to get as much water out of the rug before hanging. If you do not have large water removal equipment, you can use a Water Claw in addition to your portable or truck mount wand to boost your extracting. The Rover, with its teflon head is excellent at removing water from heftier rugs without leaving any marks (even if you have to extract from the front side). Just make sure the rug is not too fragile.

Instead of hanging rugs on narrow planks, you can place a PVC pipe around the planks so that you can have it curved enough to help prevent creasing. You can also hang the rugs at at angle so there will not be a clean line of where the rug was bent to hang, like this:

Hang rugs at an angel to lessen potential creasing.

We dry our rugs out flat to avoid these risks, but most rug cleaning companies do not have the space to do this. So this helps if you have a mini-rack system that you are using.

* * *

These are the most common reasons behind rug buckling, and the situations where something can be done about it… or can’t.

Happy rug cleaning!

Lisa

P.S. I’m super excited because I’m finally ready to announce my return to the “rug training circuit” with a program that will be the best educational experience in our industry for crafting experts in the field of rug care. If you love rugs, and want to learn directly from me, then make sure I have your name on my Rug Chick list by entering your name and email in the “Rug Disasters Report Request” box up in the top right corner of this website. I’ll be picking a small number of companies in the coming weeks from my list to work with this year, so if you are interested in getting serious about rug cleaning, plug your name in up top! =)

The recommended cleaning method for wool oriental and specialty rugs, is washing them.

For as long as rugs have been woven, they have also been washed. Though in the past with a bit more “low tech” methods than are available today.

Rugs being washed near a river.

But before the washing even begins – the beating does!

Let the beating begin!

Rugs – ESPECIALLY wool rugs – have a capacity to hold a large amount of soil in them. This is because wool under the microscope looks kind of like fish scales, so lots of layers, with MANY places to hide dirt and grit. See, take a look:

Wool strand under a microscope.

It’s these many “little pockets” that hold soil, and why a wool rug can have POUNDS of soil in it and still not look especially dirty. The dirt is hiding. And not just dirt and soil, but a whole host of other contaminants. Look at what came out of this rug by vacuuming the back side of the rug with an upright beater bar vacuum:

Pounds of soil out after dusting the rug on the back side.

This rug below also, shows the soil from using a heavier dusting machine (a Rug Badger):

Pounds of soil "beaten" out of a rug before washing.

There are several reasons why cleaning rugs requires them to be removed from the home. The big one is of course the removal of this soil before cleaning, and then the actual washing of the rug itself, which simply cannot be done with standard carpet cleaning machines (a portable or truckmount). Those are considered surface cleaning and not washing.

In fact, here is the latest cover story of Cleanfax Magazine, where the specific reasons why choosing to clean a rug in the home can cause more harm than good. This is information every professional cleaner should know, and certainly what their clients need to know regarding any rugs they value:

CLICK HERE => The Dirty Truth About Rugs

Dirty Truth About Rugs

I am not saying that rugs can just be tossed in water with no worries. You do need to understand what you are doing. We get calls regularly from homeowners who thought they could hose down their rug, and then discover that this can lead to dye bleeding, buckling or shrinking, and incredibly long drying times.

That because those “tiny pockets” that hold soil, also can hold a lot of water molecules too. Wool rugs get HEAVY when wet, and the inside fibers are absorbent cotton warps and wefts that swell with water, so you need to have the equipment capable of removing that level of moisture so that the rug can be properly and thoroughly dried quickly.

Some rug cleaning operations are more “workshop” operations instead of high-volume rug cleaning facilities. I guess you would call them “boutique” rug operations. They wash the rugs one at a time, and have some equipment to help them be more thorough in the dusting, washing, rinsing, and drying processes.

They may use a large wash floor to wash the rugs, like this:

Persian runner being washed thoroughly.

Rug being rinsed thoroughly. Can't do this "in" the home.

Some rug cleaners have not poured a wash floor yet, or don’t have the space to, and so they use wash “pits” to give rugs a bath in, like this:

Small rug wash pit.

I have one skilled rug cleaner friend who owns a “pit” for a handful of his clients who will now allow their highly valued rugs to leave the premises, so he sets up a cleaning system on their property and washes them on premises in their back patios.

This still takes him several days of follow-up visits for dusting, washing, drying, and finishing time, and requires additional equipment brought in for extracting the water and airmovers to dry.

(FYI –  the Rover is excellent for removing water from a washed rug without any marks and the Studebaker Airpaths are fantastic to help speed up drying times).

These particular clients he charges multiple times his in-plant washing price  versus if they allowed him to clean them properly (and more conveniently) in his rug plant… but sometimes you have to build the “wash system” to make sure investment rugs are properly cleaned. What he does not comprise on is “surface cleaning” when he knows they need to be cleaned right. So a wash pit in the backyard!

In the mobile auto wash industry, they sell inflatable wash containment “pits” that can be easily used for this type of on-location more thorough washing or in your facility if you do not have an inclined wash floor for cleaning.

Here’s one I found on Amazon for less than $600 => Inflatable Car Wash Containment

Ideally though you have a proper wash floor, and bring in larger equipment to help boost your performance and production as you grow. Some of this equipment is a sizable investment, so do the best with what you have and grow when you are truly ready to, and can afford to. I’ve had several friends sink several hundred thousand dollars into opening large rug cleaning facilities, and then go under before they had time to enjoy their new business.

But before you run out and buy any cool new tools for yourself, invest first in the proper rug education and training, because as I’ve highlighted in several recent blogs I receive rug cleaning disasters weekly from both cleaners and homeowners on rug cleaning that has gone bad. The wrong methods, cleaning solutions, temperature, drying conditions, as well as poor rug construction, can lead to rug disasters.

In an upcoming post I’ll share some of the options for different tools and equipment you can use, based on different budgets, to get your rug shop set-up properly. There are LOTS of options for you.

I’ll also be giving you some direction on getting more experience and education in this craft.

My goal is to make sure professional cleaners (and rug owners!) know how to best care for woven rugs, and give them the best information and resources to make that happen.

All my best,

Lisa

When rugs come in our shop that are gosh-awful smelly, the usual suspects are: PETS, FLOODS, or BAD LATEX.

Rugs shouldn't smell like farm animals.

#1) PET PUDDLES

With pet urine, this hits a wool rug, penetrates those face fibers, and gets absorbed deep into the innermost cotton warp and weft foundation threads. Ever run for hours and take off those sweaty cotton socks?  Then you know how much moisture cotton can hold.  A LOT.

So lots of urine absorbed into the middle of your rug, it’s not good news.

Specifically, besides the odor, pet urine can create dye migration or loss that is permanent, as well as yellowing that often is permanent damage as well. (Rug owners are shocked when I explain their $10,000 rug is no longer worth that because of some puppy puddles. They would never pay full price for a bridal gown with a urine stain on it… yet they seem unaware of the devaluation from urine stains on their rugs.) It also, if left unaddressed for months, can lead to dry rot and a nice big hole where the problem is.

Surface cleaning a rug in the home with a portable or truck mount is only cleaning the surface and not the MIDDLE where the problem is. (By the way, cleaning rugs in the home, especially wool rugs, is a huge NO-NO. We will get into that in detail in a future post, right now we are talking odors only.)

Rugs with odors, especially pet odors, need to be WASHED.

Urine contaminated rugs need to be soaked and washed.

Repeat rinsing and squeegeeing to remove the urine.

If you do not use thorough rug washing methods, you will not remove the source of the odor. You will lessen it. Maybe some will use a fragrance to try to cover it up (ever get a whiff of a sweaty man using cologne to hide it? yeah… it’s not much better having a “floral” pet urine smell in your rug…). These are not solutions to the problem.

Moral of the story is – pet problem, wash the rug.  And use a professional for it, otherwise the rug could have more damage done than the puppy did to it.

If you have a pet accident – some tips on what to do right now.

#2) FLOODS

Rugs that get improperly wet can get a musty, moldy odor as mildew sets in. We see this mostly with rugs not prepared properly for storage, and the unit gets damp, or has a flood.  Or, an unskilled cleaner does not verify the rug is 100% dry (by using a moisture probe) and rolls up a rug that feels dry, but isn’t.

Neighboring planters that leak are also a BIG creator of water damage to rugs, because again that innermost foundation is made up of absorbent cotton, and it sucks up that water you spill over sometimes, and it leads to mildew, dye bleeding, and over time dry rot.  I’ve seen a rug literally have a big hole crumble apart from long term water exposure. In fact, here’s one:

Rug got wet in a storage unit, and fell apart.

Rugs improperly exposed to water need to be properly washed to remove the contaminants from those foundation fibers and the face fibers. If you step in a puddle, you don’t wring the sock, wipe it off, dry it, and it’s clean enough to wear again. (At least I hope you don’t do that!) You wash it.

Same with rugs. You need to soak the rug in the proper sanitizing solution, and then thoroughly clean it. This needs to be handled by professional rug cleaners who are experienced at handling flood-affected contents, and bringing them back to pre-loss condition.

#3) BAD LATEX:

With some tufted rugs (these are the rugs that you do NOT see the same design on the back as the front because instead you see a material backing) – there can be some odor issues.

Due to a lack of consistent quality control, some latex used to hold these cheaply made rugs together can end up souring, and not be properly cured. This gives off a VERY bad smell that is best described as a combination of sweaty old socks, rubber, and livestock.

Nice, huh?  Here’s one of these culprits, a tufted rug from India:

Smelly tufted rug from India. RUN!!!

When you are looking at a new tufted rug, and it smells bad when you put your nose to it, then just RUN! It is a “Rug To Run From.”

When you try to clean it to make it smell better, it will get WORSE. The water activates the odor-causing elements more.

I would say about 10-15% of the tufted rugs we see from India have this problem. And I always tell my clients to take the rugs IMMEDIATELY back to the store they bought it and demand a replacement (that doesn’t smell) or their money back. This is a manufacturing flaw.

I have read some comments from retailers that say the odor is nothing to worry about. It’s not “dangerous.”

Do you think someone might say this in order to keep people from getting refunds?

Yeah, I think so too.

Here’s what I know… when something smells really bad, my natural instinct is to move away quickly and make a really ugly face.

kinda like this....

Your body does that to PROTECT you. If my nose tells me to “get away” – then I know it is harming me.

What is really scary is that many of the tufted rugs I see on the market today are made for kids. They have goofy designs on them, and some are cute… but the ones with the odors, I certainly would not want any kids around those.

Cleaning does NOT improve this odor. So watch out.

There you have it – 3 typical smelly rug sources, and a little insight on what can and can’t be done with them.

I think I’ll go out now and get some fresh air…

- Lisa

I just made a trip to Ontario Canada to teach a little rug cleaning clinic. It was just outside of Niagara Falls, which was BEAUTIFUL. Windy, cold, but beautiful. Here I am – shivering!

Me and the Falls

One of the many rugs we handled in the clinic was a rug that they asked me how to make it “white” again – here it is:

Hand woven wool rug from India

The question is – is this rug WHITE to begin with?

A white towel shows us the yellow of this rug.

One of the dangers of seeking out white and ivory rugs is that they do have a tendency to YELLOW over time.

If you look at a sheep, none are truly that Colgate-white-teeth white. So the wool when sheared, tends to be heavily bleached to create that “white” look. So the end result is not quite natural (just like those smiles make you wonder what the heck they painted on those teeth… they don’t look natural.)

Now, sometimes, improper cleaning (i.e. using the wrong cleaning solutions) can yellow a rug. If it is a result of the CLEANING then it would have the problem only on the front side of the rug because that is the side being cleaned.

If the yellowing is from the environment (i.e. foot traffic and sunlight exposure), then again, this yellowing would be on the front side only because the back has not been walked on or placed in those UV rays.

Let’s take a look at the back side compared to the front:

Comparing the back and the front of the rug.

In this case, the back side IS yellowing the same as the front, so this is simply the effect of age to the wool used in this rug. Again, BRIGHT white is not a natural color of wool, so this process to make it more appealing for the buyer has the negative effect of turning yellow.

Be sure to rotate the rug in the setting, as it can look more white from one direction versus the other. And just realize when you are shopping for rugs, that the white state can only be temporary with wool. It’s just the way it was made, and there is nothing wrong with the rug itself… and though professional cleaners may be able to lighten the look a touch with some oxidizers or reducing bleaches, these solutions (just like the original treatment) are chemical treatments that DO cause damage to those fibers. Some cleaners may refuse to do the work for fear of creating structural problems for the rug.

One solution may be to simply buy a blue rug instead.

- Lisa

I am not the biggest fan of TUFTED rugs. Simply because I appreciate the art of a woven rug crafted by hand,versus the mass-market production of tufts of wool held together by latex and covered up on the back with material.

It’s cheaper to buy a tufted rug than woven, because of course the labor is a fraction of the time, but you also get what you pay for – a rug that lasts several years versus decades (or centuries) … a rug that is many times “disposable” because they simply do not last long. 

And definitely not a rug to hand down to your children.  But maybe you don’t mind that. You might be looking for something that looks nice, and maybe you have pets so you don’t want an investment piece of art on your floor, so it may be that a tufted area rug is exactly perfect for your needs and budget.  I can understand that.

But what happens when the new tufted rug you bought stinks?  I mean, literally STINKS?  Like this one:

Some tufted rugs from India smell like dirty old socks and rubber.

Tufted rugs from India are getting a reputation for smelling bad. There appears to be a flaw in the curing process of the latex holding the rug together that off-gases an awful smell.

The purchaser may get a great deal on the rug and think that this can be washed to smell better – but they would be wrong, because the odor actually WORSENS with moisture. As of this date, none in my network has come up with a solution to this problem except to turn the rug away as uncleanable.

Some of these problem rugs have white material backing, and many I have seen have the blue backing shown in the photograph above.  In my experience all have been from India, but not all India tufted rugs have this problem.  And it may be that China or other countries produce tufted rugs with this particular problem, I just have not experienced it in anything other than tufted product from India.

What do you do?

When you go to buy a tufted rug, you grin open the fibers in the store and you SMELL the rug.  If you notice a strong blend of dirty old socks with old tire rubber, then you have a problem.  Do not buy the rug.

If you have recently bought a tufted rug, have closed up your house for a trip, and return to the strong pungent smell that makes your eyes water, then return the rug to the store.  This is a manufacturing flaw, and the rug should be replaced. Then the retailer can ship it back to the factory and insist that they improve their manufacturing process.

And if you don’t want to deal with any potential odor problems like this, then buy a rug that is woven and does not use latex or glue to hold it together because it has been crafted beautifully by hand and does not require any adhesive to keep it together.

- Lisa