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! =)

With the number of home floods escalating due to severe weather, a number of rugs will be exposed to flood water.

The longer a rug remains wet the more likely it is to have dye migration that is not correctible.

Rug dyes have bleed.

Rugs that are not washed properly, and not dried thoroughly, can end up with mildew and dry rot problems.

Mildew eating away the cotton foundation.

Rugs left wet too long can lead to dry rot - it just crumbles apart. This was wet too long in a storage unit.

Here are tips to minimize the damage to oriental rugs involved in floods:

-       Extract the water as soon as possible using a wet vacuum or having your water damage restoration company extract with their professional water removal equipment.

Water claw

DriEaz Rover

(Professional equipment like the Water Claw and the Rover are the quickest way to remove water in the home from wet rugs. The Water Claw should be used on the BACK side of the rug. The Rover can be ridden and pulls much more moisture out quicker, and with the smooth lip on the extraction points, it can be used on the front or back of the rug.)

-       Make sure you wand extract WITH the direction of the rug’s fiber nap, instead of against it (this minimizes fiber damage). If you “pet” the rug, it’s like petting your animals, you can feel which direction is *with* the grain, and which is against it.

Extract quickly. Best if done with professional equipment.

-       If you are unable to have the rugs thoroughly washed right away, then it’s important to get the rugs as dry as possible as quickly as possible to lessen the risks of permanent damage. Dry them fast and wash/sanitize them later.

-       When transporting to a rug cleaning facility to be washed, wrap in towels or sheets to prevent dry from migration from one rug to another. It is very difficult to remove dye migration.

-       Do NOT hang up wet rugs. Extract and dry out flat. Hanging wet puts too much weight on the foundation of the rugs, and will pull the migrating dye throughout the face of the rug and into it’s fringe tassels.

Dry rugs flat after extraction.

Use axial fans like Airpath to speed up drying. Dehumidifiers also as needed in contained areas.

-       Do NOT dry in direct sunlight. Most contemporary rugs are sensitive to sunlight fading. If you must dry in sunlight, lay the rugs face down so fading occurs on the back side only until the rugs are taken to a rug washing facility.

Powder blue color is faded to tan when this rug was placed face up in direct sunlight to dry.

Wool and silk oriental rugs can take months, sometimes years, to weave by hand. If you have investment textiles you want to protect from a flood that has affected your home, simply follow these guidelines and you can lessen the risk of permanent damage to your rugs due to extended exposure to water.

Once you have done your best to minimize the damage, the rugs then need to be thoroughly washed and sanitized before being returned to the home. This is done in professional rug washing facilities.

Rugs in floods need to be fully washed to remove contaminants from the innermost foundation fibers.

Rugs from floods need to be soaked in a sanitizing solution and then washed and rinsed thoroughly.

Even the filthiest rugs can come out looking fantastic with a good bath.

Silk rug (before). © RugChick.com

Silk rug (after) © RugChick.com

When it comes to something as messy and dangerous as floods, it’s best to leave it to the professionals.

Print and keep these tips handy in case you have the unfortunate experience of having your home flooded. And you will know what to do in order to help protect your favorite rugs, and to make sure they are clean and safe when they are returned to your “fixed up” home.

- Lisa

P.S. If you like this post, then please *share* it so that others who might have floods will know what to do too. Thank you!

Remember the rug that was torn apart by the Rug Badger? (By the way, that was NOT an equipment problem…it was a TECHNICIAN problem. He clearly had not been properly trained to be gentler with this woven Turkish rug.)

Take a look at these BEFORE and AFTER photos of the repair work by my mother Kate Blatchford, who is a kick-butt rug repair specialist – one of the very best in the business:

Torn by a competitor's equipment

Fixed by Kate at San Diego Rug Cleaning Co.

Here’s another (there were EIGHT significant torn areas…):

Torn by a competitor's equipment.

Fixed by Kate at San Diego Rug Cleaning Co.

And another:

Torn by competitor's equipment.

Fixed by Kate at San Diego Rug Cleaning Co.

At our rug shop our motto is:

"We can do it!"

We saved our competitor’s butt…which is what we do – the right thing for the RUG, no matter who brings us the job.

And I don’t think the rug’s owner will ever know what happened…

…unless they read this blog and recognize their rug.  =)

The REAL DIRT on Rug Cleaning

Those of you coming to the Piranha Marketing Conference next month, on the Wednesday “Real Dirt Training” Day and Trade Show, I will be having a workshop called the Real Dirt on Rug Cleaning.

In the workshop we will be covering:

- How to set up a rug shop successfully no matter what your budget is. (I’m going to blast away the BS that you need to spend hundreds of thousands on building a large plant with BIG machinery to be the best rug cleaning operation in your town. That’s a lie. We started out scrubbing rugs by hand on our back antique rug gallery…and I’ll lay out the best ways to get the job done well without mortgaging away all of your kids.)

- The do’s and don’ts of the rug cleaning craft. (What you REALLY need to know, and what is simply “spin” by some industry figures to peddle more of their classes and “wool-safe” chemicals.)

- The biggest rug disasters – and how to avoid them. (The biggest mistakes I see continually in this business that are ruining rugs…and some of my own BIG DUMB MISTAKES and lessons from growing up in this business.)

- How to deliver the BEST work and service to your rug owning clients, and how to really become the “go-to” expert in your town.

This industry needs MORE rug specialists, so if you have any interest at all in the craft, this Wednesday October 13th “Real Dirt on Rug Cleaning” session is free to everyone who is coming to the Piranha Marketing Cash Creation Conference on October 13-15 in Phoenix, Arizona.

See you there!

- Lisa

Hopefully what will happen is another FANTASTIC “Rugs & Restoration Roadshow” event, this time at Winner’s Circle Training Center! If you are a Cleaning  & Restoration Professional – this event is FREE to you due to the generosity of our sponsors, so get yourself registered (there will be NO entry without prior registration because we are approaching our limit of attendees). This qualifies for 1 CEC for IICRC cleaning and restoration certifications – can’t beat that!

Las Vegas Rugs & Restoration Roadshow

Don’t know if you know this, but wool does not carry a flame. It is naturally fire resistant.

This does not mean that a super hot fire cannot engulf a wool textile, but an isolated flame will self-extinguish. This is good to know when you are choosing fabrics in your home, because inevitably fires do happen, and it’s best to not give it extra fuel. (When I watched a video of how quickly a Christmas tree can become an inferno in a home – literally seconds – I started buying small live trees instead of chopped down ones, it scared me that much.)

Once in awhile we get rugs with fire damage. With soot, smoke, ash, we can give the rugs a bath and remove much of the damage to put the rug in “pre-loss” condition.

Once in awhile though, it’s more than soot – it’s a burned hole. And even then, sometimes, the “impossible” is possible … like with this rug that a client believed headed to the trash heap:

Damaged to Done photos

This is the handy work of my mother Kate, a weaver, and the founder of our facility in San Diego. We have a repair team on staff to handle everything from the usual suspects (torn fringe from a vacuum cleaner to be replaced) to the more difficult projects like this fire damage order from the wildfires in San Diego.

When you have a home that has gone through the emotional devastation of a fire, and you’ve lost about everything, being able to save one thing… one piece of your former home… means a lot.  So when we can make a small miracle with a rug like this, it creates one of those really happy moments in a company – when you know you’ve made a small difference in someone else’s world.

At our plant at San Diego Rug Cleaning Company, we love rugs. But we also love people, and it’s that mix that creates success in any business because it’s a mix that makes a difference.

- Lisa

Next week David Brinkley and I are taking the Piranha Rugs & Restoration Road Show to Tampa (Tuesday) and Atlanta (Friday). Seats are selling like hotcakes, hush puppies, or whatever it is y’all eat down south.

I’ll be covering rug cleaning do’s and don’t's, the rugs to run from, how to handle rugs in floods and fires, and how to generate restoration work through your rug cleaning channels. I have more material than time, so you are guaranteed to have your brain full after we have this workshop together!

Register at Rugs & Restoration Roadshow or call us at (800) 275-2643 – I look forward to meeting you!

- Lisa

I’m getting ready to hit the road as part of the “Rugs and Restoration Road Show” presented by Piranha Marketing.

This is an event that is a weaving of technical training and marketing training. You see, marketing is telling a story in a way that engages, educates, and builds TRUST in a client-company relationship.

With the restoration business, trust is a critical issue. Your pipe breaks in the middle of the night – who in the world do you trust to call?  Who will do the work right, and will treat your home as if it is their own?

I know those fears. Not only has my town been subject to two city-wide fires in the past 6 years, but we’ve all experienced a flood in our lifetimes. You are frantic, and are worried about what to do, and what will get ruined by the experience.

With floods especially, when there are investment rugs in the home – you worry what to do, or NOT do to them.

Your antique rug is flooded - what do you do?

We, like any rug cleaning operation, get calls from our clients worried about their rugs when a flood or other damage hits. This gives us the opportunity to give sound immediate care advice, recommend a restoration company (if they do not already have one), and facilitate bringing the textiles in to remove all of the contaminants before they go back into the home.

What I am going to present at these events to the professional cleaners and restorers who attend are strategies for the proper handling of textiles from a disaster (to minimize the damage), and do’s and don’ts in the cleaning to provide the best clean possible.

I am also going to share some of the strategies I use to not only generate more insurance contents-cleaning work, but also how to document the process to not only build trust with the clients, but to make it a more enjoyable experience for the adjuster also (they work really long hours, and it helps if we can make their work a bit easier so everyone is happy).

David Brinkley will be presenting with Piranha’s Restoration Coaches a range of restoration topics on generating residential and commercial work, and how to use the right equipment and training to make securing that work even easier.

Joe Polish will be a special guest presenter in both Tampa and Atlanta, sharing the marketing systems working the best right now for his members across the US.

It is going to be a fun, hands-on, valuable day of training. I have not taught “rugs” on the road for a few years now, so I’m excited to go out and meet many of the cleaners I’ve helped by email and by phone over the years. Plus the event sponsors are covering speaking costs, so the event fee is super low at $97 – you even get lunch.  Just what you’ll learn from me will pay you back that several times over.  And in Las Vegas, with our additional sponsors, you can come to that one FREE if you are one of the first 75 to sign up.

I love to teach. I love rugs. And I love helping put things back together after a disaster. They are emotional experiences, and so when you can help make one piece of the process a real pleasure for everyone involved, you really feel like you are making a difference.

I hope you come meet me in one of the Road Show cities. I’m looking forward to it!  If you want to register, just visit www.RugsAndRestoration.com.

- Lisa