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.)

There are a multitude of reasons why a rug’s dyes may run during cleaning. In fact, I wrote a post on several of those reasons behind how a rug’s dyes can bleed on you.

Blue dye migration on Wilton wool rug.

The careless cleaner approaches a rug as if they are all the same. “Wool is wool, what’s the big deal?”

Most don’t bother to do a dye test. Why? Honestly, I’m not sure why. It should be done on every rug, and it only takes a few minutes. This can be done with a high pH solution, or my personal preference of testing with hot water in a small area on the front AND the back.

Other careless cleaners do in fact do the dye test, but then they think if they use a dye stabilizing or dye locking solution that the rug becomes bulletproof to bleeding on them. That’s just not true, especially if the rug has colors that crock on a towel during a dry or damp towel.

The red dye crocks on to a damp towel.

When color crocks on to a cotton towel when it’s dry, or when it’s just damp, this is a serious problem. Especially if the color is a dark one.

In the case above, this is a tribal woven rug from Afghanistan. In some tribal areas, especially war-torn ones like in this weaving region, water is not always readily accessible to provide the thorough washing and scouring of the wool to remove the excess dyes and other impurities from the wool. So you have a rug that has some excess dye in the wool, that is going to move when it gets wet with a wash, so you better be seriously skilled to be able to handle that when it happens.

But sometimes the crocking is not from excess dye, but from color that has been added AFTER the rug was woven.

We call these rugs over-dyed rugs, and you will see these types of rugs come in two types:

1) TEA WASHED RUGS

A large number of rugs today, especially coming out of India, Pakistan, and China, are being given a tea wash treatment. This is a brown dye that is sometimes called henna wash, or also called having your rug “antiqued,” because it gives the rug a more muted look which makes it look older.

India tea washed rug

The tones vary from browns to golds to yellows. They make the rug darker, and also make the white cotton fringes beige or brown.

The better quality rugs are properly soaked in the dye to allow for even application, or are given multiple layers of application to ensure a good saturation and bonding of the tea wash dye to the rug fibers.

The lesser quality applications are sprayed on, usually on just one side, and it is often these lesser quality treatments that will crock on a dye test. This means that no matter how gentle you are with your cleaning process that over-dye is coming off. It’s like a spray-on fake tan… good until it’s time to take a shower.

Grin open the fibers and you see the bad tea wash job.

When you grin open the fibers you can see if there has been an over-dye treatment with tea wash. You can also see it on the fringe tassels by untwisting them to see if there is white under the beige tone.

Cleaning the fringe removes the tea wash dye on some.

And while you are closely inspecting the rug, look also for other pre-existing damage, because often a tea wash application is given to rugs to try to cover up damage such as pre-existing rug dye bleed or other stains.

It’s important to share with your client that the rug has been over-dyed with this tea wash treatment BEFORE you clean it, because likely some of it will come out no matter how gentle you are with your process. Especially if it crocks on you, that over-dye is coming off even if you choose a dry compound cleaning method.

But, at least it CAN be cleaned. You just need to share that this if it tests as a poorer quality application, that the rug has essentially been given a “spray-on tan” that needs to come off if they want it to be properly washed.

A much more perilous over-dye treatment isn’t dye at all… it’s ink.

2) INKED RUGS

Rug dealers for years have tried to hide small areas of damage on antique rugs with using India ink, or painting of worn areas to make them less noticeable.

Today this practice has unfortunately expanded to create some truly dangerous rugs.

New Hamadan rug bought on-line, and covered in INK.

The rug above is an example of one of the dangers of buying a rug on-line on one of these mass market retailers. When you buy rugs locally, at least you get the opportunity to “try it before you buy it” and take it out on approval. But more importantly you can do things like take a handkerchief and do a little dye test in the store just to make sure you are not buying inferior goods.

For a rug cleaner, this rug would be a nightmare. Every single color of this rug has been colored over with ink, which is why it has that blotchy, dark look to it. And when you grin the fibers open you can see that there is dark ink on the tips of the fibers.

Tips of the fibers are purple ink, base of the fibers are blue.

Taking a completely DRY towel to the face of this rug picked up every single color.

Dry towel picks up red from the rug easily.

Getting this rug even damp would make the inks pool together and make a mess not only of the rug, but of your wash floor.

So when you do your dye test on a rug, and it crocks, you want to investigate closely to see if it’s possibly ink applied to the fibers, because a dye stabilizing or locking solution is not going to do a thing for ink.

This rug, and others like it, is flawed product… and is not cleanable. And in the case of the rug being shown, the ink from the rug moved on to the underneath wall-to-wall carpeting which led to a much more expensive problem for the owner to handle.

Today more than ever, with the push to cut corners on production costs and get rugs to market faster and cheaper, there are more traps for rug cleaners today than ever before.

But if you are careful, and very thorough with your fiber and dye tests, and your pre-inspection checklists, then you can avoid the biggest rug disasters out there.

Happy Rug Cleaning!

- Lisa

“I know better.”

That is EXACTLY what I said in my head as I was looking at a cute shiny, smooth blue top at Nordstrom…

…and saw the label said “60% rayon.”

You see, I know that rayon (also sold as viscose) is one of the weakest fibers out there. It’s one of the fibers that is used to create artificial silk.

But it’s weak, it yellows, it loses color, and it ages and gets ugly FAST. It may look like silk to an inexperienced eye in the beginning, but it does not have the strength, vibrancy, and feel of real cultivated silk. Side by side silk will look great after years, and rayon will not.

I knew better… but I was rationalizing the purchase. My head said that I could hand wash it gently. That I could avoid wringing it, or using any high steam or heat when ironing it. That I am a fiber and fabric care expert, so I could handle this.

But alas, I’ve worn the top once, and washed it once, and the fabric is no longer smooth – there are breaks in it already, and a little less sheen. And no one to blame but myself.  That makes me mad. Almost as mad as the fact that even though rayon is “fake silk” to help designers get product made cheaper – that they don’t bother to make the tops any cheaper. Rayon is all over the place in clothes today. And not cheap to buy clothes.

LAME.

And we are seeing it in RUGS. The bigger issue here being that rayon and viscose cannot stand up to the foot traffic or soil in a typical home.

Double LAME.

So – if you are a buyer beware. And if you are a rug cleaner, here are some tips and facts about artificial silk rugs for you.

How to identify “Artificial Silk” rugs? What to look for.

As I mentioned in the previous post on Real Silk rugs – high quality silk rugs are not only very thin and pliable, but also incredibly detailed due to some very high knot counts per square inch.

Take a look at this corner again, of a real silk rug – it’s thin, and detailed design.

Real silk rug. Hand woven.

Then take a look at a typical Art Silk rug, this one from China, and it’s thick, the pile color is flat looking, no sheen of a true silk rug.

Art (artificial) Silk rug. Folded over corner, and thicker pile.

The Art Silk category is sometimes also referred to as Faux Silk (that’s the fancy sounding French word for FAKE). =)

The most problematic of this category are the ones made of rayon (also known as viscose) – which as I mentioned is an incredibly weak fiber. I’ve mentioned in the past that viscose is the sausage of the fiber world, as it’s chemically reprocessed cotton by-products lumped together and spun into a fiber for the weaving process.

You will find these rugs today coming out of China, Europe (Belgian machine woven product), and in the US (as highlights in some machine woven wool rug products).

You will also find it in product from China where it is blended with real silk by-products. Not blended with quality cultivated silk, but poor quality wild silk.

Cultivated silk is product from silk worms with a mulberry or otherwise controlled diet, where the cocoons are boiled and unraveled into ONE single continuous filament that is incredibly strong and with intense sheen. (Sorry but yes the worms die in this process.)

Wild silk is product from silk worms with no controlled diet, and where the worms bust through their cocoons, so the fibers are broken. Instead of one single filament, it is broken pieces that are spun together into a thicker, but weaker, thread for weaving.

Wild silk is similar to rayon in that it is broken staple fibers spun to create something that can be used for weaving. They will blend this “reject” quality silk with rayon so that they can get away with technically calling the rug “silk.” They also will sometimes use the excess silk waste from a real silk rug weaving to spin into these Art Silk knock-off’s.

Think about it – that is like taking the lint from your lint filter in your clothes dryer and trying to spin that waste into some fiber to create a new top for yourself. It’s meant to be thrown away, and not reused like rayon is.

And so with these rugs you will see shedding that looks almost like a cat has clawed the face of the rug, like this:

Artificial Silk rayon rug with shedding of fibers.

Your fiber test on these rugs will give you mixed results. The chemical test will show some dissolving (from the crappy but technically “real” silk) but also a lack of dissolving from the rayon. And the burn test will give you mixed up ash and smell because you have a blend of protein and cellulose fibers.

You will get frustrated trying to give a definitive answer.

Though many of these “problem” Artificial Silk rugs are coming from China, it does not mean that all Chinese rugs are not quality rugs. There is actually some excellent quality rugs coming out of China. In fact, EVERY country that has weaving will have the extreme examples of mediocre and magnificent rugs coming out of it.

Here’s a mediocre Artificial Silk rug from China. Note the flat color, and the shaggy looking pile.

Artificial Silk blend from China - rayon and crummy silk blend.

Now here is a magnificent piece from China – true cultivated silk:

Cultivated high quality silk hand woven rug from China

If you want to see other beautiful silk rugs from China, a great website to visit is the China Silk Carpet site.

Even in the photos you can see the difference in the fiber sheen, and absolutely the level of detail of one versus the other. This is why experienced rug cleaners can immediately identify a fake from a real one, because it’s obvious. Even when dirty, you can tell the difference.

Here is a dirty Artificial Silk rug from China:

Artificial Silk rug needs to be cleaned. Blend of rayon and wild silk. Folded over ends with fringe tassels strung into the folded edges.

Here is a real silk rug from Iran, and note how the back of the rug shines.

Real silk rug from Iran - note the detail of the design.

You will also see Artificial Silk rugs coming from Turkey, though these rugs are mercerized cotton rather than rayon, and they are much sturdier construction. Generally you will see these as Artificial Silk prayer rugs, like this rug:

Turkish mercerized cotton Art Silk rug.

This is not a bad looking piece at all, and will last the owner decades. The mercerized cotton fibers do not shed like rayon, and the rugs wash up well and last well under foot traffic. So you get the general “look” of real silk without having to pay thousands of dollars for the rug. But alas, it is not a REAL silk prayer rug like this one:

Real silk prayer rug.

Here is a caption from the China Silk Carpet site regarding silk rug weaving:

It will take one girl about half a year to make a 2×3 ft carpet of 300 lines (90,000 knots per square foot), 1.5 years to weave a 2×3 ft silk carpet of 500 lines (250,000 knots per square foot), two years to knot a 2×1.5 feet silk carpet with 800 lines (640,000 knots per square foot) and 3 years to make a 1.2×1.5 feet silk carpet with 1000 lines(1000,000 knots per square foot). The silk thread used to knot top quality carpet is as thin as a hair. When knotting, weavers even need to use magnifier. The work is so harmful to weavers’ eyes that they seldom can make the second same piece. So this kind of silk carpet is named “soft gold”.

In today’s commodity market of making rugs cheap to sell more of them, there is more demand for the Artificial Silk rugs than the real deal. This is why cleaners see more and more of them to clean today.

The “problem” Artificial Rugs will be the ones made of rayon/viscose, or blends of bad wild silk and rayon spun together coming from China, the cheap viscose Belgian machine made rugs, as well as some American Karastan rugs that are using viscose as “silk highlights” in some of their machine woven rugs.

The mercerized cotton rugs from Turkey are (in our experience) not a problem at all to clean. They wash up great:

Turkish Art Silk (before wash)

Turkish Art Silk (after wash)

These are the problems cleaners will see with these rayon/viscose rugs Art Silk rugs, and solutions to help minimize the rug disasters that often come with these inferior grade rugs.

ART SILK PROBLEM: Dyes that bleed and fade.

These viscose rugs like to bleed.

Bled corner of a Belgian machine made viscose Art Silk rug.

As part of your pre-inspection process, a fiber and dye stability test should be done. Your dye stabilizing solution should be tested to see if it will in fact stabilize the dyes during your cleaning process.

Sometimes, when the dyes are too inferior to be “cleanable” – you may need to clean the rug as you would tricky fine fabric, so literally cleaning it with an upholstery hand tool that has excellent moisture control and will not “mark up” the fibers. I like the Upholstery Pro for this type of work.

ART SILK PROBLEM: Fibers that yellow.

Rayon likes to yellow.

Here is a rayon blend rug that was cleaned in the home improperly. (Rugs should NEVER be cleaned on location in the home.)  Look at how badly the rug yellowed. A piece of white paper is placed in the middle to show the difference before the cleaning of how bad the yellowing/browning occurred. (The rug cleaner thought he would have to buy this rug because of his cleaning errors.)

Inexperienced rug cleaner browns out a rayon Art Silk rug.

Notice how bad the cellulose browning is. You really cannot see the colors in the flowers in the field of this rug.

Once the rug was properly washed – TWICE – and given an acid rinse to help reverse the browning and remove the heavy application of the alkaline cleaning solutions used in the improper cleaning – the colors and the white of the rug came back to life.

Several washes helped to reverse the damage.

Professionally trained cleaners understand that cotton by-products have a tendency to brown/yellow under certain circumstances. To help minimize yellowing of rayon rugs:

- Wash thoroughly. (If you are able to safely clean – i.e. the dyes are colorfast – then wash so that you can remove the soil. Wicked up soil from a surface cleaning by on-location equipment can sometimes be mistaken for “browning” when it’s just simply still dirty. Wash rugs in plant whenever possible.)

- Use a pure acidic rinse. (This helps to remove cleaning residue and helps to minimize browning or yellowing of rayon.)

- If possible, dry the rug face down. (This will concentrate any browning or yellowing of the rayon to the BACK of the rug instead of the front. Make sure the rug is properly groomed prior to being placed face down on a CLEAN drying surface. Use air movers to speed up the drying process. My favorite quick drying air movers are the Drieaz Studebaker Airpaths.)

ART SILK PROBLEM: Fibers that shed and break.

With rayon (viscose) Artificial Silk rugs, there is no way to stop the shedding. These are loose fibers spun together. You can vacuum up the loose pieces, but the shedding will always be a problem exaggerated by any type of regular foot traffic on these rugs.

Washing will wash away some of the fiber pulls. You will want to use a soft brush for the agitation during the cleaning process so that you can minimize the shedding. If your cleaning process incorporates a wand or hand tool, it would be important to have a teflon glide so that you do not leave marks in the fibers during any extraction strokes.

If you are the type of cleaner who likes to use bonnets on rugs, it will be too aggressive for this rug – so be warned.

For regular maintenance, a beater bar upright vacuum will be too aggressive for a fiber as weak as rayon is. Recommend that they use a canister vacuum, or the upholstery vacuum attachment on their machine to regularly “dust” the rug. And let your client know that it IS okay to clip the pulls off, or pull them off. (Sometimes a big lint roller can pull away more of them quicker.) These fibers are already ready to leave the rug, so the client is not going to harm their rug.

It is already a damaged product by the nature of how and what it’s made of. It’s what happens when you cut corners to create a cheap rug, so they need to become accustomed to having a rug that sheds.

ART SILK PROBLEM: Fibers that get stiff.

Artificial silk fibers may have a tendency of getting stiff after a cleaning. This can be groomed out with a brush, by slowly brushing against the grain, and then with it. (This brushing backwards and then with the fibers helps release the stiffness and helps it to lay soft again.)

A good rinse in the wash process usually alleviates this stiffness problem, as most matting and stiffness with rayon comes from the rug still having some soil and residue still in its fibers.

Some cleaners will lightly mist a fabric softener mixed with warm water onto the damp surface of these rugs (and some silk rugs) to help soften the fibers stiffness. Just take care to not leave too much of this residue behind. Tacky residue on a rug can lead to resoiling problems.

ART SILK PROBLEM: Ink stenciling that bleeds out.

This is not a common problem, but I’ve seen more than a few incidents with Artificial Silk rugs having stenciling problems. In this case, ink is used to cartoon the design element placement for the weavers and when the rug is washed the ink can bleed out. Because these stencil marks are often in a color like bright pink or blue, they can suddenly wick up and shock an unwary rug cleaner.

Since most rugs are quickly washed before they are sent off to sell, you should be able to see warning signs of stenciling that have already bled onto the back side. Note the pink ink lines on the back of this rayon Art Silk rug:

Artificial Silk - stencil ink noticeable on back.

If the rug was not washed before going to market, or if your client has not spilled on the rug enough to give you some pink or blue ink clues, then you may not discover the problem until it’s too late. You can try to grin open the fibers from the front to see if you can locate any ink on the foundation fibers. (Stenciling is a common problem in hooked rugs, and you can see how to grin those rugs to find this problem in a post I did on this exact problem.)

Your dye stabilizing solution will not work to stabilize ink, so this becomes a dangerous cleaning scenario.

Sometimes washing the rug quickly and drying the rug face down can concentrate the ink to the back side of the rug, but there are no guarantees. If the rug owner will not release you from liability on this rug cleaning, then you may have to turn the rug away… or opt for a less-than-thorough cleaning with a dry compound cleaning method, or other low-moisture cleaning method.

Rugs really should be washed, but in this situation where the inferior construction presents dangers of ruining the rug with a proper wash, you may have to choose an improper surface cleaning method because it is your only choice other than simply leaving the rug filthy.

However, because Artificial Silk rugs should be inexpensive you might recommend to the owner of a rug that cannot be safely and thoroughly cleaned to simply buy a new one. That would be better than never cleaning the stenciled one they have. And then you can give them recommendations on choosing a better quality rug – such as a wool rug if they want a sturdy rug on their floor that will last them forever… or a real silk rug to mount on the wall as a beautiful piece of weaving art for their home.

Hope this post helps keep those of you who clean Art Silk rugs out of trouble. Happy rug washing!

- Lisa

Rugs are loosely lumped into two general categories – “tribal” rugs or “city” rugs.

City rugs come from “bigger” weaving operations that tend to produce rugs with more intricate designs, higher knot counts, and tighter quality control. This is a broad generalization of course.

Tribal rugs come from smaller operations, or nomadic weavers who weave as they travel. They tend to have designs that are a bit cruder, with sharper edges instead of curvilinear designs. (FYI – in a future post I will explain why you see this curvilinear versus geometric difference, it’s related to the warp and weft construction and knot type.)

I’ve seen many beautiful “city” rugs in my lifetime…

Beautiful silk "city" production rug.

…elaborate designs, vivid colors, and a fine weave that makes them almost perfectly symmetrical.

Very finely woven Turkish Hereke silk rug.

Though I have a real appreciation for the “city design” pieces…

…when it comes right down to it, I like the tribal pieces more!

They are cruder at times, usually utilizing weaving techniques that make them have more of an “etch-a-sketch” type design than the beautiful floral illustrations shown up above…

…but I like the more geometric – and strong – style.

Great old Kazak (woven in Caucasus Mountain region)

I just love the tribal design pieces. To me they have more “character” and personality. If they are made with natural (“vegetal”) dyes they are very vibrant, with a lot of texture and depth to their look. And the older ones have such a fantastic luster to them.

I mean, just LOOK at this incredible piece here:

Gorgeous old Afshar rug.

Whether they are rugs from the Caucasus region, the Persian tribal weaving regions, the Baluchi tribal pieces, the Tibetan and Nepalese pieces, or even American Indian weavings – I am drawn to these typically smaller, cruder, but much more “energetic and alive” (to me) textiles.

I really feel like these are a piece of someone’s life – and heart – that now has become part of my life. Old textiles become new friends of those who love rugs.

That said – just like with “real” friends – there are some “personality quirks” that can come along for the ride.

“Oh your rug has a GREAT personality!” (aka the “quirks” are charming…)

Quirks, which in newer rugs – in particular coming from Afghanistan – can result in some trade-off’s that might unsettle those who are looking for a perfectly designed rug.

This is especially due to two factors in that region, one being the war’s impact on resources and consistent commerce, and another being their “tradition” of weaving wool on wool rugs (versus wool woven on a cotton foundation).

Of course, before cotton became “king” wool rugs were all woven on wool warps and wefts. The use of cotton allowed for the creation of larger, flatter, more symmetrical rugs because the cotton can be spun into smoother stronger strands for use as warps and wefts versus wool which when spun has more variation in thick and thin areas.

Hand spun Merino wool varies in thickness.

Wool is an exceptional fiber, in fact, the best rugs to buy today are wool rugs, in my opinion. They are super durable, can be vibrantly dyed, are naturally fire-resistant, and are the truly renewable resource (grows back year after year on sheep).

Where the wool face fibers can be sheared to create an evenly piled rug, when you are using wool as the warps and wefts of a rug – the “skeleton” of the rug – there are “quirks” that come about in the form of unevenness, buckling, creases, and sometimes shrinking if the wool had not been thoroughly washed and scoured before being spun.

In the industrialized countries wool processing and scouring is a serious operation, which cannot be duplicated as consistently and “aggressively” in tribal areas…

…especially war-torn tribal areas like Afghanistan.

So the trade-off for an authentic tribal piece from this region will be some quirks like these:

An uneven shape. Perfectly symmetrical is NOT an option.

On smaller rugs, the tribal characteristics are “cute.” If the rug is a few inches wider along one end than the other, it’s not a big deal. But when LARGER rugs are woven with that same varying tension and technique, the “quirks” can become more of a distraction than charming.

Creases in the weave seen on the back. This can make the top side have small "waves."

Uneven tension along the end created a big buckling problem.

Also due to the lack of the aggressive rinsing/scouring you can see an additional “quirk” of excess dye in the wool that can migrate (“bleed”) when the rug gets wet.

Afghan rug in a flood - red bled into the fringe.

Dye test shows this rug is not colorfast. A tricky wash that requires a rug pro.

Some buyers of tribal rugs want to make them “perfect” – but that is not unlike being born with one foot a bit bigger than the other (we all have one!) and expecting someone to “fix” that for you.

The variations with your friends, from size to freckles to goofy smile, is what give them their unique – and PERFECT – personality.

It’s not different with rugs. The tribal ones have more “character.” And just as with people, it is REALLY hard to “change” who you are.  It’s equally very difficult to undo the natural characteristics of rugs.

An attempt to STRETCH an uneven Afghan rug more flat.

Aggressively trying to "undo" weaving flaws that made the rug buckle.

Afghan Tribal Rugs: What to remember.

When looking at Afghan rugs, whether to inspect for cleaning, or to inspect for buying, just a few things to remember.

- Any visible “quirks” – such as buckling, creasing, curling – will become more prominent with its first cleaning. (If the rug has been washed in the past, then this will not be a problem if the rug cleaner is properly trained.)

- Any strong dye migration that transfers with the dye test means that the wool used in the production was not thoroughly washed prior to production, so if the rug is woven on wool warps and wefts, you need to expect more unevenness due to stretching or shrinking over time. If it’s a small rug you may not notice, because the tension will be fairly even. But larger pieces, having used multiple weavers over a much longer time, may result in a rug that is not as smooth to the floor as you’d like (if you are purchasing).

Afghan rug weaving project for women.

There are some beautiful rugs coming out of Afghanistan today. A few are highlighted on Emmett Eiland’s website on contemporary rugs. There are also several important weaving projects in the region empowering locals with a livelihood that I personally like to support.

But just as when a friend gives you some pottery she has made for you, and it’s not perfect, but you love it anyway – I look past any of the quirks in anything hand crafted that I get to have come into my life.

I’m not suggesting that all Afghan tribal rugs have some of these extreme “quirks” I have shown in this post’s photos. What I am saying is that ALL OF THEM will have variations in shape and size. Without a doubt, none will be perfectly rectangular, and none will lay perfectly flat on the floor.

The weaving of wool on wool will make these particular pieces prone to buckling, creasing, and more so when initially cleaned. Most times this will be very slight. The severe times will be evident at the time of purchase. You will see warning signs beforehand. None of these examples I shared here were “problems” that creeped up over time. The flaws were evident to begin with to a trained eye.

If you have a keen eye – as a buyer or a cleaner – you can avoid being surprised by inspecting the front and back sides carefully.

And if you are an owner of an Afghan rug, make sure you use a professional for the cleaning, because a D-I-Y cleaning on new tribal rugs might make your new purchase a ruined one if you are not careful.

I do not expect tribal rugs to be perfect. That’s what makes them “perfect” to me.  I like quirks!

- Lisa

P.S. With the holidays coming, make sure you know what to do when an unexpected spill happens. Print out the Holiday Rug Care Tips to have handy! (Merry Christmas!)

I know… it’s supposed to be love…

…but it made me chuckle anyway.

I was behind a car of a rug dealer in La Jolla once, and he had a bumper sticker that read…

“Rugs, not drugs.”

I thought that was cute.

But sometimes “war” and rugs cross paths, like in Afghanistan weavings.

Make rugs not war...or at least "war rugs."

In tribal weavings you often see the pieces of everyday life woven into the textile. Animals, plants, and people.

In Afghanistan, where “war” has been a part of life for as long as today’s Afghanis can remember – from the Soviets, to the Taliban, to now our troops over there – it is a fact that “war” is in fact a part of everyday life.

There are not too many industries that can operate in that type of hostile and unpredictable environment. But weaving has persisted, with a wide range of textiles coming out of Afghanistan today – from poor quality to high quality.

This “war rug” is one of the novelty lines coming from the country, and there are some who specifically collect Afghan War Rugs.

This particular piece is a nicely woven rug (I know because I bought it as a gift for my friend Joe Polish… I knew the man with everything would NOT have one of these.) =)

It is hand woven wool rug with natural vegetal (plant + mineral) dyes. Sometimes people mistakenly say “vegetable” dyes.

Hand grenade border design.

This rug had motifs of hand grenades around the border, an AK-47 in the field, a rifle, planes and tanks.

Planes and tanks in the field.

A woven rifle.

Now, I don’t want to make light of war in another country. I just want to highlight something that is actually being created – and created well – in a country that has been exposed to hardships that many of us will never have to grow up in.

I am always amazed at any beauty that can come out of a place with a lot of “ugly” going on.

One of the books I read last year about Afghanistan, that made a mark on my heart, was “Three Cups of Tea” by Greg Mortenson - who made it a mission to risk his life and livelihood to work to build schools and educate girls in Afghanistan. It came from an experience he had in the country when mountain climbing, and made his life a sign of gratitude to that country.

Powerful book…and makes a great gift.

If you want to help some girls and women in Afghanistan to get educated, and get trained in a craft like carpet weaving, to build better lives from the inside out – there are sites like Kiva.org and Global Giving to make small donations that create a big difference for individuals there. You can choose where your dollars go, and can see the difference it makes. Those are the two groups out of many who are trying to empower the powerless in these countries with skills to earn a living.

And for our troops who risk everything for our security and freedom we have in this blessed country of ours, a foundation I like to help is the Wounded Warrior Project. There are other great foundations as well, that’s just the one I chose to support.

I’m glad that the weaving tradition still exists today in Afghanistan. And I liked the rug. It was well made by someone who cared about the product they were creating.

Maybe in the not so distant future we can see plants and animals replace the tanks.

I’d like to see that in my lifetime.

- Lisa

Tea-washed rugs are rugs that have had a brown “tea-like” dye solution applied to the rug to make it appear darker, older, or to hide some underlying flaws (like past dye bleed damage).

The “tea wash” solution, tends to be on the basic pH side, so that it will “hold” to the acid pH original rug dyes better. This can make things tricky if you need to put the rug on the acid side to “stabilize” the original rugs non-colorfast acid dyes, because this leads to even more “removal” of the after-weaving application of the “tea wash.”

This makes cleaning tea washed rugs a challenge for rug cleaners, and a problem for any owner of a tea washed rug who ever spills ANYTHING on it.

Here is a photo of a tea washed rug – notice how the fringes are more beige, just as the field of the rug is:

Obviously tea dyed fringe is a telltale sign of a tea washed rug.

Sometimes you can grin open the fibers and visually see that a “tea wash” dye has been applied:

Grinning open the fibers can show the tea wash application.

But to be safe, you need to dye test these rugs to see if they are in fact “tea washed” because these rugs often lose that additional dye in even the most gentle cleaning.

If a tea washed rug transfers brown on to a DRY white towel easily when you brush the towel along the fibers, then you WILL lose this brown color during cleaning no matter what you do. Even low-moisture and dry-compound cleaning methods will remove dry that easily crocks onto a dry towel.

If a tea washed rug transfers brown to a damp towel, or in a hot water test, then you will lose color during cleaning as well.

You might even not be cleaning the rug, and accidentally remove this dye, like this cleaner who was cleaning a sofa and over-sprayed the solution on to this tea washed rug…

The cleaner should have put a tarp UNDER the sofa to protect the rug. Very expensive mistake.

…and ended up having to buy the client a whole new rug.

These rugs can be identified easily through proper pre-inspection and dye testing. And then you can choose to turn away the job, or get a release of liability to proceed with the cleaning.

This is a TEMPORARY application to the rug in about 95% of the cases. This means it will clean off.

Clients who buy these rugs should be told this BEFORE the purchase, so that they know that this rug will not look exactly the same after its first cleaning. It is a manufacturing flaw the buyer should be made aware of.

There are a lot of these out in the market right now – so keep an eye out.

And if you want to see some other common Rug Disasters to watch out for, here’s my latest report on exactly this topic of the most common Rug Disasters.

The strongest skill any professional rug cleaner can develop is the skill of pre-inspection. Most “ruined rugs” I am asked to inspect have come from not paying really close attention to the textile they have in their hands.

A specialist knows that the more time you spend BEFORE the wash inspecting the front and back of a rug very closely…

…the less time you will spend AFTER the wash fixing rookie mistakes.

Happy rug cleaning!

- Lisa

I received this comment on my “Viscose Rugs are Garbage” post from a reader who was advised by her interior decorator to have a custom rug designed using “faux silk” (aka viscose or rayon or mercerized cotton):

“Unfortunately I had an area rug made that has large off-white parts made of faux silk, and the other part made of great wool. I did have a water spill on the faux silk part that left a horrible brown stain – as you’ve described. I read your Cleanfax article, got a recommendation through Cleanfax for a reputable cleaner in my area, and they took the rug to their facility to clean. They cleaned the stain pretty well, but all the off-white faux silk areas are now more of a beige color. Any help for these parts? A designer recommended that I use the faux silk when I had the rug made. I’ve showed her your article, and she says she has a hard time believing that it’s true! Any help is appreciated. – Terri”

First of all, I’m sure the designer was not intentionally misleading her client Terri into a poor rug purchase.  I find that most simply do not understand the “cons” of these fibers.

Before I post recommendations for the browning problem to Terri, I want to lay out the reasons why Art Silk, Faux Silk, Viscose Rugs, Rayon Rugs are simply poor choices in rugs that will be in areas with ANY foot traffic or any chance for spills (like Terri’s rug had happen).

1) Viscose/rayon fibers YELLOW with moisture and light exposure. This means a simple spill of water on the rug will create what looks like a pet urine spill instead. This is from cellulose browning (these are cotton byproducts, which tend to yellow/brown when wet).

Fading, matting, and yellowing over time.

2) Because these are incredibly weak fibers, these rugs shed easily, matte easily, and get a shaggier look over time as the nap of the fibers gets more and more distorted from walking on it, cleaning it, and just simply using it.

Sheds staple fibers. Looks as if a cat clawed at it.

3) Releases dyes easily, especially on its first cleaning, or if ever exposed to water from a flood.

And when you have a combination of “bad cleaning choices” – using high heat on a viscose rug, with the wrong highly alkaline cleaning solution (traffic lane cleaner), and too much agitation – you get a result like this:

Rayon rug ruined by carpet cleaner cleaned in the home.

This was cleaned in the owner’s home (by the way, woven rugs should always be taken to a rug cleaning plant to be properly washed, and not done in the home.)

You can see the extreme browning from the wrong cleaning solution and moisture used, the loss of dye from the heat and solution choice, and the distortion in the field from the tools used.

In Terri’s case, the faux silk (viscose) has turn “beige” rather than brown. The rug was taken to a rug plant to be cleaned properly, but these fibers inherently have this long list of problems, so avoiding no “issues” at all is very difficult.

Some possible tips to see if this beige look can be reversed would be this:

1) When a rug with viscose is cleaned, you can dry it out flat after extraction, and face down (fuzzy side down on a CLEAN surface), so that any browning/yellowing that occurs will wick toward the BACK of the rug rather than up to the front top tips. This will make the BACK of the rug more yellow over time, but that is better than the front.

If the rug is TUFTED instead of woven, you cannot dry the rug face down, there will not be enough air flow, so you need to dry the rug as quickly as possible. (I use an Airpath to make that happen.)

2) In this case, if we were only talking about one small area, here is a little home remedy I would recommend.

Mix in a bowl a 50/50 mix of household white vinegar, and cool water. Take a small brush (toothbrush will work) and brush on the tips of those beige fibers the mixture – just get them damp, not wet. Use a hair dryer on cool to dry – and see if there is any improvement in the area.

If it does look better – do the rest of it.

Vinegar (acetic acid 6%) helps counteract browning. This is why many rug cleaning operations do a vinegar rinse of rugs, to remove shampoo residue, and keep the fibers on the acid pH side, to help alleviate browning/yellowing and to also help stabilize rug acid dyes during the drying process.

In this case, where ALL of the faux silk areas have turned beige, a stronger acidic rinse is required to try to correct the browning. So if this was my rug I would contact the rug plant, and ask what the fee would be to simply give the rug an acidic rinse, and then dry it face down in their facility – to see if it improves.  Since it was recently cleaned – the cost should be supplies (the acidic rinse) and labor, but not as much as the full cleaning was.

This is a flaw based on the fiber choice. Silk is more expensive for a reason.

If the issue cannot be corrected, then I would recommend to Terri to look at requesting a refund on the rug itself, because if she was sold something that cannot be maintained and look the way it was sold to her – she should have been informed of that BEFORE she paid for it. If the designer did not give her a choice between the real stuff and the fake, then she was selling a job based on her own choice and not allowing Terri to make an educated buying decision.

If Terri saw the pros/cons of silk versus fake silk, and still chose to go the less expensive route…then this would just simply be the consequence of that. Knowing that it’s going to yellow/brown over time.

So that’s the question – was she provided complete information.

Designers choose viscose because it is inexpensive, and at least in the very beginning, it looks good too – but this will cost more in maintenance and corrective work and end up not being a “good deal” to their customers in the long run.

If any designers come across this post PLEASE…

…STOP selling faux silk rugs. Viscose and rayon are truly horrible choices for rugs.

- Lisa

How many drinks do you need to decide to create this out of an old Tabriz rug?

Tabriz bear rug

Tabriz bear rug full image

How many drinks do you need to pay $1,800 for it?

Actually…if a rug is damaged, has little resale value, and cannot be safely used in its current condition, it is nice to be able to give it a “new life” in a different format. Pillows, wall hangings,…I’ve just never seen Bear Rug before as a way to recycle a rug.

But what about this weird one…a rug in Puerto Rico, made from…

Can you get the smoke odor out of this?

…discarded cigarette butts!!!

Close up shot - KOOL!!! (bad pun...I know...)

It is unbelievable what some people will create and call art.

If you ever come across rugs like these, I call them simply “Weird Rugs” – then here’s some how-to suggestions on how to clean them (but, truly, you won’t be able to get the smoke odor out of that rug…):

Cleanfax – Weird Funky Rugs You never know what you are going to come across…that’s what I love about this business – always something NEW to surprise you.

- Lisa

P.S. Those of you who are professional rug cleaners, two topics of interest to you, some current industry politics that is affecting the rug cleaning industry…and shows that even in our little world of rug cleaning, we have political pollution. Surprise, surprise…

I was sent some photos of a relatively “new” type of product hitting the market – a tufted rug using silk as highlights.

Now…tufted rugs are of course not new to retail shops. I’m sure you’ve seen them, rugs with a material backing, like this:

Tufted rug - cloth backing.

Tufted rugs are what I refer to as FAKE rugs, because they are a cheaper, quicker way to create the look of a woven rug without the quality and longevity of a real woven rug.

Tufted rugs are essentially hooked rugs, looped into a cotton mesh, then latex is poured over the back to glue the fibers in place. They most of the time cover the back with a cloth, because the latex is ugly and can sometimes crumble or yellow the floor/carpeting underneath it. Then they shear off the top loops so it is straight fibers like a “real” rug.

Tufted rugs by and large are cheaply made, and have a life of several years, versus decades (or centuries) like quality hand woven wool rugs.

A real hand woven rug can take months - or years - to craft.

I am a fan of real rugs – WOVEN rugs. Especially wool rugs.

That said, most consumers do not know the difference, and many buy tufted rugs, so you need to know how to clean them.

Because tufted rugs have a lot of corners cut to allow them to sell for cheaper prices, you have a number of concerns:

1) The latex, if poor quality, can crumble and the face fibers can pull loose during vacuuming or cleaning.

2) The designs, if stenciling is used that is INK, can bleed out when wet and wick up to the top (this is a manufacturing flaw, because they should NOT be using ink to do this).

3) The latex, if it has gone bad and soured, can create a HORRIBLE odor (smells like a cross between dirty socks and rubber) that will get WORSE with any moisture from cleaning. If the rug is new, and smells, tell your client to RETURN the rug immediately to exchange for another one or to get their money back. This is flawed merchandise.

4) Because of the latex construction, these rugs can take up to 4 times as long to dry as woven rugs do. So you need to boost air movement and dehumification to boost your drying results for tufted rugs.

There are some other issues, but those are the biggies.

And I don’t want to imply ALL tufted rugs are crummy. There are some high-end, very nice tufted rugs, for example Edward Field’s rugs are VERY expensive wool tufted rugs that are high quality.

Back to my story… I was sent a photo of a TUFTED rug with wool face fibers, but also SILK highlights throughout it. And the cleaner wanted to know any tips or concerns he should have. Here’s two photos of the rug in question:

Wool and silk tufted rug - front view

Wool and silk tufted rug - back corner

Now, considering this is a tufted rug, the odds of the highlights being good quality silk are not high. In fact, it is likely rayon or viscose or mercerized cotton (all used as artificial silk).

To determine if it is real silk versus fake silk, you take a tuft from the rug (use tweezers) and drop it in a small cup of fresh Chlorox bleach.

If it is real silk, it will begin to bubble and slowly dissolve.

If it is fake silk (mercerized cotton, or rayon/viscose which is cotton by-products), it will do nothing. By the way, rayon/viscose is the WORST fiber on the planet for rugs.

There are many high quality rugs from Persia, and China, that are hand woven wool oriental rugs with silk highlights around the floral designs. They are beautiful.

Silk is a natural protein fiber, like wool, and in these cases where the amount of silk is not large, you can follow the same guidelines you do for cleaning wool and safely clean the silk as well. Same shampoo, same dye stabilizing solutions, same vinegar rinse to remove the residue.

One difference is that the silk will get matted and stiff when fully dried, and this requires some grooming to loosen those fibers up again. Very slow hand brushing is required (similar to the grooming needed for velvet when it is cleaned, except you use a hand brush instead of a carding brush). This additional time needed is why it usually costs more to clean silk rugs than wool rugs, because more time is required. (By the way, grooming is required for FAKE silk also, so even cheap viscose rugs cost more to clean than wool rugs because it takes more time.)

With this tufted rug in particular, because these rugs are made quickly and not with the highest quality ingredients, I would pre-inspect for a few things. I would want to know: are the dyes colorfast? are the fibers strong or do they pull away easily? is there any stenciling? is the silk actually RAYON? is there any latex strong odor?

I would test the dyes. If they test colorfast, and the rug is fairly soiled, then I would wash the rug. Give it a bath.

If the dyes test as fugitive, then I would surface clean the rug with an upholstery tool section by section carefully, to clean it. I would use an Airpath air mover to speed dry.

I would test the fiber strength. If they test strong, and the rug is fairly soiled, then I would wash the rug.

If they test weak (easily pull away from the rug), then I would surface clean it with the upholstery tool, and if needed, place a screen over the rug sections as I clean them to keep fibers from being pulled away during extraction strokes.

I would inspect for stenciling. If I see none when I grin open the fibers to look, then I would wash the rug.

If I do see stenciling, and the rug is fairly soiled, I would STILL wash it… because the rug is dark and so ink bleeding out will not be visible on the front, but I would let the client know ink marks will show on the backing material. (Most clients don’t care what the back of the rug looks like, and I always prefer to give rugs a bath versus surface cleaning because it is the difference between taking a real bath or having a sponge bath.) Just in case the ink might bleed into the white silk highlights, I would use an Airpath to speed dry it.

I would test to see if the highlight fibers are RAYON instead of silk. If they are in fact rayon, then I know I need to be careful about scrubbing the rug, and to be extra careful when grooming after it’s dry. Rayon is a very weak fiber, and will break apart with even the gentlest cleaning.

I would pre-inspect for the horrible odor found in some tufted rugs. If the rug has that odor I would NOT CLEAN IT. This is a manufacturing flaw, tell the client to return it to the store they bought it at.

As long as you are VERY good at pre-inspection, and VERY good at carefully cleaning a rug, this should not be a problem rug to clean.

If you have any questions for me on this rug or others, please post them in the COMMENTS.

Thank you for reading the Rug Chick blog, I am always happy to see so many come to visit me here.

- Lisa