Frankensteined Custom Rugs.

May 9, 2010 — admin

That’s what I call rugs that are haphazardly designed using very different fibers or construction types in order to make a “custom” rug. Just like Frankenstein, they grab random pieces to put together the resulting monster.

Some look attractive. The question though is – can you safely clean it? Because in many cases, you can’t.

You may have a base natural fiber rug, which should be washed, but fabric borders that with water will bleed, or even worse, shrink and buckle.

Decorative fabric that will be tricky to clean

Decorative fabric that will be tricky to clean

Some custom rugs are pieced together like a puzzle, and latex or seam tape is used to hold the patchwork together. Again, it can be an attractive rug to look at, but giving it a bath can split the seams.

Seam tape holding a rug together can split with age or washing.

Seam tape holding a rug together can split with age or washing.

This means you may only have the option of a surface cleaning rather than a real rug bath, and since a surface cleaning is not as thorough as a wash (and leaves more cleaning residue behind) – you will likely have to wash the rug more often to keep it clean for your home. This is added cost that you need to be aware of if you are purchasing a specialty custom rug.

Custom rug - check the back for stability.

Custom rug - check the back for stability.

It is a shame that the designers of these rugs do not reach out more to the rug cleaners who will end up cleaning these pieces.

Sometimes a rug that is a great idea and design in someone’s mind, becomes incredibly impractical in terms of care and cleaning. For example, some rug manufacturers are creating rugs using viscose (rayon) as highlighting fibers in their design, but viscose is the worst rug fiber on the planet. It’s cheap though, and looks like silk, so they use it.

These days some manufacturers only seem to care about getting that first sale, and not whether their products are going to last a long time or simply become landfill rugs that begin falling apart soon after the sale.

And the more complicated these rugs are in terms of cleaning, the more time a professional rug cleaner will have to take to sometimes hand clean each section using different methods, which can be a costly in terms of labor hours you are paying to take proper, sanitary care of your floor covering.

If you are someone looking to buy a rug, and want a few tips on looking for quality new rugs, post a comment letting me know and I’ll email you tips I follow.

If you are a rug cleaner looking to be wary of many of the lurking problems with new rugs these days, post a comment letting me know and I’ll email you my handy one page pre-inspection sheet to train you on what to keep an eye out for.

There are some very beautiful custom rugs out there, you just want to make sure they are quality pieces that aren’t going to give you any surprises.

- Lisa

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Braided Rugs – What To Watch For

September 30, 2009 — therugchick

I’ve seen braided rugs come in all colors, sizes, and ages. New product from stores like Pier One, and some from the 1930′s with a story from the owner about how their neighborhood tore clothing into strips to create a community rug when she was a child.

These rugs are braided. Fabric strips braided into long braids, and then crafted into a rug like this one:

Braided rug from America

Braided rug from America

Many are very sturdy rugs, but some of the older ones can pose some problems for both rug owners and rug cleaners. Here are a few items to check for:

Rug dye problems. You want to test the dyes of your rug to see if they are not colorfast. If you own the rug and a damp cloth shows dye transfer, then you will want to be careful what type of surface you place the rug on top of as dye may transfer onto other surfaces.  If you are nervous about a vibrant braided rug being on top of light colored wall-to-wall carpeting, then use a pad underneath as a barrier between the rug and the carpeting. (Rugs are meant to be placed on HARD surfaces, so this is only if you have no choice but placing it over a soft flooring.)

If you are a rug cleaner, and the dyes are highly fugitive, then instead of giving the rug a proper wash, you will be forced to lessen the amount of water during the cleaning and treat the rug as you would tricky upholstery and use a tool such as the Drimaster tool to clean, rinse, and immediately extract the cleaning solutions.

Rug braid filler threads. Sometimes the inside of the braids are supported with filler materials to make the braids more stiff. These filler materials, if they are dyed, may create “bleeding” problems when wet. You will want to open up the braids a bit and see of this filler material exists. This is a blurred photo – but this is what the filler material can look like:

Cut braid with filler material inside.

Cut braid with filler material inside.

Broken braids. With especially older braided rugs, the thread holding the braids along side of one another can weaken and break. This ends up making the rug fall apart. If you own the rug, tripping on broken areas can make the problem worse, and if the rug is given a bath, moving the rug around can create more and more broken areas.

Braided rug coming unraveled.

Braided rug coming unraveled.

The problem of broken connecting threads needs to be addressed BEFORE the cleaning process as it will become worse. If the rug is heavily soiled however, hand sewing the braids together will not be possible (it’s unsanitary to the rug repair specialists to be handling and breathing in the contaminants in a heavily soiled rug).

In this case, you can sandwich the rug between two plastic screens, sew these screens to one another to press the rug tightly inside of them, and then soak the rug, scrub, and rinse the rug as that “braided rug sandwich.” Then after complete drying it can be repaired.

When you send a braided rug off for repair, be sure to make sure they use very strong upholstery thread for those connecting threads so that you do not have to have the rug repaired yet again in a few more years.

These are colorful and fun rugs – and the older ones have some great stories attached to them. Just be sure to inspect them very carefully before cleaning so that you do not create any unexpected problems.

- Lisa

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That Rug LIES! (Or it is lays…?) :)

August 1, 2009 — therugchick

Just like Tammy Faye used a lot of makeup to cover up her “real” look to try to appear younger … certain rug dealers can use some “tricky” cover-ups to make a rug look OLDER. (Interesting, huh?)

Tea wash, henna wash, antiqued wash – these are the culprits.

It is a brown or gold dye, applied after the rug is woven, to give it a darker, older look. It can hide harsh strong dyes to make them more subtle. It can also hide past stains, flood damaged dyes, and other damage to make it appear un-damaged to the uneducated buyer. It can also be used to make a rug appear to be an antique to the uneducated buyer.

Or – it could simply be used to make the rug more attractive.

But here’s the problem – most of these applications are NOT permanent. So if a someone buys the rug, and gets it cleaned, it can suddenly lose the “look” that compelled them to buy the rug in the first place. (Usually they are not told the rug has been “tea washed” when they bought it. And honestly, many retailers handle too much product to know a wash warning sign like this – but rug cleaners, we need to catch it before we end up buying the rug ourselves from an unhappy client.)

Look at this rug:

Hmmm .. the color looks a little off.... (hint, hint!)

Hmmm .. the color looks a little off.... (hint, hint!)

If you are running a conveyor belt cleaning operation – hundreds in and out a week - you might not catch these.

But when you run a hands-on workshop operation, where the teams inspect each rug closely, and then wash the rugs one at a time carefully, you will pick up on these dangers (and you can let the rug owner know there is a problem BEFORE it’s cleaned).

Grin open those fibers – what do you see?:

WOW! This rug was living a LIE! It's not antique, it's antiqu-ED!

WOW! This rug was living a LIE! It's not antique, it's antiqu-ED!

When you clean a rug like this one, even if you are gentle, you will remove this over-dye process.

How do you spot the warning signs – as a rug CLEANER or as a rug BUYER? You compare the front to the back (any color differences?), you grin open the fibers (any color differences from the base to the tips?), you take a towel and dampen it and wipe the fibers (ANY color coming off onto the towel?).

You also look at the FRINGE to see if it is beige or brown instead of white. Usually they spray or dip the entire rug, and the cotton fringe will dye unevenly from that process.

If you like the look of a tea washed rug – then by all means buy it. But know that eventually this rug needs to be cleaned (at least once every 18 months under normal use, once a year for high traffic, that is IF you vacuum the rug regularly) and when it is cleaned it may lose some of this coloring process. It is not permanent, but some applications are better than others. Some are horrible and will come off with simply water.

Be aware that this means the color can also come off onto fabrics if you sit on the rug, and it may transfer to the carpeting underneath if you are placing the rug on top of wall-to-wall carpet.

As a cleaner – test the strength of the over-dye application and make the decision to move ahead with cleaning, or turn the job away if the rug owner will not release you from liability on cleaning their tea-washed rug. Your cleaning process is not doing damage, the application process is the problem.

Makeup will only cover up spots so long … eventually you have to show the “real” you … and eventually these rugs need to be the rugs they were “born” to be.  Just be wary of the cover-ups!

- Lisa

P.S. Since you’re here anyway… why not post a comment? I’d like to know if you like my posts, or if you don’t, or if there is anything you’d like me to share some insight on.  Come on! It’s fun! :)

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What's Lurking Beneath The Dirt???

July 21, 2009 — therugchick

That’s a really good question.  I mean, take a look at this rug right here:

Filthy rug may be hiding SECRET DANGERS!

Filthy rug may be hiding SECRET DANGERS!

What could be lurking here? Plenty of pre-existing dangers – old stains, old dye migration, old repairs, abrash, sunfade.

You could be the BEST rug care specialist in your city, and yet with this rug, you could be unable to catch any of these items above in your pre-inspection.  Why?  Because the rug is friggin’ FILTHY!

Couple things to point out – one is, when someone allows their rug to get really dirty, they don’t care about it.  They are putting off cleaning it because they don’t especially enjoy paying to have it cleaned. They don’t realize that the abrasive soil is cutting the fibers of this silk rug and is causing it to prematurely wear down.

People often falsely say that cleaning a rug causes damage – when actually NOT cleaning it causes damage.   Think about a little bit of sand and grit getting into the bottom of your shoe, and how that pokes, scratches, and hurts over time.  Put that grit into a rug that is walked on day in and day out, and can you imagine that on wool or silk fibers? Of course it causes damage.

If you have the rug improperly cleaned, for examples having a wool or silk rug steam cleaned at high heat – I’ll grant you that this cleaning would in fact damage the rug more than help it.  But properly cleaning – a wash – of a well made rug with strong dyes only helps it to last longer.

But back to the filthy rug.  What if this level of dirt was on top of this rug right here?

Red dye has bled on the top side of this rug only from an old spill.

Red dye has bled on the top side of this rug only from an old spill.

If this rug was caked with dark gray soil as the rug at the beginning of the post is, you would likely not be able to see this damage until the rug was clean and it stuck out like a sore thumb.  Then the rug’s owner might incorrectly believe you created the damage with your wash.

(One tip for you – if your wash process has bled a rug, then it will have bled it ALL over the rug, and not just in one small isolated area. If you’ve made an error, it will show up throughout the rug.)

If a rug is heavily soiled, it is not within your power to do a proper pre-inspection.  That’s like having you do a home inspection but locking the door and not allowing you inside.  You cannot SEE the conditions.

This means a comment needs to be placed on the invoice that states “Due to extreme soiling, I am unable to note any pre-existing stains, dye migration, sunfade, or discolorations on this rug. I will use extreme care in cleaning this rug, but cannot be held responsible for any pre-existing conditions uncovered by my thorough cleaning process.”

If the rug owner refuses to release you from liability on this point, then I’d suggest you turn the job away. Clearly they have something to hide – literally. And rug owners who allow their rugs to get this soiled do not appreciate “clean” and do not appreciate those in the cleaning profession.

They tend to be the most demanding customers who will criticize the price, the turnaround time, and the results. Why? Because they resent the fact that they have to pay someone to clean up their dirt.

Clients who value clean, and strive for a healthy home, glady hire skilled professionals to deliver that service to their homes and their rugs. It is part of their routine to provide the best environment for themselves, their families, and their household investments from their flooring to their textiles.

It’s true that sometimes a homeowner may slip and let something get dirtier than they should have. How you’ll know if they are a good client to have will be how they respond to your waiver for a heavily soiled rug.  If the response is “of course, no problem” – the customer is a keeper.

If the answer is “no way” – then you need to thank them for letting you know that they are not someone you want to invest any time and effort into.  You can politely refer them to someone else, and thank them for keeping you from getting a nightmare customer-induced migraine.

- Lisa

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