High heat = high risk…for oriental rugs.

A couple times a month I get a photo of a rug that comes in that breaks my heart… because you see a really nice rug damaged by something that was entirely avoidable.

My last post showed a rug that was damaged by not being attentive with a piece of dusting equipment on a Turkish rug.

The technician had not been careful with a heavy piece of equipment, and paid the price.

He was not trained by his instructors on how to keep from letting that happen when you are not paying attention to what you are doing. (See in the comments of that thread how to use Tyvek to protect from that damage.)

In the same week I was sent a photo of this nice wool rug that a professional cleaner bled.

Front side - red dyes have bled.

Back side - red dyes have bled.

Now…if there is ONE thing I’d like you to take away from this post, it is this:

HIGH HEAT IS BAD FOR WOOL RUGS!

(It’s also bad for silk, FYI.)

Think about your clothing for a minute…how many items do you wash in HOT water, and put in a HOT dryer?

Some, I know… but most, no.

Why?

Because many of the fibers – especially NATURAL fibers – have a problem with that. Loss of color, shrinking, loss of finishing and texture.

When was the last time you took your nice wool sweater and washed it in HOT water, and dried it on HIGH heat?

Now, wool rugs are different from wool fabrics in construction – but many of the characteristics, and risks, are the same.

And with this rug, the cleaner had two runners to clean. He used an approved WoolSafe shampoo, dye stabilizing solution, wash pit set-up, and truck mount with a water claw as well.

First rug – no problem.

Second rug, as the heat kicked in on his truck mount (he had set it low to begin with, and it increased over time)… suddenly a problem. The dyes bled. Despite the dye stabilizing solution.

He was working under two false assumptions here:

1) That dye stabilizing solutions “set” dyes indefinitely. They don’t. They give you a window of opportunity to clean, and if you have a rug with dyes that are not colorfast, that window is VERY small. You gotta wash it quick.

2) That HEAT is okay for wool. For oriental rugs, it is not. One of the reasons I test a rug’s dye strength with a HOT water test is because I want to know IMMEDIATELY if there is any chance at all a rug will bleed on me. I wash with cold, but I test with hot – to be safe. Sometimes rugs can bleed right away…sometimes it takes some time, so you need to know what you are working with, and use the right solutions to strengthen the dye-fiber bond during your thorough wash process.

Now…this professional cleaner was told by one of his instructors that wool is okay at up to 140 degrees of heat, so he was not worried…until it bled that is.

This was an IICRC-instructor who told him this. An instructor who is not a rug cleaner, but apparently gives some advice on rugs. I’m not sure why.

But, you see, with wool wall-to-wall installed carpeting, using heat to clean is commonplace. But generally you will not find in a home, installed wool carpeting with bright reds, blues, and other vivid acid dyes as you will with oriental rugs, or specialty fine fabrics.

In the latest cover story of Cleanfax Magazine, I mention several things that this post is focusing on: 1) the shortcomings in today’s training in the fields of rug cleaning and upholstery cleaning, and 2) that I believe someone well-trained in upholstery and fine fabric care would be a BETTER oriental rug cleaner than someone well-trained in residential carpet cleaning.

Here’s the article, which I co-authored with Jim Pemberton (an expert in upholstery and fine fabric care):

Cleanfax – Sept 2010 Cover

Homes with nice investment-grade textiles on their floors, almost always also have investment-grade fabric on their furnishings. They go hand in hand.

And with fine furnishings, or oriental rugs, there needs to be an EXCELLENT eye and hand for testing and inspection. Fiber tests, dye tests, construction identification, and inspecting for any pre-existing conditions that might hamper your cleaning results…or lead to a cleaning disaster. You need to be able to spot these BEFORE they become problems.

Something shared with a client before cleaning is EDUCATION, and after cleaning is an EXCUSE.

The more time you put into the front end with your attention to detail, the less you will spend on the back end trying to clean up a mess, or pay for one.

There is a serious shortcoming in our training today, at least in these specialty niches of oriental rugs and fine fabrics.

My hope is that making a post like my previous one (showing how a Rug Badger could damage a rug if you are NOT careful), and this one (showing how a mistaken belief about heat not being bad, and dye stabilizer being a “fix”), will help keep anyone in the rug cleaning world to be just a little bit more attentive to what they are doing.

This might be a 1 in 100 chance of happening to a rug cleaner…but I can tell you…being that one that it does happen to, really sucks.

Just ask the guys who handled these recent rug disasters.

Hope you enjoy the article!

- Lisa

Good equipment + bad training = RUG DISASTER

A really BIG franchise carpet cleaning company brought us a rug to “fix” for them.

They are “certified” – they hired the southern contingent rug training duo to teach them the IICRC course – so they were able to memorize the facts to pass the test… and they bought the products the instructors were selling… but it appears that perhaps they did not come away with “knowing” and understanding proper rug care in terms of heavy equipment on more fragile rugs.

For one thing… they mentioned the rug had already been properly “pit” cleaned by their instructors’ process.

Here’s a shot of one area – that by the way still STINKS:

The "clean" rug from the competitor still stinks.

Using a pit for cleaning is WAY better than surface cleaning with other methods (portable or truck mount) – but when you are dealing with a rug with dyes that are NOT colorfast, and you are NOT knowledgeable about how to clean rugs in that circumstance, then you do it too quickly from fear – and it does not come out being free of the contaminants… which is why this rug still smells.

There is still dog urine in it.

This company does a good volume of rugs, always has, but their target market is more those who are looking for the cheapest rug cleaning, versus the best care for the rugs. There’s a difference.

Some rugs are very inexpensive and the owners are not looking for specialists. They have a coupon. But sometimes people who have valuable rugs may not know it.  So though this company handles a lot of the commodity rugs out there, they do get “real” oriental rugs through their doors, and some of these we see…sometimes after things have gone wrong.  We get their “uh-oh’s.”

And this one was indeed an uh-oh… but not from the pee-pee.

Take a look:

When badgering goes BAD.

This Turkish rug was brought in with several very large tears in it.  It is a strong woven rug, and we pulled on the torn areas to see if it was weak from dry rot or any other reason – nope, it was strong as can be.

But all of these torn areas…?!?  So my mother asked what happened, and their technician answered…

“It was BADGERED.”

Now, the Rug Badger is a dusting machine that BEATS the heck out of a rug to pound dirt out of it. This makes the wash process more thorough…but you have to be VERY careful with using this equipment on textiles.

The straps turn around and beat and beat, and it can pull up the edge of a rug, and BAM – this happens:

Long tears along the bottom half of the rug.

Now… my mother can repair this. It will take a bit of work, because it is 7 tears all along the bottom, each about a foot in length, but the cuts are clean cuts.

But what makes me mad is that these technicians feel confident about handling woven oriental rugs, because they have an IICRC patch, when they are simply not ready to be handling hand-woven rugs with very limited book-learning knowledge.

They provide inexpensive in-home cleaning of wall-to-wall carpet, but they believe in a few days of a sit-down test that they can now be “oriental rug specialists.” They in fact advertise this service (as do many carpet cleaning companies who specialize in in-home wall-to-wall carpeting but not natural fiber woven rugs).

I don’t fault them for trying to make more money by offering more services to their customers, and actually, there are more rugs to clean than skilled rug cleaners – so it’s a good specialty to get trained in.

It’s just if they are going to do a SPECIALIZED service, they should spend some time to REALLY learn it.

There is a myth in the rug cleaning industry – and in cleaning wall-to-wall carpet – that it is ALL about the equipment you use.

But in reality, it is the PERSON behind the equipment that is more valuable.

I can take a bucket of shampoo, some vinegar, and some hand brushes, and because I understand textiles and their care VERY well… I could out-clean a rug versus a person with a fully mechanized rug plant with hundreds of thousands in equipment.

In fact, this weekend in Las Vegas, I build a very rudimentary wash pit, and cleaned one of the most dangerous rug bleeders out there – a bright red Afghan wool rug – and did an excellent job with tools that were not made for “rugs.” But with the right cleaning solutions to stabilize the dye, the right shampoo, and keeping an eye on the process, several students and I got that rug washed and dried and looking fabulous.

Anyone else, with no understanding of the basics of rug cleaning, would have ruined that rug.

Why could I with low-tech tools be able to out clean a high-tech operation?

Because I understand what I am working on, and I have the attention to detail that would make the difference. A big difference.

It’s like the difference between running your car through the $7 car wash at Chevron, and getting a $200 mobile car detailing where every inch inside and out is sparkling.

This rug disaster is a crime.

It’s what happens when you put good equipment with bad training and give them a good rug to clean.

This is not the Badger’s fault – it is the operator’s fault. He should have been more aware that a soft woven rug like this could not take the beating.

I shouldn’t complain, because it’s a rug repair invoice, so it’s technically “business”… but it just irks me that these classes taught by instructors who have NEVER run a successful rug cleaning operation can mislead their students into thinking that EVERY rug is a piece of cake to clean, and that every piece of equipment can be equally applied to every rug.

There must be adjustments, and these adjustments come from understanding what you are working on, and predicting disasters BEFORE they happen.

For those of you who own Rug Badgers – please pay attention.  If you have a flexible wool rug, and you get too close to the edge, you run this risk here.

I personally do not have a Rug Badger in our plant, not because it is a bad piece of equipment – it can be a good time saver for smaller operations.  I just prefer the control of a Sanitaire vacuum, and it works well for us.  I’m not a big fan of aggressively beating natural fiber woven rugs.

I warn my students that sometimes this heavy equipment can risk structural damage. Besides this “badgering” – I have also seen the Centrifuge spinner unit split the backing foundation of a machine woven rug because it went too fast.

Just be careful and attentive. And ALWAYS check the foundation of the rugs closely for existing dry rot or structural problems BEFORE you beat the heck out of it.

- Lisa

A silk tufted rug – now what?

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 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.

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 - front view

Wool and silk tufted rug - back corner

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

The care and feeding of Karastan rugs.

Karastan has always been known as a provider of high-quality machine woven wool rugs that replicate many classic Persian oriental rug designs.

Woven in America, made of high quality materials and construction. I’ve seen Karastans from the 1930′s still in very good condition.  In fact, we had an older one come through our shop a few weeks ago, and it had an interesting – and outdated – care tag on the back.  Right here:

Karastan rug care tag - be careful!

Karastan rug care tag - be careful!

Here’s a blog I wrote over on our San Diego Rug Cleaning Company rug repair blog - with a point by point blow of the tag in question.

As Karastan has begun importing product from China, you can no longer say that it represents high quality in machine made product. For some unknown reason they have decided to create some blended rugs with wool and viscose, and as all frequent readers of The Rug Chick blog know – viscose is the worst rug fiber to ever choose for your home.

When you read the label description, let me know, was there anything in it that you were also surprised to see in print as “recommended instructions”? Am I the only one surprised?

- Lisa

P.S.  Heads up – rug cleaning workshop upcoming on August 6-7 - get your seat before it SELLS OUT!

Rug Reminder: Viscose rugs are garbage.

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about viscose (aka rayon, faux silk, or Art Silk) rugs from rug cleaners, and also consumers looking to buy some new rugs.

Yes viscose is MUCH cheaper than silk – that’s because you are getting what you pay for.

Looks good, but not for long.

Looks good, but not for long.

I’ve made posts before about the negatives of buying or cleaning a viscose rug.

The fiber is not just kinda weak – it is VERY weak.  Spill on it, and scrub it trying to clean it up, you will permanently distort and damage the fibers.

It likes to YELLOW on you. Get it wet, just with water, and you will have a water mark that ends up looking like a big pet urine puddle. (This is because rayon is a bunch of cellulose by-products, mish-mashed together and heavily chemically process to make it look shiny, and it yellows when wet.)

It likes to BLEED on you. The dyes are not strong. Ever try to clean one of these on your own at home, because it looks easy to clean, and you will create a soup of dyes mingled together if you’re not careful.

And… it looks worse after every year of foot traffic, and after every cleaning.  Why? Because you can’t scrub it much without distortion or damage. Think about something you have that is cotton (a stronger version of rayon), like perhaps some socks. They’ve gotten dirty from use, and then you can only wash them by gently soaking them in a cleaning solution, and not being allowed to scrub to try to get the soil loose, and not allowed to use hot water to help remove it (because it would make it come apart more).

How clean could you get those socks? Would you ever be able to wear them again? Probably not.

So you have viscose rugs, with feet, shoes, and paws walking on it – and the contaminants brought in from those sources – and you cannot properly and thoroughly clean it because it’s such an inferior fiber it can’t hold up to proper cleaning over time.

You literally buy a rug, when it’s viscose, that is disposable. It will look good for a short period of time, and will age quickly and will be in the landfill, or given away to Goodwill, in a few years.

So, why bother?

A wool rug will last you decades, and some for centuries, if you get a quality one. There is no better rug fiber to buy than wool, for lots of reasons I’m written about in prior posts.

Viscose and rayon may be cheap… but even “cheap” – it’s not worth it. You are wasting your hard earned money.

Just want to make sure everyone is clear on this. :)

- Lisa

Why Wool Rules The Rug World

Wool is the king of rug fibers, for many reasons.

1) It’s STRONG. In durability tests it takes more than 10,000 bends to break a wool fiber. (In comparison, silk is 2,400 times before breakage, and rayon/viscose – the WORST fiber on the planet – breaks in 70.)

2) It’s VIBRANT when dyed. You have a huge variance in color possibilities with wool, it accepts and holds color amazingly well, and if it is very good quality wool it will have a fantastic sheen with that color. If you see tribal rugs you know what I mean here, great wool looks like really healthy, shiny hair.

Wool comes in a HUGE variety of colors.

Wool comes in a HUGE variety of colors.

3) It’s naturally fire resistant and spill resistant. Wool fibers won’t carry a flame, so they self-extinguish (unlike some synthetic fibers that burn like crazy). It also has a natural moisture repellency. This means when you spill on it, the liquid will be suspended for a time before it soaks into the fibers. So when you spill on a rug, if you blot it up quickly, you are often just fine.

4) Over time it gets a fantastic PATINA and look to it. Wool rugs age beautifully, at least the ones with great quality wool and dyes do. We have rugs come into our shop that are 100 plus years old, and they look fantastic.

BLOG - great OLD RUG

Old Afshar rug

5) They are SUSTAINABLE and the ultimate GREEN choice. Wool comes from sheep, which need to be raised and bred out in the countryside, and every year there is more fibers to sheer. It grows back.  Synthetic fibers (nylon, olefin, etc.) are petroleum products (plastic) – and do not have the great look, feel, or strength as wool. If you are looking for the choice that is a better product, and also better for the planet, then wool is the winner here.

If this is a pro/con list, then one “con” is that pets LOVE natural fibers. They remind them of their fellow furry friends. So dogs do tend to be drawn to your wool rugs. And if they are not properly trained, then pet stains on wool rugs are very tough to remove. Sometimes impossible to remove.

Other than that, there is nothing more gorgeous, rich, and attractive as a great old rug.

BLOG - great OLD RUG 2

Old Serapi rug

Wool rugs… whether chosen as art for your home (like these older pieces), investment pieces to hand down to your kids, or simply an attractive, strong, elegant choice for your room – you really can’t go wrong here. Wool is the best choice for a rug if you are really, truly are looking for the best.

Lisa

Bugs – Do Not Eat My Rugs!

Moths and carpet beetles like to munch on wool rugs.

But they are not the only culprits. If you do not keep your rugs clean, and there are food spills, or drink spills, you can attract insects who are eating the “food” but also the wool that has absorbed it.  Like a shish-kabob for bugs!

Since many rugs have a COTTON foundation, which these bugs do not eat, most moth or carpet beetle damage will look like this – empty spaces of white cotton foundation threads peeking out at you.

Areas of a Wilton rug where the wool has been eaten away.

Areas of a Wilton rug where the wool has been eaten away.

Wool-munching bugs like dark areas without much air circulation. This means you will tend to find their “activity” on the underside of a rug, or behind a large drape, or under a sofa, or on the backside of a textile hanging up on a wall.

It is important, especially if a rug has been in place for 6 months or longer without much activity to make sure that bugs are not making a feast of your rug. When you are vacuuming a rug (ideally with a canister vacuum – little abrasion so you can do it weekly), be sure to flip over the corners and sides and run the vacuum head over the edges to pick up any LINT that may actually be larvae. Moth eggs do sometimes resemble sticky lint, so you want to keep an eye out.

By creating air flow under the rug, and moving it around, you can dissuade bugs from making a home there. You can also set smaller rugs out in the sunlight (face down) for a half hour to hour while you are cleaning the underneath flooring. This open air and sun will also make unwanted bugs get the heck out of Dodge and move to the next home.

Pulling down hanging rugs and vacuuming the back of the rug is very important, especially if you have tribal pieces such as American Indian weavings. These pieces tend to have “tastier” unprocessed wool for bugs, and with some (such as pieces from Morocco), there can be wool that has not had as thorough a cleaning process before being exported and so they may have carried over some of their own indigenous insects.

Wool is an incredible fiber. It is strong, it is dyed vibrantly, it is incredibly environmentally friendly because it is a renewable resource.  People love wool … and unfortunately so do bugs.

Wool is also an AMAZING filter for the air because it can grab and hold dust and grit, pounds of it, and still look clean. When you wait to clean your wool rug when it looks dirty, you are already months behind the ideal time, and that packed in grit causes abrasion that makes your rugs wear down. Think of a tiny rock in your shoe, how the tiniest one can drive you nuts. Now think of thousands of tiny little rocks rolling in those wool fibers that you are walking on – that is why rugs can wear down over years of misuse.

Running vacuum along the back of this rug shakes out pounds of soil.

Running vacuum along the back of a rug can shake out pounds of soil.

Wool rugs can last for CENTURIES under the right conditions – which includes regular dusting (vacuuming) and washing.

 And your best protection against BUGS?  Have your rugs regularly cleaned. This not only makes your home environment cleaner, but removes unwanted guests in your wool fibers before they begin causing real damage, AND removes the grit that causes rugs to wear down sooner than they should.

By having the rug sent out for a bath, you can thoroughly clean the rug and have it come back residue – and bug – free. You can apply “chemicals” to try to mothproof the piece, but these are poisons, and are only appropriate if you are packing the rug away for years in storage. An insect repellant is a safer choice, if you must have something applied because your home is prone to moths and carpet beetles.

The safest option of course is to simply clean the rugs regularly, and vacuum them regularly, which is better for you, your family, and your home anyway.  And… no chemicals you have to worry about your kids and pets crawling over.

I like residue free … it just makes life cleaner and simpler.

- Lisa