The pictures above show dirt we removed from a rug with our Rugbadger from one of our Macon Ga clients. See some of our earlier posts to see the Rugbadger in action. Just scroll down! Everyday vacuuming can never remove all the dirt accumulated in your precious rug over time. If this dirt is not removed from your rug prior to washing then it gets wet and washed against the cotton foundation yarns in your rug where it can get further lodged and cause damage to your rug. Our Rugbadger is one of the key ingredients to our oriental rug cleaning success.

This hand tufted wool rug contains a dyed secondary backing. This is evident only from the back of the rug as a result of a spill that has occurred on the rug. An uneducated carpet cleaning “professional” might not catch this and could easily ruin the rug with an inappropriate cleaning method. The flaw in this rugs construction is not uncommon to tufted rugs from India

These rugs are being laid outside letting the sun help them with an antique look.  Hand knotted rugs are often exposed to the elements for this purpose.  Sometimes, rugs will be aggressively washed with chemicals to achieve the same results.  Laying the rugs out in the sun is a much more preferred method.  But, think about the dust in the air that makes it’s way into the rugs foundation while this process takes place.  This creates the need for rugs to be beaten in order to remove the loose soil.

Want to know if your rug needs to be dusted?  Take a 6 second challenge.  Simply flip an area of your rug over onto a smooth floor.  Run a beater bar type vaccum over a small section of the back of the rug for just 6 seconds.  No look, see and feel how much abrasive dust and dirt has been shaken out!  Rugs can hide pounds of impacted soils that cause permanent damage to the natural rug fibers. Once soil gets impacted to the foundation of the rug (which is usually cotton) then it can cause some real hidden damage and staining.  Of course, if you want your rug thoroughly dusted and cleaned  just give us a call at 478-972-6583

VACUUM REGULARLY

Moths and carpet beetles prefer quiet and undisturbed places. You will generally find them doing their dirty work under the corner of your sofa, behind a drape, along the cracks in the planks of your wood floor, or on the back side of a rug hanging up still on your wall.

You should give the rug a good once over on the front every few weeks, and flip over the corners to see if there is anything to be wary of.  Moth larvae look like sticky lint and do their damage when they emerge from those cocoons HUNGRY.

Vacuum the back of the rug thoroughly also.  I like to run my vacuum upholstery tool over the back of the corners of my rugs, just to be safe, and once a quarter I completely vacuum the back side of my rugs to make enough chaos to have bugs look for another place to feast.

For rugs hanging on the walls, at least once a quarter take them down to vacuum. If they are delicate you can use the upholstery attachment instead of a beater bar or suction type vacuum. Because of this needed maintenance for hanging textiles, we suggest using velcro to hang it.  This makes it easy to take down and put back up.

WASH REGULARLY

Area rugs under normal to heavy use should be washed annually.

This means sending them out to be washed in a rug cleaning plant, and NOT having them just surface cleaned in your home. (BIG difference, especially if you are trying to avoid bugs.)

If you have moderate traffic on your rugs, and you vacuum at least every other week, then the wash frequency can be extended to every 18-24 months. But, if you wait longer than 2 years, you are asking for trouble. Not only from the abrasive grit that gets lodged into the base of the rug fibers (which is what causes areas to wear down faster), but also in regards to insect activity that can quickly cause visible damage to your rug.

Washing the rug will help dislodge bug activity and physically remove them and their problem-causing ways.

FOR STORAGE – ALWAYS WASH BEFORE WRAPPING UP

Rug cleaners rarely offer “mothproofing” these days because those solutions are pesticides that kill things, and for something you may have your kids or pets rolling around on, that’s just not safe.

Even the odorless insect repellent solutions that professional cleaners have available and are not poisons still have some irritation risks. (Always read the MSDS to evaluate whether you want to use a particular product that requires leaving residue behind.)

But if a textile is going into storage for years, it is best to make sure you are not going to open up the package and find a rug disaster, so using a repellent is wise unless you are putting the piece in a cedar chest, or using other items that tend to discourage moths.

When I put something into storage, I don’t want to worry about it, so I use a repellent.

The most important step though is the wash and making sure you are not wrapping the rug up with any unwanted pest guests.

If your rug does have a visible insect problem right now, while it is out to be professionally washed you will need to bring in a professional cleaner to tackle your wall-to-wall carpet or your hard floors, wherever the problem rugs were, so that you can remove the rest of the problem.

Hot water extraction (“steam cleaning”) can take care of the problem in your carpeting – something the EPA lays out guidelines on for how often you should have this done as posted on the IICRC website.

Macon Rug Cleaning and problem solving

You can see how the rug appearance changes as I walk from one side of the rug to the other.  In a situation where the rugs appearance has changed like this due to soiling, you would not see the light and dark areas reverse from one angle to another.  However, if the change is due to shading or pooling then you will see the light and dark areas reverse as you look at the rug or carpet from one side versus the other!

We just cleaned 3 rugs from Morocco. Well, actually they came from one of our clients in Warner Robins, GA.  But originally they were shipped over here from Morocco to the current owners home.  I have never seen a Moroccan rug before so it was fantastic to have the opportunity to clean such a rare rug. Oh, sure they are plentiful over there, but not here in the states. Moroccan rugs are a flat woven rug with very unique characteristics. The color scheme is quite unusual and the fringe is often a reddish color. These rugs have been know to have color bleed just from being in an extremely humid environment. The picture above shows a signature that someone put on the rug to ID it.  The picture below shows the rug being post vacuumed.  Unfortunately this rug had dye migration occur during it’s shipping from Morocco to the United States.  You can see the yellow and turquoise colors coming through the rug.  These are not suppose to be evident from the front of the rug.  Nevertheless, this rug was unique to what us rug cleaners normally run into.  Thought I would share it with you.

Oriental Rug Fringe

Here, you can see the raw seeds that are in the cotton fibers.  Also, you can see some staining that has not been treated yet.  For the most part, you can only see these seeds once the fringe is wet.  If allowed to stay wet too long under the wrong conditions, then these cellulose fibers will release lignin and cause the white cotton to turn brown.

Here are a few more pics of this same rug as it undergoes one of our oriental rug fringe cleaning processes:

In the end, this rug looked wonderful in the eyes of it’s happy owner.  Fringes were clean and back to their original color.  If you would like to have your rug restored so you can enjoy its once beheld beauty and luster, then just give us a call at 478-972-6583.  Remember, our pricing includes pick up and delivery!

There are other possibilities too. Maybe the pet is getting old and can’t hold it or even control it as much.  Maybe the pet is overactive or gets too excited and you get what I call “Happy Tinkle.”  Maybe he’s being territorial with other animals (or sheep) in the home.  Or maybe he or she is just mad because you brought someone or something else into “their” home without consulting them.

Regardless of why it happens, you need to know what to do to remedy the situation before it ruins your rug.  We have published numerous brochures and articles and blog posts to help you with spot cleaning.  Today, I want to show you the ultimate way to get the urine odor out of your rug.

Simply bring it in to the Middle Ga Rug Spa and let us take care of it for you!  We have the expertise and experience to handle your rug appropriately without causing more harm to your precious area rug.  This picture above is a rug bathing in our urine decontamination pit.  You can see the urine deposits being loosened from the fibers for removal.  We can’t tell you all our secrets but if you want to enjoy a clean, fresh smelling area rug once again, then we have the right treatment for you!  Call us at 478-972-6583 to have your rug picked.  Or you can save 20% by bringing it to us.  We are located in Forsyth, GA about 15 minutes above Macon, GA.