This is an interesting article speaking about how decided if your rug has synthetic dyes or natural.
It’s interesting how each rug has its own story, and we strive to have continuous education on rugs understanding how we can approach each and every rug for cleaning to the best of our ability.
From years in the business, we come into contact with a lot of rugs with fringes that are missing, tearing, or just dingy. There are many ways that you as the owner can prevent some of the wear and tear and discoloring of the fringe.
Never Vacuum the Fringes with Your Carpet Vacuum: Using a carpet vacuum on the fringes can pull and tear them.
Vacuum Parallel to the Fringe: When vacuuming your rug, move the vacuum parallel to the fringe to avoid damage.
Avoid Harsh Chemicals: Never use harsh chemicals when cleaning the fringes. Bleach and oxidizers can harm the thread, causing it to become brittle and break off.
Here at Middle GA Rug Spa, we can help you when you need a clean. Our skilled professional technicians, who are trained and certified, will work with your rug to ensure it receives the best treatment.
Here is another helpful video. Ever heard of art silk? or mercerized cotton? Here’s a video we recorded to help you know if the rug you have or are considering is a real or fake.
Tips to Protect Your Rug’s Fringe from Wear and Tear
From years in the business, we come into contact with a lot of rugs with fringes that are missing, tearing, or just dingy. There are many ways that you as the owner can prevent some of the wear and tear and discoloring of the fringe.
3 Quick Tips on Keeping Those Fringes in Good Shape
Professional Help
Here at Middle GA Rug Spa, we can help you when you need a clean. Our skilled professional technicians, who are trained and certified, will work with your rug to ensure it receives the best treatment.
Family Heirloom Rugs: An Extra Layer of Care
A beautiful family heirloom rug that came in recently for cleaning had some colors that had bled. Although our colorfastness tests indicated that the dyes were stable throughout the rug, we still saw dye migration at certain flowers in red and blue. What could have caused this?
Some DIY products contain harsh alkaline or acidic properties that can destabilize the dye sites on a textile. This dye migration likely occurred during the drying phase after someone used an inappropriate cleaner to address a spot or spill on the rug. Natural fibers prefer an acidic environment, so avoid alkali if possible when spot cleaning. Another tip is to diaper the rug from both sides with a white towel. If the dye begins to migrate, it will absorb into the towel rather than adjacent dye sites.
Additional Causes and Prevention Tips
While the above scenario is common, other factors could also cause dye migration. For instance, high humidity levels and prolonged exposure to sunlight can also lead to colors running. It’s essential to keep your rug in a climate-controlled environment and out of direct sunlight.
Regular maintenance and professional cleaning can significantly extend the life of your rug. Scheduling routine check-ups with professional cleaners ensures that any issues are caught early before they become severe.
Protecting your rug, especially an heirloom, requires a mix of careful daily practices and professional care. By following these tips, you can preserve the beauty and integrity of your rug for generations to come. At Middle GA Rug Spa, we’re always here to help with your rug care needs, providing expert cleaning and maintenance services that you can rely on.
Fringe comes in all different kinds of styles and fabric types. Today I want to address a common mistake we see people make with cotton fringes. Most hand made rugs have cotton foundations and therefore have cotton fringes. Sometimes people (and even “rug cleaners”) will apply bleach to cotton fringes to “brighten” them up. Well, bleach is not a cleaner. It poses no benefit to dirt removal from a fabric. Bleach is an aggressive oxidizer and causes great harm to natural fibers. Bleach doesn’t stop its action for quite some time so we often see fringes that are super white from someone applying bleach to them but they are also falling out of the rug. Fringes that have been bleached by clorox will eventually completely degrade away. You can usually tell if this has happened by gently pulling on the ends of the fringe. If they have been damaged by this oxidizer then it will just usually easily pull out of the rug.
So, today’s tip is to never apply bleach to your cotton fringes. This will harm the rug and degrade it’s value.