Professional Oriental and Area Rug Cleaning in Woodridge

Protecting Your Wool Rugs from Damage

Wool rugs can vary in value from $100 to $100,000 and up and can be very different in terms of age, materials used, dying process and weave of the fabric. This is the reason we can’t list a price online for rug cleaning without first asking some questions about the rug or seeing it in person. Feel free to give us a call for a free quote for your next rug cleaning in Woodridge

Wool rugs are highly susceptible to bleeding. Before cleaning your rug, we test each color with each chemical for colorfastness. One color in your rug may not bleed, while another color does.

Until recently, guidelines for cleaning wool have been very simple: keep the pH between 4.5-8.5 and you would be safe. These guidelines supposedly were created by Wools of New Zealand. Wools of New Zealand eventually abdicated their marketing position and the Wool-Safe Organization of Great Britain took over. Evidence showed that the pH guidelines previously used did not hold up to testing. Several products that were in the safe range caused color migration (bleeding) while some that were as high as 11.0 did not cause any problems.

The problem came from products that were buffered. Buffered solutions are used as a means of keeping pH at a nearly constant value in a wide variety of chemical applications. In other words, if you are cleaning a greasy restaurant, the product of choice will normally be a strong alkaline detergent (pH of 11.0-12.5) to break down the fatty acids in the grease. This detergent will be buffered to stay at the elevated pH range and not be neutralized by the high concentration of fatty acids in the grease.

On the other hand, if you are cleaning wool with an alkaline detergent, you want it to be non-buffered. This product will neutralize as it dries. The ideal pH range when finished cleaning wool is 4.5-5.5. This is the pH range at which the wool was dyed.

Vacuuming

First, we vacuum the rug three (3) times, including both the face and the backing fibers.

Color Testing

We carefully test for colorfastness on all colors with properly diluted solutions, just as you should in regular cleaning.

Pre-Spray

Using a trigger sprayer on a mist setting, we mist first with Matrix All Fiber Rinse diluted at 4-6 oz per gallon of water.

Shampooing

Using a shampoo machine, we shampoo clean the rug with Chemspec Oriental Rug Shampoo diluted at 8 oz per gallon of water.

Grooming

Using a Grandi-Groom, we groom the pile downward with the nap.

Cleaning the Fringe

Clean any white fringe by applying Chemspec Rx for Fringe diluted at 1/3 of a cup to 1 gallon of water. To this add 1 oz of a liquid detergent, such as Matrix Confidence Premium Extraction Detergent. Brush in an outward motion and on fringes only. Allowing it to dwell 3-5 minutes then rinse with a hand tool. We use minimal moisture to avoid browning.

Speed Drying

We speed dry your rug with air movers to avoid browning, leaving your rug clean and dry!