this short video, we'll discuss
why you should never let a carpet cleaner clean your area
rugs in your home.
In just a couple of minutes, you'll
know more than most carpet cleaners do
about the damage that can be done to area rugs
by uninformed but well-meaning carpet cleaners.
Although area rugs may look a lot like carpet from the top,
the two are actually very different in construction.
Carpeting is constructed with a backing that's plastic,
and it's designed to be vacuumed from the top.
Foundations in area rugs are made
of tightly woven and wrapped fibers that trap and hold dirt,
and this means vacuuming alone won't remove the soil.
With an area rug, the soil must be
removed using special rug-dusting equipment,
and that can't be done in the home.
Carpet-cleaning equipment isn't designed
to clean the foundation of an area rug.
It's designed to clean the tips of the face
yarns of wall-to-wall carpeting, but the real damage from dirt
occurs deep in the foundation layers of area rugs.
If an area rug is cleaned in the home,
the dirt that is deep in the foundation of the rug
simply isn't removed, and any moisture
that is added as a part of the cleaning process
mixes with the dirt and the cleaning agents and hardens
into a plaster-like substance in the base of the rug.
This cuts the fibers, accelerates wear,
and can cause the foundation fibers to become brittle
and crack, ruining the rug.
Once these deposits have been left in the rug,
they can't always be completely removed.
And even if they can, the only way to remove these deposits
is to use aggressive cleaning techniques
with harsher chemicals.
This can often clean the deposits from the rug
but sometimes does some damage to the fibers of the rug.
Proper area-rug cleaning should include thorough dusting
and immersion washing.
Immersion washing is where the rug is actually
submerged in a pool or a stream of water
during the wash process.
This type of washing thoroughly removes all the dirt
and safely rinses away all of the shampoo residues
from the rug and leaves the foundation in the face
yarns clean and supple.
Carpet-cleaning equipment can only
clean the tips of the face yarns in an area rug.
In addition, the high heat from the hot-water extraction
or steam cleaning can damage the dyes in the rug and cause color
bleeding.
For this reason, wool area rugs should only
be washed in cold water.
Dedicated rug-cleaning facilities
also have specialized equipment to safely and quickly
get the rugs dry.
Because of the tightly wrapped fibers
in the foundation of the rug, which are often
made of very absorbent cotton, it's
easy for the outside fibers of the rug
to become completely dry while the inside of the foundation
is still really wet.
If the inner part of the rug isn't dried
quickly and thoroughly, it can lead
to mold and mildew and other problems
like browning and wicking.
As good as modern carpet-cleaning equipment is,
it can leave residue behind, especially in the tightly woven
foundation of the rug.
This residue attracts soil and can cause your rug
to become dirty very quickly.
Nothing can rinse the shampoos and detergents from your rug
better than immersion washing, which
is another reason that true rug washing should
be your only choice when cleaning your area rugs.
Finally, the proper cleaning chemistry
is very different for wool than for nylon.
Most carpet is made of nylon, which is a type of plastic,
and nylon fibers respond well and can
be cleaned with fairly strong detergents,
while wool is essentially hair and is
much more delicate, similar to the hair on your head.
If you washed your hair with something
that was designed to clean plastic bathroom services,
it would dry out and become very brittle and damaged.
The same thing happens to your rugs
when carpet cleaners use detergents
that are designed for plastic carpet
fibers on your delicate wool rug fibers.
Because of these facts, it's important to never let
your rugs be cleaned in your home
with regular carpet-cleaning equipment.
It's also important to have your rugs washed every two
to three years.
If you have any questions about proper maintenance
of your rugs, just give us a call
and we'll be happy to help you out.
And please let us know if you like this video.