Oriental Rug Salon - Handwashing Services For Persian and Oriental Rugs Who you trust for the cleaning and care of your cherished Oriental, Turkish, Persian, or other wool or silk area rug matters. Basically, there are two ways a rug cleaning plant can clean area rugs; through an automated batch washing process or by hand. Whatever you do, you should NEVER let a carpet cleaning company "clean" your rug. Here's why! An automated rug cleaning plant is designed for volume, similar to an automatic car wash, whereas handwashing is considered custom detailing, and rugs are washed one at a time. With batch mechanical washing, many rugs are piled in a tub simultaneously and mechanically washed with no way to intervene if something goes wrong (such as rug bleed). With this [...]

From above, the carpet fields of Dosemealti, Turkey, may look like tulip fields, but what you are seeing is tens of thousands of rugs laid out to bask in the summer sun. The strong sunshine and the Mediterranean humid nights are put to work, fading the vivid dyes of handwoven rugs from around the world into the pastel colors preferred by many westerners. Each summer, tens of thousands of handwoven rugs are sent to Dosemealti to be cleaned, treated, and repaired from around the world. They are then laid out in fields of over 500 acres, creating a patchwork of beautiful colors. After a month bathing in the summer sun and humidity, the rugs soften, and dyes fade. The carpets are then dusted and ready to be shipped back to [...]

At Oriental Rug Salon, we use a cleaning system called “immersion rug washing.” Rugs are laid flat on our wash table, then gently agitated with the appropriate cleaning solutions, and then squeegeed until the water comes out 100% clear. In some instances, the rug may bleed due to rogue dyes or pet urine issues, and in this instance, these dyes are controlled through chemistry and then flooded with cold water to ensure no dye migration occurs. We can often fix previously damaged rugs that have dye bleed issues. Restoring The Art You Walk On Although Oriental Rug Salon specializes in cleaning Oriental, Persian, and handmade rugs, we can clean all rug types, even rugs that are not considered Oriental rugs. Regardless of the rug type, all rugs are washed individually, [...]

The above is a picture of the American Viscose plant in Front Royal, Virginia A quality 5X7 hand-knotted silk area rug can cost $5000.00 or more, whereas a “faux silk” Viscose area rug can be had for a couple of hundred dollars.  In upscale showrooms, we’ve seen retailers charge thousands of dollars for Viscose to an unsuspecting buyer.  Basically, what the client just purchased was an overpriced, chemically treated fake silk rug. Viscose, to the untrained eye, is designed to look like silk for rock bottom pricing.  Many people purchase rugs made of Viscose because of their “designer look,” believing that these rugs are just as good as the “real thing.” What is Viscose? Viscose is a form of rayon made from wood pulp and cellulose that goes through a [...]

One of the most important things you can do after having your cherished area rug cleaned is to have a professional-grade fiber protector applied. What Is Rug Protector, And How Does It Work? There are dozens of "fiber protectors" on the market, including the consumer-grade products you can buy at your local grocery or hardware store.  These "over the counter" products can never match the quality of commercial-grade applications' strength or protection ability. At Oriental Rug Salon, we apply one of the industry's best commercial-grade wool and silk protectors.  Unlike many fabric protectors that are diluted with water, our protector contains no water and is safe for all wool and silk fibers.  Major carpet and textile mills use the same fluorochemical resins found in our protectors known for resisting all [...]

Hand-knotted area rugs can be an investment – and with good reason. Many have aesthetic, functional, historical, and investment potential, which means that time and care must be taken in selecting a rug for your home. In addition, the rug's durability needs to be taken into consideration (you wouldn't want a silk rug in a heavy traffic area). The rug will maintain its value and looks not only by the quality of the textile materials but by its location in the home and the number of people who will be walking across it. The key factors that determine the quality (and thus the price) of a handmade rug are: Size – Large rugs not only contain more material and require more labor but are more challenging to handle and transport, [...]

Oriental Rug Salon has an unrivaled reputation as the leading Oriental rug cleaning, restoration, and repair expert of Persian, Turkish, Navaho, wool, and silk rugs and carpets throughout SW Florida.  We do everything by hand—no batch washing machines, and no harsh cleaning solutions, ever. Whether your cherished area rug requires a thorough hand washing, a small patch of frayed fringe, or a complete restoration, every repair and rug washing is undertaken with the same level of care and skill that has earned us over 15,000 clients throughout the United States. Oriental Rug Salon’s textile cleaning team consists of highly trained and certified traditional artisans with extensive experience cleaning, restoring, and repairing Oriental, Persian, and Turkish carpets, rugs, and runners worldwide. Our tradesman knowledge is part of a living tradition that [...]

Oriental Rug Salon explains what a "tufted" area rug is, and if it stinks, why it stinks. If you look at the back of an area rug and you cannot see the pattern that appears on the front, chances are you have a "tufted rug." Unlike hand-knotted area rugs where you can see the same design on the back as the front, tufted rugs have a cloth backing on the backside, and there is an excellent reason for this.  To view our video on tufted rugs, click here. A machine can make tufted rugs in a factory or a person using a handheld tufting gun. When a tufted rug is made, the face yarns (yarns appearing on the front of the rug) are poked through a backing material. To hold [...]

One aspect of pile rugs that often gets overlooked but has a significant impact on their appearance is the direction of the nap.  Oriental Rug Salon regularly receives calls from interior designers and rug owners advising that their area rug "looks different" when viewed from different angles. When you run your hand back and forth across the surface of a rug, you'll notice that the rug feels smooth in one direction, while in the other direction, it has a rough feel. The reason for this is because the rug pile doesn't stand straight up but slants toward one end of the rug. This slant doesn't just give the textile a tactile quality, but it has a noticeable impact on the rug's colors because of how the pile reflects light. If [...]

Oriental, Persian, Wool, And Silk Area Rugs Are Made To Last Walk All Over That Rug – It’s essential to understand that even though a hand-woven rug is valuable, it’s made to be used.  Please don’t keep it in a room by itself for fear of walking on it.  With usage, most hand-knotted rugs gain a certain patina that enhances their beauty.  If you’re not going to enjoy it, why have it? Vacuuming Is Good – You should sweep AND vacuum your area rug regularly.  Sweeping helps to dislodge contaminants such as pollen, soils, and dust mites, making vacuuming more thorough.  Watch out for the fringes.  We’ve repaired many area rugs with fringe that were involved in a fight with a vacuum cleaner. Hand-woven area rugs can benefit from being [...]