Before Purchasing Viscose Area Rugs – Know This!

What Is An Artifical Silk Or Bamboo Silk Rug?

When someone suggests you purchase a viscose rug, watch this informative video together and ask them why they believe it’s the best decision for your home. You’ll soon discover that Viscose rug makers are not giving consumers “the skinny” about the quality of their product. In reality, Viscose is prone to shedding, breaking down, and permanent staining due to water and pet stains; it fades quickly from use over a short amount of time – not exactly what you want for long-term value or comfort.

Viscose is a type of rayon that is produced using wood pulp and cellulose waste by-products. The fibers are treated with harsh chemicals to make them pleasingly soft and shiny; however, the process can be incredibly toxic – so much so that rug manufacturers in the US have had to go to India for this purpose alone! As such, many years ago, all forms of rayon production within America ceased.

In the professional cleaning industry, we often refer to Viscose as the “scrapple of fibers” because you never know what’s inside and would rather not find out. To further delude innocent shoppers, companies label this material with different names such as art silk (i.e., artificial), bamboo silk, banana silk, manmade silk, lyocell, Tencel, or faux silk to ensure it appears luxurious. Viscose materials appear to look like silk; however, they are one of today’s “disposable fibers,” weak in structure compared to their long-lasting counterpart – natural Silk!

Despite being cheaply made, Viscose has an unmistakable look and feel. Some companies and designers would rather let the buyer think that the material is just as luxurious as natural silk by identifying the material as “bamboo silk or banana silk.”

Viscose Rug Care

Because Viscose is a form of chemicalized paper, when accidents happen, the material is very unforgiving, even when cleaned by the best rug cleaners in the State. Often replacement of the rug is recommended, and most rug owners decide not to purchase another rug made of this material.

If you decide to purchase a Viscose made rug, the first thing you should do BEFORE you place the rug on the floor is to have a professional rug cleaning company APPLY RUG PROTECTOR!

Quality (not store-bought) commercial fiber protectors are an excellent way to provide repellency against soil and spills/stains by allowing time for the rug owner to clean up any mess or spill before it has a chance to stain the fiber. Because Viscose is made from paper, using fiber protectors can be highly beneficial in helping extend the life span of your Viscose area rug!

Vacuuming Viscose

To ensure your viscose rug looks its best, gentle vacuuming is essential. The beater bar on a vacuum cleaner can easily cause pulls or sprouts in the fabric and make it look like an animal has scratched at it. To prevent this kind of damage, only use suction when cleaning these rugs; if fibers are dislodging during the vacuuming process, use a handheld horse hair brush to pick up lint and hair before using a handheld hose vacuum with an attachment designed for upholstery cleaning.

Pet Issues and Water Stains

Your rug is most likely a total loss regarding water and pet damage. Viscose exposed to standing water will cause dark yellowing and long-term structural destruction. When “clean” water seeps into floors or walls with dirt in them, discoloration can form (remember Viscose is made from paper pulp) – ensuring that the carpet will never look new again. Unless you plan on hiding the discolored area by putting furniture over it, replacing this ruined piece might be your best option for restoring normalcy in that space.

And pet damage, unless you can get to it immediately (and you have had a fiber protector applied to help), is the most harmful thing that can happen to a rug, especially with Viscose.

Remember that Viscose is a hyped-up paper, the most problematic fiber on the rug market today, with the shortest lifespan. We have seen consumers purchase Viscose “designer rugs” for tens of thousands of dollars only to replace them in a year. Hurricane Ian visited our area (SW Florida) in September 2022, and we witnessed hundreds of these rugs thrown out to the curb because the storm damage could not be reversed. Alternatively, over 95% of all wool and silk rugs trusted to our rug cleaning plant, Oriental Rug Salon, were restored to pre-hurricane condition.

Oriental Rug Salon is a full-service rug cleaning, restoration, repair, and appraisal company serving clients throughout the United States. We are located in Cape Coral and offer free pick-up and delivery for most rugs throughout Lee, Charlotte, and Collier County, Florida.

Oriental Rug Salon is a  Certified Partner with the prestigious Institute of Inspection, Cleaning, and Restoration Certification (IICRC) and the International Carpet & Rug Institute (CRI). We are a certified WoolSafe Service Provider, A+ Rated with the Better Business Bureau, and an eight-year-in-a-row winner of the coveted Angie’s List Super Service Award.

For more information about Oriental Rug Salon and the services we offer, please visit us online at https://orientalrugsalon.com/ or give us a call any time at 239-424-8171. You can also visit us on our Facebook Page at https://www.facebook.com/OrientalRugSalon/