Pet Urine and Oriental Rugs – We Can Fix That!

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Urine illuminated via Xenon lighting

Pet accidents may happen on your favorite area rug at any time.

With a hand-woven oriental rug, this can be a curse because pet urine on a hand-knotted rug is one of the most dangerous spills on a textile – not only for the rug itself, but for the occupants if you allow the accidents to happen over and over.

With woven rugs, the foundation fibers are typically cotton. This means the wool fibers are tied around cotton warps. So pet urine (or vomit/feces) will penetrate the wool fibers and reside in the cotton foundation.  Because this accident is hot and acidic – it will be absorbed by the cotton interior fibers. This means the accident you see is only the tip of the sewage iceberg.

Ideally, when you notice an accident has happened – you jump to action. These are your steps:

  • If there is anything to scoop up – scoop it up. Blot up what you can with a cotton towel.
  • Pour some club soda (or if you have no soda water – a 50/50 mixture of WHITE vinegar and cool water) into a container. Use a sponge, wringing out the excess, and DAMPEN the affected area. Then blot with a cotton towel to pull out the urine, vomit or fecal matter.
  • Blot until you see nothing coming into the towel. Then take a hair dryer on warm (not hot) and dry the fibers. Ideally raise the rug up in this area so air flow is along both sides.

WARNINGS! If you see the rug dyes transfer into the towel, you need to stop getting the rug damp, and blot and dry as quickly as possible. If you get a woven rug too wet you will risk potential mildew and mold problems, so do not get the fibers WET, just damp. If you SCRUB wool instead of blot, you can potentially create fiber distortion/breaking.

The bigger problem with rugs comes when you allow repeated pet accidents. The stains will be permanent, the odor strong and long term exposure can lead to mildew and dry rot of the wool and foundation.

The only way to remove the urine from the inside of these rugs is to have them completely immersed in a plant specializing in washing rugs. The rug needs a thorough bath.  Never allow a carpet cleaning company to clean your beautiful area rug in your home.  They cannot get it thoroughly clean and chances are the technicians are not certified in wool or silk area rugs and have no idea what they’re doing.

Cleaning rugs like these in the home only surface cleans them. It gets the top fibers cleaner, but does nothing to the inside fiber contamination.

Oriental Rug Salon is a full service Oriental, wool and silk area rug cleaning company serving all of Lee, Charlotte and Collier County.  We are experts in the preservation, cleaning and repair of all area rug types and are the cleaner of choice to many of our areas leading rug collectors, insurance companies, interior designers and homeowners.

For more information on our Oriental, wool and silk rug cleaning services please visit Oriental Rug Salon online at www.OrientalRugSalon.com or call us any time at 239-541-4888.  Oriental Rug Salon is an affiliate of Tru-Clean Carpet & Tile Care.

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Services Offered:  Oriental Rug Cleaning | Wool Area Rug Cleaning | Silk Area Rug Cleaning | Fringe Repair | Area Rug Padding | General Oriental Rug Repairs | Pet Urine and Odor Treatments | Area Rug Storage

Oriental Rug Cleaning Services Provided throughout:  Cape Coral | Naples | Bonita Springs | Estero | Sanibel | Marco Island | Fort Myers Beach | North Fort Myers | Lehigh Acres | Punta Gorda | Port Charlotte FL