• Published On: Mar 2022|3.7 min read|

    The above picture is the debris dislodged from a 6X9 Tabriz wool area rug AFTER it was power vacuumed. Without a "Badger" Your Area Rug Simply Isn't Clean Dusting is the most critical stage in area rug cleaning! This process cannot be performed in a client's home, and anyone, including carpet cleaners, who skips this step is simply not cleaning your rug correctly. One study has shown that an 8ft x 10ft wool rug can hold as much as 75 pounds of soil & other contaminates deep down in the fibers before it will appear dirty! How much dirt do you think your rug is hiding? Why is it important? Wool is a porous fiber, much like human hair. Like hair, air pollutants, dust, dirt, and other grime can make [...]

  • Published On: Mar 2022|5.1 min read|

    As an Oriental and Persian cleaning, repair, and appraisal company, Oriental Rug Salon has met too many people who’ve had the wool pulled over their eyes by unscrupulous rug sellers. One client, for instance, came to our facility with what she thought was a rare antique Persian rug. She paid $11,000 for it at auction, where she was told it had once belonged to Persian royalty. Upon our evaluation, which included a historical, auction, and other data points, we informed her that not only did she overpay for the area rug, the story about belonging to Persian royalty was made up. The rug was an Indian carpet she could have purchased anywhere for $1,500. For uninformed buyers, it’s easy to be taken for a ride on an Oriental rug. [...]

  • Published On: Mar 2022|2.8 min read|

    TAKE a look down there, below your feet. There may be an Oriental carpet, finely woven, perhaps 50 or more years old. It may be a treasured heirloom or a valuable purchase worth tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. It could be recently purchased, or you've had it for years and want to maintain its beauty. Yet you lay it on the floor and walk on it day in and day out. The children spill juice on it, the dog has accidents, and the cats claw it when nobody is around. Luckily, Oriental Rug Salon has the expertise to clean away those spills and accidents while restoring the look and feel of your treasured area rug. We specialize in making rugs look phenomenal again. That's all we do. [...]

  • Published On: Jan 2022|4.6 min read|

    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 [...]

  • Published On: Dec 2021|2.3 min read|

    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, [...]

  • Published On: Nov 2021|4.5 min read|

    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 [...]

  • Published On: Oct 2021|5.2 min read|

    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 [...]

  • Published On: Oct 2021|4.4 min read|

    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, [...]

  • Published On: Oct 2021|1.7 min read|

    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 [...]

  • Published On: Sep 2021|4.1 min read|

    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 [...]