Why rug cleaning requires more than a carpet cleaner
A hand-knotted rug is a different object from wall-to-wall carpet. The pile is usually wool or silk — protein fibres that shrink under heat and bleed under high-alkaline detergents. The foundation is cotton or silk thread under tension; saturate it and you lift knots. And the dyes on anything pre-1950 are almost always natural, meaning they are fugitive: they run if you don’t test them first.
A truck-mounted carpet cleaner does none of that testing. It pushes hot water and detergent into the rug at pressure, and by the time the homeowner sees the damage — shrinkage, bleeding, a stiff dry — the rug has already been harmed in ways that are expensive or impossible to reverse.
Our cleaning process — step by step
- 01
Inspection & dye test
Every rug is logged, photographed, and dye-tested before a drop of water touches the pile — so we catch fugitive dyes that would bleed under water.
- 02
Dry dusting
Embedded grit is lifted out mechanically before washing. Most of what damages a rug is abrasion from the grit already inside it.
- 03
Hand washing
pH-managed chemistry matched to each fibre. Full cold-water submersion, worked by hand — never pressurised, never heated.
- 04
Controlled drying
Flat-dried on racks at room temperature with climate-controlled airflow. No heat, no dryers — heat sets stains and shrinks wool.
- 05
Final inspection
Photographed and checked against the intake record before it goes back in the van. You get the photo record with the rug.
If cleaning reveals sun fading or uneven dye — common in rugs that have sat in direct light for years — our color correction service can address it in the same visit.
“The rugs we see most frequently with irreversible steam damage arrived looking clean on the surface. The damage was underneath, in the foundation, from heat and pressure we can't undo.”
What types of rugs do we clean?
Every piece is treated as a one-off. We see the following most weeks:
- Persian — Tabriz, Kashan, Isfahan, Nain, Heriz
- Turkish — Oushak, Hereke, Anatolian village rugs
- Moroccan — Beni Ourain, Azilal, vintage Berber
- Chinese — Peking, Ningxia, art-deco silk
- Indian — Agra, Jaipur, Bhadohi hand-knotted
- Modern wool — contemporary, flatweave, kilim
- Silk & silk-wool blends — Hereke, Qum, Kashmir
- Vintage & antique — pre-1950 heirloom pieces
Want a number before you call? Use our rug cleaning cost calculator to estimate your job price by fibre type and dimensions.
Need the rug resized to fit a new room? Rug resizing is available alongside any cleaning job.
For everything that happens between professional cleanings — vacuuming, spills, moth prevention, long-term storage — see our complete rug care guide.
