Frequently Asked Questions

Here are several of the most Frequently Asked Questions we receive at our Rug Care Plant here in San Diego...

If you don't find the answer to your question here, feel free to email us your question: rugcarecentral@gmail.com

1. What is my rug worth?

2. Should I insure my rug(s)?

3. How do I handle animal stains?

4. Can animal stains in my rug(s) be removed?

5. How do I properly clean my rugs?

6. How should I store my rugs?

7. Can my rug be dyed?

8. Should I have my rug mothproofed?

9. Can my rug be Scotch Guarded?

10. Can I cut the fringe off my rug?

11. Can I have my rug cleaned in my house?

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What is my rug worth?

Perhaps the most frequently asked question at our shop, it has no set answer. Rugs have different values depending on who you ask and what you mean by value. A rug could be worth next to nothing, as far as dollar value, but be near-priceless to the owner, for strong sentimental reasons. How do you put a value on emotional attachment? Also, you have to take into account whether you need to know the value because you own the rug and wish to sell it, or if you like the rug and want to buy it. Ultimately, a rug is worth whatever someone is willing to pay for it.

Taking a rug to a rug dealer (for example) to sell to him will yield one price, and that same rug will then be turned around and sold for perhaps twice that, depending upon the rug dealer’s client that he sells it to. Taking a rug to a consignment shop or antique store will yield different results as well, again depending upon the clientele that frequents the particular store. Bargain hunters scouring antiques shops are not going to pay what a high-end collector would pay for the same rug in a different shop. Same rug, different potential buyers, different value.

Ultimately, if the rug is older than (say) World War 2 and/or is collectable, it makes sense to pay for an appraisal from a licensed appraiser – specifically one that is up to date on what is selling at the moment, and the current trends. An appraisal from a licensed appraiser is also the best way to know what to insure your rug for, if you’re looking to insure your rug(s).

Video Answer: What's My Rug Worth?

Again, if you don’t know exactly what your rug is, it would be silly to try and determine an accurate value. But if you’re looking for a good, general rule-of-thumb ballpark range for hand-made, non-collectible rugs this side of World War 2, thirty-five dollars a square foot is a reasonable range. A more refined value will need to be obtained from an appraiser – preferably one that it not himself a dealer with a gallery of his own. In such cases, the value provided will often be much higher than it should be, since the dealer will likely be selling the same types of rugs and will not want to put the lie to his prices.

Should I insure my rug(s)?

Collectible rugs should be appraised and insured. Newer rugs that you have paid a substantial amount of money for should also be insured, for the amount you paid for them. Check with your insurance company to see what they require, as far as proper documentation.

How do I treat animal stains?

Get to animal urine as soon as possible. Place an absorbent cotton cloth on top and below the affected area, and apply pressure (stand upon them) to draw as much of the urine into the towels as possible. If the colors are stable, you can pour some water on the area and repeat the blotting into the towels. This will dilute the urine, as well as make it easier to pull out. If the colors are loose (coming off with the urine, and into the towels), you can add some white vinegar to the water. You should then take your rug into a professional cleaner as soon as possible, so that the rug can be thoroughly flushed out. NEVER use a spot cleaner or put any sort of chemical on the rug. Water or diluted vinegar only.

As with all rug care questions, it’s in your best interest, as a rug owner, to know as much about your rug(s) as possible: where it’s from, how old it is, the types of dyes and materials used, etc. In almost every case, when a client calls us up for advice on a rug-related accident, our first question is, “What type of rug is it?” In most cases, even long-time customers don’t know. Many don’t even know if the rug is handmade or machine made. There are general rules that apply to most rugs, but the details are different depending on exactly what rug it is, and little mistakes can cause little problems to become big ones, or make some types of damage permanent. So rug identification is very important.

Video Answer: Handling Animal Spills

Most rugs have wool pile on a cotton foundation. Wool will naturally resist absorbing liquid, whereas cotton will soak it up like a sponge. Wool dries much faster than cotton as well. So a spill that gets past the wool and soaks into the cotton is hard to perceive sometimes. You feel the wool pile; it feels dry, and may make you think all is well. But the now-dry wool pile can be acting as an insulator, keeping the damp cotton foundation from drying for a long time, undetected. This can lead to mold and/or dry-rot. It is important to have a rug flushed out completely and thoroughly dried properly by a professional. (CLICK HERE for more info in an article Lisa Wagner wrote for her blog).

Can animal stains in my rug(s) be removed?

Urine is acidic and hot when it first contacts a rug. In rugs with acidic dyes to begin with, this means that in many cases the urine effectively re-dyes the wool upon contact. Although the urine can afterwards be neutralized and flushed out, and the associated odors removed, many times the staining is permanent. This is especially true of sculpted Chinese rugs, where are given a chemical treatment as part of their construction, so that the tips of the pile are softer. This also makes sculpted Chinese rugs very sensitive to sunlight and also to staining.

Bottom line, while most animal stains will improve upon a proper, thorough wash, they will not come out completely.

How do I properly clean my rugs?

With natural fibers (wool, cotton, silk), the best method for cleaning is water and mild shampoo, and that’s it. Just like washing your hair, trying to dry clean, or surface clean it will not be the best. A thorough wet wash will remove all of the dirt, grit, loose wool and any residual cleaning products from previous cleanings from the wool, down through the foundation. You should, however, avoid trying to wash your rugs yourself, unless you know exactly what you are doing. A rug cleaning expert can safely, properly clean your rug(s), avoiding common problems such as color run risk, and improper/incomplete drying.

How should I store my rugs?

The first, most important piece of storage advice is to always store rugs clean. Have them washed properly and then prepared for storage, otherwise there’s a chance you’ll wrap hungry little rug-snacking critters in with your rug in a nice, protected environment, and in a year or more, when you open it up again, you could be in for an ugly, expensive surprise.

Next, use a sturdy, water-resistant paper, such as Tyvek. Tyvek is not only water-resistant, but also tear/puncture resistant. It’s important that the rug be wrapped in something that allows air to pass through, but nothing else. Avoid plastic at all costs. With changes in the weather, moisture cannot be allowed to become trapped inside an air-tight plastic wrapping. The results will be a mold problem, that will likely result in dry-rot and irreversible damage to your rug.

Also, it is important that the integrity of the package is intact. Tear/Puncture resistant paper will hinder mice from chewing their way in, as well as help prevent any breaches that could allow access to insects.

Avoid storing the wrapped rugs directly on the floor. Always keep them elevated, even if it is on a very low shelf or rack. If there is a flood or unnoticed leak, this will keep your rug from sitting in a puddle, running the risk of slowly absorbing the water… “water resistant” is not the same as “water-proof”… given enough time, water will soak through, and problems could result. Also, elevated packages will allow better access to air circulation.

Finally, it is wise to open your wrapped rugs once a year or so, just to get a look at them, and run a vacuum over them. Check both the front and back sides. You don’t need to have them re-washed… if you’ve wrapped them in Tyvek, you can simply use the same Tyvek to wrap the rug up again, sealing all of the seams with packaging tape.

Summary: Wrap only clean rugs, in tear/water resistant materials, keep elevated and open once a year to inspect/vacuum.

Can my rug be dyed?

In many cases, if there is field wear in your piece, some selective dyeing can be employed to help bring out the design again and make the wear less noticeable, but it is for cosmetic purposes only. Dyeing the design back in will not restore value to your piece, and it can easily be overdone and/or done incorrectly. But used properly and sparingly, it can make a worn rug much easier to live with.

Rugs cannot be universally re-dyed another color. If you attempt to re-dye large areas of color, the rug will have a matted, dull look when finished that is neither appealing nor reversible. Dyeing synthetic wall-to-wall carpeting is one thing – dyeing a handmade wool-piled rug is another. The lanolin in the wool is what gives the rug its sheen – re-dyeing wool will cause the sheen to disappear. The results are never good.

If there are white knots visible in the field of the rug, these can be dabbed with dye to make them effectively disappear, but must be done by a professional for the best results. Most handmade rugs have a pile direction, like an animal’s fur, which makes the rugs look lighter from one direction and darker from the other. A good middle ground must be chosen, when coming up with a dye for the white knots, so that they do not draw the eye from either direction. If the color is matched from the dark direction only, the knots will stand of noticeably from the light direction, and vice-versa.

Should I have my rug mothproofed?

In a word, no. A good, thorough cleaning will kill anything that might be living in your rug, as well as remove any residue from old spills that might remain, which could attract certain types of bugs. If you have your rug cleaned regularly (yearly if it gets a lot of traffic, every 2 to 3 years if not), and also every few months, take the rug up and vacuum both front and back, you should do fine. Where moths thrive is in undisturbed, dark, covered places. If you have a couch or big chest of drawers sitting on one end of your rug for several years, undisturbed, chances are good that you’ll have a moth problem sooner or later.

Air, sunlight and an occasional vacuuming are your best tools in fighting moths. Moth repellant can be applied to your rug, but it leaves a chemical residue in your rug pile that you might not want present if you have pets/kids rolling around on your carpet. We don’t perform the treatment at our facility; our philosophy is to rinse everything out of the rug, not add anything new.

Can my rug be scotch-guarded?

Scotch-guarding is neither recommended nor performed by our rug shop at this time. The scotch guarding treatment was designed for synthetic fibers, and it works well in that realm. Wool has lanolin in it to begin with, which is a natural type of prevention against staining. In most cases, a spill addressed immediately will not cause any permanent problems. It’s when liquid has time to sit and soak a while that more permanent damage can occur. In our experience, rugs that we’ve seen that have been stain resistance treated have a dull appearance to them, and if any spills had the time to soak through the treatment and form a stain underneath, then the treatment then becomes a barrier to any removal attempts, and needs to be stripped off before any work can be done on the stains. Basically, at this point, until a good, effective stain resistance treatment is developed specifically for natural fibers, and we can see the results first hand, we will recommend against using Scotch Guarding.

Can I cut the fringe off my rug?

In all handmade rugs, the fringes are not mere decoration; they are the tail ends of the foundation fibers that your rug is woven upon. They are the warp cords, and are tied into knots so that the rug doesn’t unravel. If you cut the fringes off with a scissors, especially below the knots, then your rug will very soon began losing knots, which, in collectible rugs, will cause rapid loss of value.

Now, not everyone enjoys the look of fringe. There are ways to deal with this. You can have them hidden – this involves folding them under, securing them in place and covering them with a length of fabric. This keeps the rug intact and gives the look of no fringe. Another approach is to have the fringes tacked down and wrapped like a sidecord. This should be done by a professional.

Bottom line: Never cut the fringes off of a handmade rug. On a machine made rug, it’s not an issue, since on machine made rug, the fringes are prefabricated and added to the rug after the fact. In that case, the fringes have nothing to do with the construction of the piece, and can be removed or replaced without issue.

Can I have my rug cleaned in my house?

If you know for certain that your rug is machine made, and was made using synthetic wool, then yes, your rug can safely be steam cleaned in the home.

Now, there are several different cleaning methods employed by various in home cleaners, but they all involve surface cleaning, and in most cases leave residue in the rug. It is impossible to fully flush out your rug, and remove all traces of soaps, chemicals, etc., using a surface method. Your rug should be thoroughly washed using a full immersion wet wash process.