Area rugs · Grass Valley
Area rug cleaning in Grass Valley.
A rug is not a piece of carpet that happens to be loose. It is usually the most valuable thing on the floor, and it does not survive being cleaned like one.
Why rugs are a different job
Wall-to-wall carpet is fixed down, made of known synthetic fibre, and dyed to survive being walked on and wetted. A rug may be hand-knotted wool, decades old, dyed with something that was never tested against a cleaning agent, and finished with cotton fringe that behaves differently from the pile it is attached to.
Treating one like the other is how rugs get ruined, and it is usually irreversible. So the first thing we do with a rug is look at it: what it is made of, how the dyes behave, whether the foundation is still sound. That happens before anything wet touches it.
What kind of rug is it
Wool
The most common good rug in a Nevada County house, and the one that rewards care. Wool holds soil deep and releases colour if it is treated carelessly.
Cotton and synthetic
More forgiving of moisture, and usually the flat-weaves and runners that take the heaviest traffic.
Oriental and antique
Hand-knotted rugs are an investment and are handled as one. Tell us what you have before we come out.
Silk and delicate
Silk and very fine rugs are handled case by case. Send photographs before booking. Some we will take, and some are genuinely better with a specialist washer — and we would rather tell you that than learn something expensive on your rug.
If you are not sure what you have, that is normal and it is not a problem. Bring us a photo of the rug and of the back of it, which usually says more about how it was made than the front does.
The fringe, and the part people forget
Fringe goes grey before the rug does. It is usually cotton, it sits on the floor where shoes land, and it is the first thing a visitor’s eye lands on when a rug looks tired. It also takes the least abuse before it frays, so it gets handled separately from the body of the rug.
The other thing people forget is the underside. Grit works down through a rug and sits against the floor, grinding at the foundation every time someone walks across it. A rug that is only ever surface cleaned wears out from underneath while the top still looks fine.
Pet odor in a rug
We treat pet odor on rugs as well as on carpet and furniture. A rug is the hardest of the three, because urine does not stop at the pile. It goes through to the foundation and then into whatever is underneath, so a rug can be cleaned, look perfect, and still smell.
Tell us the rug smells, not just that it is marked. It changes the approach, and on a rug it changes whether the job is worth doing at all — which is a conversation better had before than after.
What cannot be saved
Most of what we are handed can be improved, often more than the owner expects. Some things cannot, and you are better off hearing it from us before you spend money than after.
Dry rot
A rug stored damp, or left on a wet floor, loses the strength of its foundation. It can look sound and then tear along a fold. Cleaning will not put that back, and can finish it off.
Dyes that bleed
Some dyes, particularly in older and hand-made rugs, run as soon as they are wetted. Once a red has moved into a cream border it does not move back.
Urine in the foundation
Repeated accidents in one spot rot the foundation and can permanently change the dye around them. The smell is the symptom; the damage underneath is the problem.
Wear that has already happened
Cleaning removes soil. It does not put pile back where years of grit have cut it away. A worn rug comes back cleaner, not newer.
Keeping it good afterwards
Vacuum both sides of a rug, not just the top. Grit works down through the pile and sits against the floor, grinding at the foundation every time somebody walks over it, and that is what actually wears a rug out.
Rotate it once or twice a year so the traffic path and the sunlight move rather than falling in the same place for a decade. A pad underneath stops it creeping and absorbs some of the abrasion.
If something gets spilled
Blot, never rub, and use white paper towels only — coloured paper can transfer dye into a damp rug and leave you worse off than the spill did.
Then stop. Store-bought spot removers leave a sticky residue that attracts soil, and on a rug they can also move dye. If a blot has not dealt with it, that is the point to call rather than the point to experiment.
Since 2003
We would rather tell you a rug is not worth cleaning than take the money and hand it back the same.
Family owned, working out of Grass Valley. Members of the Nevada County Association of Realtors, and referred by top Realtors, interior designers and Premier Fine Floors on South Auburn Street.
Common questions
Can you clean it at my house?
It depends on the rug. Small and synthetic rugs can usually be cleaned in the home. Wool, hand-knotted and heavily soiled rugs come back with us, because they need controlled washing and, just as importantly, controlled drying. Expect a few days rather than the same afternoon.
Will the colours run?
That is the right question to ask, and it is why a rug should never be treated like wall-to-wall carpet. Dyes in older and hand-made rugs can bleed when they meet too much water or the wrong chemistry. We test in an inconspicuous corner before anything else, and if a rug shows it is going to bleed we will tell you rather than find out across the middle of it.
What about the fringe?
Fringe is the first part of a rug to go grey and the easiest part to damage, because it is cotton where the rug is usually wool. It is cleaned differently from the body of the rug for that reason. Fringe is cleaned as part of the rug, and it is handled separately from the body because it is usually cotton where the rug is wool. Repairs and re-binding are specialist work. If yours needs it we will say so and point you at someone who does it properly.
How long will it take to dry?
A wool rug holds more water than carpet does, so allow the best part of a day, and longer in winter. A rug never goes back down damp — that is exactly how odour and dry rot start.
Have a rug looked at
Call and describe the rug, or send a photo of the front and the back through the quote form. We also clean carpet and upholstery across Nevada County.