Rugs To Run From: Certain Tufted Rugs

There aren't too many instances where a rug comes into our rug cleaning facility here in San Diego that we have to turn away. We can usually safely clean just about anything. However, occasionally we will get in a certain type of tufted rug that is made in India for certain national retail chains that we cannot clean.

Here is a picture of one such rug that came into our shop this week.

From the front, it looks like any other tufted & latexed rug - most of which we can clean just fine. But in this particular case, the latex that is used is water-soluable. Our wash process is a full-immersion wet wash. This means if we were to clean this rug, it would dissolve the latex that is holding the rug together, and it would disintegrate and fall apart - this is not repairable.

The latex is weak to begin with, and will even begin to break down on its own, with general use. When I unrolled this rug to photograph it, the latex dust that puffed into the air was a little shocking. It wouldn't photograph well enough to take a picture to post here, otherwise I would have shown it. The disturbing part of it (to me) is that this dust is easily made airborn in the home, and will be breathed by the residents there.

I will show the edge of the rug here, which is cracking and crumbling all around the perimeter of the rug.

The sidecord is attached after the rug is woven, and is holding onto a very weak foundation to begin with. Notice how it is simply pulling right off. To attempt to sew this back on is pointless, since again, we would be reattaching it to a weak and crumbling foundation. It will just pull off again.

These types of rugs are usually easily spotted by both the use of the distinctive loose cloth backing (to catch the latex dust, primarly)... which is attached to the rug only by the cord wrapping along the perimeter of the rug...

... and also by the tags on the back of each piece, noting that they were woven in India.

If you have a similar rug in your possession, realize that these are basically disposable rugs, which will likely last a few years tops, and then need to be thrown away. They cannot be thoroughly, safely cleaned.

Comments

[Carpet Cleaning San Diego]

Vintage rugs need a lot of care. They may not stand up to the traditional cleaning process.

Some thicker weaves can do ok, but for the most part, one should take a vintage rug to a professional cleaner if stained or damaged, so that they can assess it.