How to Clean an Oriental Rug
It's imperative to have your oriental rugs cleaned, either professionally or by you, to preserve their quality, beauty and value. How often you clean your oriental rug depends on how dirty it is. To determine this, take your hand and powerfully rub the rug's pile for about ten seconds. Your rug needs cleaning if your hand is covered in dirt. Does this Spark an idea?
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Things You'll Need
- Vacuum
- Rug beater
- Mild rug shampoo
- Soft, long-bristled brush
- Garden hose
- Rubber window squeegee
Instructions
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Vacuum your rug on both sides while still in its original location. Then hang your rug and beat out any remaining dirt and dust.
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Move your oriental rug to a clean, flat space for washing. A garage floor, clean driveway or patio work well.
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Wet down your rug with cool water, then test a small area for color run with an extremely mild rug shampoo. If colors don't run, shampoo your entire rug, front and back, using a soft, long-bristled brush.
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Brush shampoo in softly with the grain of the rug pile. Make sure you completely wet the nap with your soapy water.
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Clean your rug's fringes. Using a soft brush and your soapy water, lightly brush your fringe away from the rug. Repeat until clean.
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Rinse your oriental rug with a hose running cool water. Make sure you completely rinse out all shampoo from the front, back and fringes.
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Remove standing water from your rug using a clean rubber window squeegee. Run the squeegee along the rug's grain until you've removed all excess water. Lay flat to dry.
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Tips & Warnings
When vacuuming your rug, use the suction attachment. The beater brush in an upright vacuum damages oriental rugs.
Get a rug shampoo recommendation from a local oriental rug dealer.
Make sure your rug is thoroughly dry on both sides before moving it back to its original location. After moving the rug, vacuum lightly to smooth it out.
Never use any rug cleaning agents, products containing ammonia or strong cleaners on your oriental rug. These cause permanent color damage to your rug's dyes.
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Comments
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jklein8962
Nov 29, 2008
I inherited a gorgous antique persian rug. I had it cleaned by a company that uses dry "minerals" and it worked great but that was $500 later. I love the rug but I have given up on professional cleaning. I used the new Woolight rug cleaning thingie which worked really great to make the rug brighter and cleaner appearing. I'm sure this method would make any professional cringe but what the heck, my goal is to make the rug look good, not to keep it into perpatuity. My next experiment is the dreaded fringe. I had the fringe replaced when I had the rug cleaned, about five years ago. With two dogs, the fringe is now a hot mess. I am trying the full out attack method. I have made a thin paste of Oxyclean and water. I use a toothbrush to gently brush out dirt. I'm doing this in small increments, maybe 1-2 inches at a time. So far, great results. The first part of the fringe looks b
