Antique Rug Cleaning

We've earned the trust of Portland's top rug dealers, for knowledge of Antique rugs and antique rug cleaning

Antique Rugs are an integral part of many homes, and they can often do a lot to enhance the decor of any room. However, they can also be hard to clean, especially if they are old or antique rug cleaning often requires gentle cleaning due to wear, damage, and old repairs.

The benefits of hiring a professional rug cleaner

How to choose the best cleaner for antique carpets

Call around to reputable rug retailers and find out whom they use. Whether you are looking for a professional rug cleaning service, there are several factors to consider when making your decision.

How much experience does the rug cleaner have?
How long has the rug cleaner been in business?
Does the cleaner know anything about your rug's age and country of origin?
Are they handmade or machine-made rugs?
How exactly will they clean your antique rug

Since rugs absorb so much soil at some point, they can be a major source of allergens in the home, such as dirt, pet hair, and other debris. Sometimes fragile, antique rugs can often be challenging to clean.

Are they members of a rug cleaners association such as ARCS (Association of Rug Care Specialists)

The right rug cleaning method

When it comes to choosing the right rug cleaning method, full washing is the preferred method and the way oriental rugs are meant to be cleaned. Dry cleaning is not effective at removing deeply embedded soils and stains, and odors like pet urine or wine spills.

Renting a rug-cleaning machine like a rug doctor from home depot or lowes is only a surface cleaning and results in poor quality cleaning results. The same is true with shampoo rental machines; They simply fail to remove build-up soils in new and antique rugs.

While these methods avoid the risk of ruining your old rugs by using too much water or by not drying them properly, they also fail to remove many types of soiling and can activate some odors.

Antique rug cleaning can be challenging, with wear from decades of use and old stains; it's important to higher a professional rug cleaner with experience cleaning antique oriental rugs, one that can mitigate possible problems and make sure that the job is done thoroughly and safely. Antique carpets can present some specific changes in cleaning due to their age, wear, old repairs, and stains.

The owners of Renaissace have over 35 years of experience working with antique rugs and carpets.

Is cleaning bad for antique rugs & carpets

Any museum textile conservator will tell you that cleaning by nature is destructive. In the process of cleaning, no matter how delicate, results in a loss of fiber; typically, this fiber loss is damaged by use and abrasion from the soil in the rug.

However, soils are also destructive. More than that, soils amplify the effects of damage from foot traffic by abrasion. Soil, such as cooking oils, proteins, and starches, amplify the impact of moisture and sunlight and, in turn, accelerate textile deterioration. These soils also make oriental rugs more hospitable to destructive pests like wool moths and carpet beetles.

How to address spots on antique carpets between cleaning

Spots happen but spotting rugs should not be taken lightly. Improper spotting of a rug can cause permanent damage to your rug, and the stains will be difficult, even impossible, to remove.

The first step in preventing spots is by vacuuming them thoroughly on a weekly basis or more frequently with rugs and carpets in a high-traffic setting, such as an entryway, to remove light soiling, so it doesn't build up in the carpet foundation.

Seek out professional rug cleaning advice on spotting like here, and stay away from mystery concoctions found on the web or store-purchased cleaners made for wall-to-wall carpets that are often too aggressive to spot clean wool and other natural fibers