Rug Wash Tour (Our Process)

In our process we do a thorough inspection to look for potential cleaning issues and areas where repairs are needed. Rugs left in disrepair can not only lose value, but also get worse during the cleaning process.

When we get the area rug from you we will discuss the various options to cleaning and repairing your rug, because we recognize that all rugs are not the same and have to be cleaned differently.

At Reno Oriental Rug Wash our primary concern is not to clean as many rugs as possible, but to clean your rugs right. So we limit the amount of Area Rugs we will take in each week.

When we bring your area rug to our wash plant after the inspection we do the following:

Pre-inspection
Dye Stability Testing
Dusting – A full dusting to remove the dry soil that the vacuum cleaner leaves behind. We have the only Tumble duster in the State on Nevada, plus two other methods to remove dry soil.
Clean the rug in the safest manner possible (every rug has its own tolerances.)
Dry thoroughly. Some cleaning methods may take two days to dry properly.
Rug Detailing – as a finishing touch fringes are groomed and fabric protection is applied.
Any repairs are done prior to cleaning.

Pre-inspection

This is where we look for issues in the rug to ID potential problems that can arise in the cleaning process, from damaged ends, sides and other structural deficiencies. Here we also set cleaning expectations.

Pre-inspection

Pre-inspection

Dye Stability Testing

We test the rug for dye stability. This is a test that can take many hours and take many applications of dye stabilizers to slow the release of dyes. The cause of dye bleeding is a result of the dye process of the wool or the rug being cleaned with over the counter cleaning products not designed to be used on natural fibers.

We test different cleaning solutions on various parts of the rug to see what is happening with the colors and then make a plan to clean the rugs safely. Sometimes the rug will not bleed until it gets completely wet on the wash floor, then we have to act quickly to make adjustments.

Dye Stability Testing

Did your rug color bleed into your fringes? We can fix that dye migration issue.

Color bleed on the wash floor

Dye Bleed Testing

Dusting (Dry Soil Removal)

Most companies locally use a form of strap dusting for area rugs, we use the same principles, but we take it leaps and bounds ahead with our tumble duster( the only one in the region), our air dusting, and vibrating dusting devices. These tools get more dry soil out than regular vacuuming.

Fiber Damaging Soil in Rugs (One Blue Rug, One Red Rug)

Dusting / Dry Soil Removal

We get out the dust and dirt that other cleaners leave behind!

In the first video below you can clearly see a large amount of dust and soil that we are able to remove from a relatively small rug. This is part of our standard process; before thoroughly cleaning your rugs, we first “dust” them to remove the soil and particulates. What is interesting in this case, is that this particular rug was just cleaned by another company that claims to be asthma and allergy friendly. We literally watched the other company surface clean this rug and then the client allowed us to take and clean it properly. We employ several different dusting methods as part of our process to remove the dirt, including the use of harmonic vibrations, tumble dusting, and air dusting. Before we can clean the fibers we must remove the dust!

Rug Cleaning (Washing)

We clean each rug in the safest manner possible (every rug has its own tolerances.)

With the dry soils removed, now is the time to get to the sticky soluble soils. Our cleaning process loosens the remaining dirt and the flushing process continues until the rug runs clear.

Pet urine decontamination.

When a pet has used the rug a a restroom facility it needs to be decontaminated, after all it’s still raw sewage. We used specialized cleaning agents, large amounts of water to re-liquify and flush the contamination out of the rug. The video shows a rug in a 250 gallon tub, the rug has been treated with our cleaning agents, within seconds of turning on the circulation pump the water went from clear to what you see in the video. This rug needed to be flushed a few times to remove the contaminates.

Rug Rinsing

We thoroughly rinse rugs from the outside in, and all the way through to the foundation. The water is drawn through the rug to get the rug clean on the inside as well as the outside. This short video shows the water being applied and then is drawn right through into the rug.

Rug Drying

Drying rug. After the rug has been washed and water extracted, we hang the rug for the final drying process. The meter tells me the relative humidity (top number) and the room temperature (bottom number) we achieve these numbers even during the winter months.

Post wash dusting.

After the rug has been dried we put it back inside the tumble duster to remove and dry soils that may remain, but the real reason is to polish and soften the rugs hand feel. This step makes the wool shimmer in the sunlight.

Rug Detailing

Rug Detailing – as a finishing touch fringes are groomed and fabric protection is applied (if requested).

This is the step in the process where we look for any spots or imperfections that can be removed or improved on. We also make sure the fringes are clean and crisp. If there are any issues that we are not satisfied with, we re-wash the rug at no additional cost to you!