[david hutchieson]

Morning Guys,

Cleaned a Persian rug a couple of weeks ago (wool/silk mix). Trested carpet for colour bleed with Prespray gold, Fibre and fabric rinse in hand hot water, extracted and it was dry in a couple of hours. Only problem is it doesnt feel as soft as it should, any ideas?

Cheers

Dave

[Mark Lane-Matthews]

I would rinse it through with an acidic rinse again.Don't put it out in direct sunlight to dry and it should do the trick . 

[david hutchieson]

Thanks Mark,

That“s what I thought but I didn“t have any joy.

Cheers for the help. Any other ideas anyone?

[Mark Lane-Matthews]

Hi Dave
Have you tried just misting over with an acidic solution .Mist it over the rug  or light spray,brush in and leave to dry naturally.Repeat as required.

[wynne jones]

Is it rough all over or just the silk highlights?

[simon wilson]

Try brushing the pile with a stiff brush before you re wet it that might sort it.

[Ricky M]

is it genuine pure silk or art silk
i can only assume you did take it away to clean ??
silk: damp/wet it again then when its not far of dry then back comb it with smooth curved edge of a spoon covering all of the slik area then towel it forwards and allow to air dry then brush it with a really soft brush.
done a fair few of these and the results are very rewarding.

it really hands on work, hope you charged the right money to work with/on silk if not you will commit lots of hrs for a very poor return.

[david hutchieson]

Thanks for all the help guys.

The full story is as follows -

Got a call from a friend of another customer. They had a flood which damaged two persian rugs which they bought 20 years ago and wanted to know whether i could fix the problem. After the flood they put them out in the sun to dry and phoned me 2-3 weeks later. I told them that we could try testing with a browning solution to see if it removed the discolouration and if we couldn“t (which we probably could not) then it would be a full insurance job. We could not remove the staining, wrote a report to the insurer and she claimed 8000 for each rug which the insurer is paying.
Whilst there she mentioned she had a small cheap persian which was in a hallway and had also been wet and looked pretty grubby, so, I took that also. We cleaned it, and when it went back she thought the pile didn“t look right. She was correct. The guy who did it only looked at one end of the pile and cleaned and vacced in one direction. I uplifted the rug, brought it back and found that the pile runs out from the centre, like a sunray. I spent time re-cleaning and brushing all the rug in the manner described. It looked great but felt a little stiff to me but I felt that after a few vacs it would regain its softness. Her husband agreed with me when I showed him how the pile runs. She was not charged for the cleaning of the small rug. Now she has sent an e-mail as follows -

I have returned from Madrid and seen the little carpet.  Luckily it is only a little rug as it is still the same.....completely ruined.  It had very little water on a tiny corner so 95% of it still had the original colours/silky pile.  I have been hoovering the rug for years .... unlike John.... so I know exactly what it was like.  You might have 'bullpoopted' him, but you cannot tell me it is the same rug.  It is now patchy and has a rough texture.

We will have to put it down to a bad experience but I suggest you do not take on any job that requires work to genuine wool/silk Persian rugs.  You have not convinced me that you have the experience and skill to do this, and I would not recommend you to anybody else.

In the morning I will offer to send the rug to an independent testing agency for analysis and if they say I have done something wrong I will buy her another. I does not look patchy to me or her husband.

I have had the same thoughts as the rest of you, tell her to p off and forget about it. The problem is I take a lot of care and clean around 30 rugs every week as well as the boats we clean here in mallorca. Everybody makes mistakes doing this but every year we all make less and less because we learn something new every week.

Any thoughts?

Cheers

Dave

[wynne jones]

What record do you have of the rugs condition prior to removal?

I always take pictures of the rug in the house before I take them away, and close ups of any damage and record it on an inspection sheet.

[david hutchieson]

I took photos of the big rugs, but not the little ones. The strange thing is that every week I take photos of all the ones with obvious problems (burns, wear,tears,etc)

Another lesson learnt!!

[Neil Williams]

Dave, do you use softerned water?
I only say that because I know the water where you are is extremely high in desolved solids, and if that is used to clean with and then dries, it will be just like in bathrooms/kitchens etc where residues are left behind.
This could happen in soft furnishings too which will dull the shine and leave fibres feeling slightly rough.

[Steve Chapman]

We have cleaned plenty of silk / wool rugs in the past and normally just use a natural bristle deck scrubbing brush to soften up the pile, never had a problem.

Dont think i would put it in the sun to dry though, just dry slowly with air blower. As soon as it feels  touch dry use the brush to soften the pile.

Steve

[Jamie Pearson]

I can recommend you someone to send this rug to if you like.

Contact me on Jamie@cleaningsystemsuk.com or 01334656787 if I can help.

This guy is a master rug cleaner and wool safe inspector who can do some amazing stuff.

[Paul Redden Countryfresh]

Spray with dri clean solvent or solvent protector and brush in.
This should improve texture.

[Jim_77]

I think Ricky has given you the best advice.

With silk you need to treat it with respect (in some cases that means turning the pressure washer down a bit ) but the most important thing is GROOM GROOM GROOM.

You need to extract as much water out as you can immediately during cleaning, re-set the pile to dry, possibly re-groom during drying, and then finally groom again when completely dry.

I am a qualified Master Rug Cleaner and I'll be honest, even I am very cautious taking on a silk.

You need to pre-qualify with the customer that there may well be a permanent texture change, but you will carry out the work in a way that will minimise this.  The benefit to the rug from cleaning needs to outweigh the possible ill effects of water on the silk.

PS you should ALWAYS work in the direction of the pile, and NEVER any other direction.

PPS I would be fascinated to see a picture of this rug if it could show this difference in the direction of pile.  I suspect this may be pile reversal, I seriously doubt it could have been made like this.

If you understand how rugs are woven on a loom, you would share my disbelief that a rug's pile can be manufactured in such a manner!! (put aside half an hour to watch JB's thread on rug manufacture, on cleantalk)

[david hutchieson]

Thanks a million guys,

I will speak to hear today and see what she wants and let you all know. Then I will wash again in softened water and try to re-groom.

Cheers

[Peter Sweeney]

Am with ricky and Jim on this one. The most important and time consuming part of the job on any silk (or silk like) rug is the grooming. This should take at least 15 mins per sq ft.

Pete

[Ricky M]

Am with ricky and Jim on this one. The most important and time consuming part of the job on any silk (or silk like) rug is the grooming. This should take at least 15 mins per sq ft.

Pete

how true, when you get the call for a silky its wahoo whay whos the daddy!!, then you view and fall in love with piece (if its got history then even better) then you come to the drying and realigning the pile section and you ask your self why the F@@K did I take this on................!!!

Labor of love maybe ?

No Ricky give your head a shake lad its all about the £££££'S

[Anthony Rowan]

Am with ricky and Jim on this one. The most important and time consuming part of the job on any silk (or silk like) rug is the grooming. This should take at least 15 mins per sq ft.

Pete

how true, when you get the call for a silky its wahoo whay whos the daddy!!, then you view and fall in love with piece (if its got history then even better) then you come to the drying and realigning the pile section and you ask your self why the F@@K did I take this on................!!!

Labor of love maybe ?

No Ricky give your head a shake lad its all about the £££££'S

Ricky the expert 

[Lisa Wagner]

It's also not uncommon for the face fibers to be stiff because soil has wicked up during the drying process. Surface cleaning a rug inevitable leaves behind soil and residue, and when you dry a rug face up, that likes to come to the surface.

It's tough to give advice without SEEING the problem though.

Lisa