[gwrightson]

 I have a customer who recently was hit by the recent tidal floods, she lives in an estate hall , many of the rooms on the ground floor were covered in oriental rugs," very expensive persian and others " her quote.

 I have yet to visit her home but from what she tells me the were all caught in the flood, she wants them all cleaning along with other items , she tells me 3 of them have had colour bleed and 1 of them with fringes has turned pink, having cleaned a number of rugs by immersion method and flushing untill no more dye runs here lies my question for members who may have had a similar problem.
 
  Because the colour has already transfered , would flushing remove this ?  another problem, because i intend to flush these rugs 2 of them are from what info i have so far are far too large to handle, dimensions been 38ft x 20ft especialy whe wet  .

 Any idea,s or thoughts  please .

 Geoff

[Steve Chapman]

I had several of these last winter with all the floods in Dorset, in my experience once the dye has migrated to the white or light areas there is nothing you can do to rinse it out. The dyes arent fugitive dyes anymore but are absorbed by the lighter areas so dye it premanently.

This being the case I normally extract & dry at the location and then transport to the workshop, as you will not be able to lift them when wet, they're about 5 times the normal weight.

The fringes can obviously be treated with a bleaching agent, but it will be difficult to completely get rid of the pink tinge.

If they are expensive I've found most will have them cleaned anyway regardless of what restoration you can do, so I never promise anything.

Regards
Steve