Caring for your Rugs in Wimbledon - What More Can you Do?

Posted on 22/11/2013

How To Look After Your Rug?

Rugs can be beautiful and useful additions to your home in Wimbledon, providing complementary colours to otherwise quite plain rooms and providing some underfoot cushion and stability on slippery hard floors. They can be expensive however, and are often quite delicate, so caring for them can be difficult. If your rugs are beginning to look at little tired, what more can you do? We take a look here at a good cleaning programme for most rugs.

Try not to vacuum. It sounds paradoxical that the best way to care for a rug would be to not vacuum it, but this is usually the case (although some tougher rugs may stand up to it). The rotating brush, especially on upright cleaners, can be too powerful and aggressive for the interwoven fabric of a quality rug. Instead try to shake or beat them out gently, moving any gravel or dirt onto the floor where it can be vacuumed with ease.

If you do have to, or really want to vacuum a rug in your home in the SW20 region, try to use the additional tools that come with it rather than putting the rotating brush directly over it, and turn down the suction power if you can. A good idea if you need to vacuum it is actually to flip the rug over and vacuum the back, which will loosen any dirt and debris before you flip it back over and apply gentle suction to the top.

Never vacuum near the corners, or if there are any tassels try to avoid at all costs! Your hoover will make short work of them and will have a tendency to disturb loose fabric near the corners.

If you spill anything, do not be tempted to use carpet shampoo or any other carpet cleaning products on your rug. Most are designed specifically for wall-to-wall synthetic or treated carpets, not delicate rugs. Buy a specialist rug spot cleaner, and make sure you test it on a small area first to check there are no adverse effects like colour running. Also, be careful if you are using a rug shampoo that you follow the instructions and wash it all out. Any residue left in the rug will not be helpful, as it will actually attract dirt and grime. When it comes to actually apply a spot cleaner that you know is suitable, one if the biggest rug-care rules is to never rub in a circular motion. This will disturb your fabrics that are woven at a perpendicular angle and cause damage to your rug. Blot and if you have to go up and down with direction of one of the weaves.

Finally, if you do find being in a certain place is difficult for your rug, move it and swap it with another you may have. This will give fresh impetus to both rooms by mixing up the décor and also take one rug out of harm’s way which you go about cleaning it.

If all else fails, call the professionals. Rug cleaning services are provided by most companies in Wimbledon, SW19 offering carpet cleaning services. There is no shame in resorting to professional help, and you will be glad you did so when you see the results. Most reputable companies have the tricks and experience necessary to bring your rug back to life, but their services do come at a cost, so you will have to weigh that up for yourself!