Why you need to choose professional rug cleaners for your rugs

Cleaning a rug professionally and without causing damage takes some training. The method is very complicated, and a great amount of machinery and space is needed - that’s why we are the only professional rug cleaning plant in Cambridge.

Most carpet cleaners will state that they can clean rugs and they do this by either cleaning the rug with a carpet cleaning machine or by farming them out to professional rug cleaning plants such as Art of Clean.

There are many stages of cleaning a rug, and our rug cleaning technicians have undergone several training courses to enable them to be able to clean rugs properly.

1- Some rugs can hold up to one pound of dirt per square foot before they look dirty, so dusting the rug before submersion is very important. We complete the removal of dirt by vacuuming the rug, then by using a vibrating machine system, which gently beats the rug, releasing all of the tiny bits of dirt. If the soil is left in rug then it will wear out more quickly.

2- Dye testing is done to determinate the stability of the dyes used in your rug. Most fibres are dyed using a mordant process, which is a chemical reaction that binds the dye to the fibres. If the dyes are not stable, they will bleed as soon as they get wet (one unstable colour can ruin an entire rug!!) Unfortunately there is no way to know if the dyes in your rug are stable unless we individually test them. Every hand made rug is unique and the dyes used in an individual rug are unique too. These dyes can be natural dyes, man-made synthetics or a combination of both.

Natural dyes: Until the late nineteenth century only natural dyes were used for colouring wearing yarns. Natural dyes include plant dye (come from roots, flowers, fruit…), animal dyes (come from animal sources that include insects) and mineral dyes - come from ochre (yellow, brown, red), limestone or lime (white).

Synthetic dyes: In the mid-nineteenth century, as the demand for handmade rugs increased in the West, their production increased in the East. The need for easy-to-use and less expensive dyes with wider ranges of colours caused the development of synthetic dyes in Europe. Synthetic dyes were imported to Persia (Iran), Anatolia (Turkey) and other countries. Colour testing is a very time consuming process and an absolutely necessary part before the wash process.
 
3- The next process is to decontaminate the rugs if it has been contaminated with mildew, urine, mould or insect infestations. We do this by submersing the rug into a decontamination of rugs, however this will not always 100% remove the smell from your rug.

4- The rug will be submerged and given a cold water shampoo bath, using soft brushes for mild agitation. The rug is soaked depending on how much surface soil needs to be worked out and rinsed from the rug’s fibres.

Removal of all cleaning and soil residue by means of clear water rinse is vital of achieving a thoroughly clean rug. The rinse process utilises clear water at a gentle flow rate to ensure the rug is left without any residue after the cleaning process.

5- At this point we use a rug centrifuge extraction system, this speeds up the drying time by 10 times compared to other methods, eliminating mould growth, colour run, browning and other issues associated with sloppy wet rugs taking weeks to dry. We are the only company in Cambridge with this system.

After the cleaning process has taken place we then protect the rug by spraying the rug and combing it through the fibres, this will prevent any further spills from being absorbed into your rug.

6- Finally we leave the rug to dry using humidifiers and air movers, this is a nice gentle drying process which reduces the amount of shrinkage. But we always take care not to overlap rugs within the drying process as it causes damage to the rugs.

So you can see from this article that knowing how to properly clean rug takes some knowledge, machinery and space.


Feel free to ahve a look at our website on persian rug cleaning and our main website: www.artofclean.co.uk

Art of Clean is a specialist cleaning firm in: 

Wood Floor Sanding,

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Rug Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information on our services contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or email us at info@artofclean.co.uk

From Farm, to Factory, to Floor: 'The Journey of the Rug'

The wool rugs and carpets under our feet are the end product of a very long and skilful process. From summer shearing to cleaning, spinning and weaving, wool goes a through many stages on its way from fleece to floor. We look at the whole process and speak to some experts as they teach us about ‘the journey of the rug’.

On the farm…

The wool industry has been a big part of the British economy for hundreds of years. In recent decades, the British wool industry has been overtaken by larger countries but still maintains a healthy market. Over 45,000 farmers still produce wool in the UK and last year alone they (along with their sheep) helped produce a staggering 28 million kilograms of wool. To put that into perspective, that’s about the same weight as 3,700 double decker buses.

Joanne Briggs from the National Sheep Association explained more about British Wool and how it is used.

“There is a use for every type of wool from the very finest to the very coarsest and traditional UK breeds are renowned for excellent fabrics and carpets, and of course felting. Merinos are always traditionally associated with super-fine wool that is used for clothing.”
She went on to explain that, when making wool, there is very little wastage.

“The whole fleece is used for wool production but farmers are encouraged to remove dirty parts (near the tail) and keep less quality bits (under the belly) separate. This is known as skirting.”

The journey of the wool rug starts with the traditional art of sheep shearing. Gareth Jones from the British Wool Marketing Board explains why this is still a thriving skill.

“Good shearing is important to producers as it is to the welfare of animals. Traditionally, the majority of sheep are shorn during the summer months.”
Having a quality shear benefits the farmers as well as the sheep. 

“Not only does it help maintain an animal’s health but having the quantity and quality of shearers available ensures farmers can present the wool to the BWMB in the best condition possible in order to maximise the value of their wool.
“We help to maintain a strong shearing industry in the UK with approximately 1,100 BWMB shearing qualifications awarded in 2013.”
He goes on to explain why promoting the use of wool in the textiles industry is important.

“Analysis and studies have proven the environmental benefits of wool are better than the manmade fibres. There is nothing more natural than wool shorn from sheep grazing in the valleys of Wales or the hills of Cumbria. We work closely with industry partners as part of the Campaign for Wool to raise awareness about the benefits of wool as a quality fibre and to help stimulate growth.”

Carding

The raw wool is now ‘carded’. As well as removing any excess materials, this is the process of detangling and then realigning fibres to be ready for spinning. As carpets use many different shades this also helps create a uniform mix of different colours. It can be either hand processed small pads with small metal teeth (right) or more commonly today by large machines inside processing plants.
“Not only does it help maintain an animal’s health but having the quantity and quality of shearers available ensures farmers can present the wool to the BWMB in the best condition possible in order to maximise the value of their wool.

“We help to maintain a strong shearing industry in the UK with approximately 1,100 BWMB shearing qualifications awarded in 2013.”
He goes on to explain why promoting the use of wool in the textiles industry is important.

“Analysis and studies have proven the environmental benefits of wool are better than the manmade fibres. There is nothing more natural than wool shorn from sheep grazing in the valleys of Wales or the hills of Cumbria. We work closely with industry partners as part of the Campaign for Wool to raise awareness about the benefits of wool as a quality fibre and to help stimulate growth.”

 

Spinning

Spinning is the process of turning the carded fibre in to the strips of yarn that we recognise. This used to be achieved by hand, when a worker would use a spindle to twist the material into lines of yarn. Factories today use the same method, but mechanised and on a much larger scale. Now we have yarn!
 

Making the rug…

Traditional

There are a variety of different methods to making rugs and carpets. Up until the 1960s, rag-rug making was particularly popular. This involved ‘hooking’, the process of pushing lengths of yarn through a mesh and hooking or tying them on to the mesh so that they stay in place. This is now generally seen as part of the arts and crafts movement.

There are still traditionalists who hand craft rugs using old methods though. We spoke to Sue Clow who runs Rag Art Studios, a company that specialises in rag-rugs, using yarn and discarded wool material to make rugs.
“The basic principle with rag rug making is to push or pull strips of rag or yarn through a base fabric which is flexible enough to take the extra fabric. Prodding, pegging or bodging are just some of the names for the technique for pushing 3 to 5 inch strips of fabric through a hessian base, traditionally an old sack to make a shaggy rug. Thick fabrics such as woollen work clothes and blankets were often used for this.

 This way of making rugs is now more popular than ever. John Corey from Makings Hadicraft, makers of rag rug tools, explains that; "the craft first started as a make-do-and-mend solution however, with the recent populairty in "upcycling" it has seen a big revival."

 Modern

In the modern day, machines make the rug making process much more quick and efficient. Tufting is perhaps the most widely used method of rug and carpet making in the domestic market. It is the process of pushing through, or ‘tufting’ lengths of yarn through ready made base fabrics using a needle. The pieces are then held in place by a bonded piece of extra material on the bottom. The yarn on top can then be cut to the desired length to produce different textures.

Once the rug has been cut and finished, it’s ready to take its place in our home. The journey from sheep to rug is complete.
Although the processes that we use to produce wool rugs may have changed – the painstaking process of hand-crafting unique individual rugs has been replaced by the assembly line – the method and material have largely stayed the same.  Wool’s popularity as a material today can be attributed to its natural properties as an insulating but breathable material. In a society where we are intrinsically more aware of our environment and looking to use sustainable materials for our needs, wool is a natural resource we can rely on.

Sourced from: http://www.modern-rugs.co.uk

Art of Clean are specialists in: 

Rug Cleaning, (We are proud to be the only Master Rug Cleaners in Cambridge!)
Hardwood Floor Cleaning, 

Stone floor Cleaning,

Carpet Cleaning,

Upholstery Cleaning 

Leather Furniture Cleaning, 

Working for domestic or commercial clients throughout Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.

For more information about our services please contact our friendly team on 01223 863632 or visit www.artofclean.co.uk.

 

 

 

Rug cleaning tour at Art of Clean last week

We have been very lucky to have Ellen Amirkhan, Robert Mann and 5 other professional rug cleaners from the United States to visit our rug cleaning studio here in Cambridge. We are proud to say that we are students of Ellen Amirkhan and Aaron Groseclose with the Mater Rug Cleaner Program. We have visited her rug cleaning plant in Dallas USA and we always learn so much. - See our blog posts on our previous visits here - http://bit.ly/1ngamHO and also see our facebook page at www.facebook.com/artofclean 

They just completed another Master rug Cleaning class in Wales and is now touring England.. Her book and DVDs are  the items to get if you really wants to know more about rug cleaning and rug identification.

Pierre showing Robert Man and Ellen our rug centrifuge that spins water from freshly cleaned rugs. 

Moth eating your rugs?

How to treat moth infested oriental rugs?... We use a safe method of carefully freezing the rugs to -15 at our Cambridge rug cleaning plant.

Another successful rug training course in Cambridge at our premises

We show professional cleaners how we clean rugs at Art of Clean and most of all what can go wrong if the oriental or antique rug is left to someone who doesn't know how to properly care and restore fine rugs.
Here at Art of Clean in Cambridge, we use the most advanced dusting Technics. It has to be done properly before any cleaning can start:

See how much dust has been removed from this Chinese rug at our rug cleaning plant in Cambridge!



We will not submerge your rug before we properly inspect and dust it!



Spot cleaning, pet urine contamination, rug shrinkage… so many things can go wrong! There is a lot to know about rug cleaning in Cambridge so if you have any questions, we will love to help! Call us on 01223 863632. See more by clicking this link Art of Clean.

Our rug cleaning service

We offer a specialist Persian rug cleaning service, we do not use any harmful cleaning products and we have a team of specialist rug cleaners who will ensure your rug doesn’t loose its original colour and is restored to its original state.

We have a 9-step professional rug cleaning process including:
1. Audit of your rug, to check the type of dye which has been used in your rug, to ensure there is no colour loss. And also the type of method used to weave the rug.
2. Rug Dusting – some rugs can hold up to 1 pound of dirt! So we vacuum them first.
3. We put the rug in a special rug bath – All rugs with odour causing sources such as urine, mould, mildew, or insect infestations require decontamination.
4. Rug washing The rug will be submerged and given a cold water shampoo bath, using soft brushes for mild agitation
5. Rug rinse – Removal off all cleaning and soil residue by means of clear water rinse is vital of achieving a thoroughly clean rug.
6. Rug Centrifruge drying system – This ensures that the drying of your rug is speeded up 10 times compared to any other method used by other cleaning companies.
7. Rug protector – After the rug has been cleaned we can move on to applying the protector. This barrier coats each fibre to protect against re-soiling and staining. This allows you to simply mop up spillages as it prevents the fibre absorbing spills.
8. Rug drying – Air movers and dehumidifiers are used to help facilitate drying, without the use of high heat (so there is no worry of shrinkage).
9. Rug fringe work and washed- Fringes are inspected and occasionally washed an additional time. They are then dried. The rug is given a final grooming with a brush.
Your rug will now be as good as new, with no loss of colour or texture.

To see it for yourselves please check out our You Tube channel.