Area and oriental rug cleaning

Why off-site washing

Surface cleaning a rug in your living room wets the foundation and the floor underneath it and removes maybe a third of the soil. Dry soil is abrasive — it is what cuts wool fibers and makes an old rug feel dead underfoot. We remove that mechanically before any water touches the rug.

Fiber and dye testing

Every rug gets tested for dye stability before it goes in the wash. Some hand-dyed wool and most vegetable-dyed antique pieces will bleed if washed with the wrong pH or water temperature. Silk and viscose (often sold as art silk, bamboo silk or banana silk) are far more fragile than wool and are handled on a separate process entirely.

Pickup and delivery

We pick up from Hicksville and the surrounding towns, tag the rug, and give you a written condition report noting existing wear, moth damage, prior repairs and pet contamination. Turnaround is normally seven to ten business days.

What's included

• Free pickup and delivery across central Nassau
• Mechanical dusting before washing
• Dye-bleed testing on every rug
• Separate handling for silk and viscose
• Wool-safe pH, controlled dry
• Written condition report before work begins

What area rug cleaning costs

Rug cleaning is priced per square foot rather than per rug, because a 9 by 12 and a 4 by 6 are genuinely different amounts of work. Fiber sets the rate: wool costs more than synthetic because it needs slower handling and controlled drying, and silk costs more again because it is washed by hand throughout. On top of the base rate, pet urine treatment, fringe work, moth damage and repairs are quoted separately once we have inspected the rug at the plant, and we call you with those numbers before doing anything rather than surprising you at delivery.

Fringe, binding and edges

The fringe on a hand-knotted rug is not decoration — it is the warp threads of the foundation, extending past the woven field. It cannot be replaced without re-weaving, and it discolors and frays before the rest of the rug shows any wear because it is unprotected cotton. We clean fringe separately with a gentler process, and where it has yellowed we can often brighten it, though heavy staining from pet accidents at a rug edge is frequently permanent. Machine-made rugs have sewn-on fringe, which is a different and much simpler repair when it tears.

Storage, moths and rugs that have been rolled up

A rug that has spent a season rolled in a basement or garage arrives with three predictable problems: moth activity in the wool, mildew odor from ambient moisture, and crushing along the roll. All three are addressed by dusting and washing, but moth damage that has already eaten through the pile needs re-weaving, which is specialist work priced by the affected area. If you are storing a rug, have it cleaned first — moths feed on the soil and body oils in a dirty rug far more readily than on clean wool — and wrap it in breathable material rather than plastic.