Owning a Persian rug is a true honor. These rugs are becoming rare, and they are rather expensive to purchase. Often, heirloom rugs are handed down from one generation to the next. However, as time goes on, your rug is bound to incur damage.
Learning how to prevent common damage to your oriental rug and what to do about damages can help you preserve your rug for years to come. This article will cover everything that you need to know about both maintaining and repairing your Persian rug.
How To Maintain Your Persian Rug
Maintaining your Persian rug is a great way to prevent damage. While most rugs will still need some type of repair as they get older, you’ll find that you spend significantly less at a rug repair shop if you follow these tips.
Location Is Important
Carefully consider where you are going to put your rug. If you have pets, you can prevent pet damage by simply placing your Persian rug in your bedroom or another room your pets are not in. Placing antique rugs in low traffic areas or using them as wall art are both ways to keep damages to a minimum.
Make sure that you do not place your rug in an area where it will be exposed to direct sunlight. Too much sunlight can damage the natural fibers on your Persian rug and make the colors fade.
Traditional Cleaning Methods
While a vacuum cleaner can be convenient, it can also cause damage to the fibers of your rugs because they pull on the natural fibers. If a vacuum pulls on the fringes of your rug, you’ll have to call a rug repair shop for fringe repair because it can make the fringes look worn or make the rug unravel.
Instead, use a rug beater to beat the excess dirt out of your rug. Pick up a broom, and only sweep in the direction of the fibers to avoid pulling fibers loose. Make sure that you gently sweep over the fringes to avoid slowly damaging them.
Make Sure That The Rug Is Dry Completely
It’s critical to make sure that your Persian rug dries completely after washing it or removing stains. If your rug does not dry completely, it will grow mold, mildew, or begin to rot. Your beautiful, hand-knotted rug will quickly suffer from permanent damage if you do not let it dry completely.
Rotate Rugs To Prevent Damage
When rugs have more foot traffic on a particular spot, they tend to suffer extensive damage in that one spot. The fibers will become frayed, the rug will have holes it in, and the colors will begin to fade. To prevent this, rotate your rug every three months so that it wears evenly.
Untangle Fringes Gently
Avoid combing fringes to untangle them. This can cause damage to the natural fibers of the fringes. Instead, flip your rug end over end or gently untangle them with your fingers to prevent damage.
Get Your Rug Repaired As Soon As You See Damage
Most rug repair professionals charge a high price for rug repairs. This is because repairing a rug is a laborious task that involves a lot of skill. However, this can result in a lot of people putting off rug repairs.
Instead, it’s critical to get your rug repaired as soon as possible. If you do not, it can cause more damage, resulting in a higher cost for repairs in the long run. For example, if your rug has a hole, and you do not get it repaired, the hold will slowly become larger. If the sides of the rug are slowly unraveling, it can result in the entire rug unraveling. Instead, get your rug repaired as soon as possible.
If you are unable to have your rug repaired, roll it tightly together to store it. Make sure that you store your rug in plastic to prevent a moth infestation.
Avoid Cheaper Repairs
It is common for rug repair shops to recommend that Persian rug owners have their rug painted to hide wear and tear. They can paint the rug in the same bright colors that are used on the rest of the rug.
This is often cheaper than paying an artisan to carefully weave new fabric into the rug, but it is not a good idea. This cheap repair will cause damage to the natural fibers of the rug. The paint will fade or chip away sooner than you would experience normal wear and tear on your rug, resulting in you needing to have the rug repaired sooner.
Should You Purchase A Rug Repair Kit?
Popular websites like Etsy offer easy DIY rug repair kits. These should not be used to repair your Persian rug. Often, these kits are designed for hand-tufted rugs made of synthetic materials. They do not teach you to weave the fibers together as an artisan would. Using these to repair a Persian rug can significantly decrease the value of your authentic Persian rug.
Instead, it’s important to find a reputable rug repair shop that has experience in Persian rug repair. Professionals that specialize in oriental rug repair are able to weave together new threads to help your rug look new without decreasing the value of your rug.
Kinds Of Damage
Owning a rug involves a lot more than dealing with normal wear and tear. There are several different types of damage that you need to learn about. Having this knowledge can help you protect your rug, and learn what to do if you notice damage to your rug.
Moth Damage
Moths love oriental and Persian rugs. They enjoy feeding on the wool and dyes that are used. More than anything, they like laying eggs in the soft fibers of a natural rug. This can result in quite a bit of damage as the moths slowly eat your rug, chewing one hole after another in it.
To avoid all types of moth damage, it’s important to develop a regular cleaning and maintenance schedule. Vacuuming your rug will remove moths. Cleaning up spills immediately will guarantee that moths are not attracted to the food on your rug. Deep cleaning your rug will kill any moths. When storing your rug, make sure to wrap it in plastic so that moths cannot get to your Persian rug.
If you find yourself in a situation where you already have a bit of moth damage, it’s important to consult an experienced rug repair shop. These artisans can carefully mend holes so that you cannot tell there was any damage to the rug.
Fringe Repair
Artisans carefully weave new fringes onto the rug using the same fringe technique that is used to craft the rug the first time. The end result is a rug that looks brand new again!
Repairing The Sides Of The Rug
Rugs are carefully woven to give them a solid shape. When the sides of the rug become worn, they will start to fray. If this is not repaired in a timely manner, the rug will continue to unravel. Contact a rug repair professional to fix the sides of the rug. They will carefully restore the rug so that the fibers stay securely in place instead of unraveling.
Rug Repair For Faded Colors
Over time, the colors on your rug may begin to fade. You’ll notice this much sooner if you place a rug in a high traffic area or a spot that exposes it to direct sunlight. A rug repair professional can re-dye areas of your rug to restore the colors to their original brightness.
Water Damage Restoration
As more people are handwashing their Persian rugs instead of having them professionally cleaned, rug repair shops are seeing more rugs with severe water damage from not letting rugs dry properly.
The type of rug repair often depends on the amount of water damage. Rugs that are rotting can have damaged fibers replaced to restore the rug to its natural beauty. Persian rugs that suffer from minimal color leaching can have fibers replaced or the rug can be dyed again. In most cases, rugs can be restored to their former beauty if they receive prompt rug restoration repairs.
Rug Re-Sizing
This is a popular option to salvage what is left of a damaged rug. If your rug did not get repaired in a timely manner, consider re-sizing the rug. A skilled rug repair shop can trim the edges off of the rug and re-stitch the edges of the rug to provide you with a smaller rug that looks new again. You can also transform a large Persian area rug into two smaller rugs.
For more important information on how to take care of a Persian rug, such as how to remove stains from a rug at home, check out the rest of our blogs.