Over 5200 New Arrivals are now at Rugman.com! Search for a rug to go under your Christmas table.

Braided Rugs

By Dan Jensen

Cleaning Your Braided Rugs

Braided rugs are particularly notorious for collecting dust and other debris. As braided rugs are generally used on hard wood or laminate flooring they are often the only area of the room they occupy that offers traction sufficient for collecting dirt and dust from peoples’ shoes as they walk over the wool area rug.

Vacuuming does make a difference over time

First of all, a good vacuuming goes a long way and should be the first step in any attempt to clean your wool area rug. It’s a god idea to vacuum area rugs two to three times per week. Regular vacuuming can really help cut down on the amount of pilling and overall wear and tear that eventually shows up in all rugs that see a fair amount of traffic.

What is pilling?

Pilling happens when loose fibers in a wool or other type of are rug become entangled and form hard and extruding segments of fibers. While this is completely normal, you can cut down on the amount of pilling that happens by avoiding powder rug cleansers and heavy foot traffic.

To fix pilling, simply cut off the extruding loose fibers with a pair of sharp scissors. Another cause of pilling is when a vacuum’s beater bar is set too low and pulls on these same loose fiber strands. If your vacuum seems to slow down or pull, you should raise the beater bar until you get the same resistance pulling the vacuum all the way across the wool area rug.

Steam Cleaning

After trying various methods for deeper cleaning of my wool area rugs, I’ve decided on my favorite. I simply vacuum the rugs regularly and a few times a year I use a steam cleaner to remove excess build up of dirt and dust.

As long as you take some time choosing the right cleaning agent to use with water in the steam cleaner you’ve rented or bought, you should have no problem. Besides rinsing and filling the reservoir, steam cleaning really isn’t that much more difficult than vacuuming.

Stains

For wool area rugs you want to avoid oxy- cleaners, as these will leave a residue on wool or silk rugs. Instead, use a cleaner that is recommended for wool and be sure to treat stains as soon as possible.