Handmade rug cleaning in Toronto
Knotted or woven by hand: our handmade rug cleaning means a check first, a wash at our facility and slow, full drying. Free pickup and delivery.
Pattern or making?
Persian pattern, made by machine?
A Persian or Oriental pattern tells you where a design comes from, not how the rug was made. Plenty of rugs with these patterns come off a machine, and plenty of handmade rugs are neither Persian nor Oriental. We clean both kinds the same careful way: checked first, washed at our facility and dried fully indoors. More on Persian rugs and Oriental rugs.
Persian, Oriental & antique
By where it’s from or its age
Each kind of handmade rug has its own quirks. Pick yours to see how we clean it.
Persian rugs
Woven in Iran: Tabriz, Kashan, Heriz, Nain and more, in wool or silk.
Oriental rugs
Turkish, Oushak, Indian, Afghan, Tibetan and Chinese rugs, and kilims.
Antique & heirloom rugs
Older and family rugs, checked closely and washed at a slower pace.
If you’re not sure which kind you have, don’t worry. We’ll tell you what we see at pickup.
How we care for them
How handmade rug cleaning works
Handmade rugs don’t take kindly to rough treatment. This is how we look after yours, from first look to trip home.
How was it made?
Knotted by hand, tufted or made by machine?
Turn a corner over. The back tells you a lot.
How a rug was made changes how it should be washed. You can often tell by looking at the back, the knots and the fringe.
Hand-knotted: the pattern shows clearly on the back, in small, slightly uneven knots. The fringe is the end of the threads that run through the rug, not something sewn on.
Hand-tufted: yarn is pushed through a backing cloth and held in place with glue, and a second cloth covers the back. Any fringe is sewn or glued on.
Two more kinds
Kilims and dhurries
Flat, hand-woven, no pile; back like the front.
Machine-made
Even back, straight rows, fringe usually sewn.
Our first look
Checked before it gets wet
What your rug is made of decides how we wash it.
We turn the corners over to see how your rug was made, then study the pile, the threads underneath and how well the dyes have held up.
Stains, thin spots, moth damage, loose fringe and old repairs all get noted too, so nothing comes as a surprise later.
- Knots and weave
- Wool, silk or cotton
- Dyes and colours
- Fringe and edges
Anything that needs extra care, you hear about from us first, and if you choose not to go ahead once we’ve looked, we simply bring your rug home again.
Washing
Washed for what it’s made of
No single recipe suits every handmade rug.
Most hand-knotted rugs have a wool pile, often on a cotton base, and some have silk. We wash right through to the grit at the base of the pile, gently and without hard scrubbing.
- Wool A thorough but gentle wash that reaches the dirt deep in the pile.
- Silk Our gentlest handling, with extra care for the sheen.
- Cotton Bases and flat-weaves, washed so the colours don’t spread.
- Dyes Strong reds and older dyes are looked at closely before the wash.
Drying and the fringe
Dried slowly, fringe included
Drying is never rushed, and the fringe gets its own care.
A thick wool rug holds a lot of water. We take the water out, then let your rug dry indoors without high heat, evenly and all the way through, so it keeps its shape.
The fringe is washed with the rug, so it doesn’t stay grey beside clean colours. It also gets extra treatment after drying. If it’s loose or worn, we’ll show you before we do anything about it.
Loose or missing fringe? See fringe repair.
When to wash
When a handmade rug needs a wash
Dirt hides well in a busy pattern.
Grit settles at the base of the pile, where you can’t see it, and grinds at the wool every time someone walks across. A few signs give it away, and if your rug only needs a vacuum, we’ll say so.
- Colours look flat
- Grey, tired fringe
- Grit in a folded corner
- Spills or pet accidents
Extra care
Stains, moths and repairs
Handmade rugs sometimes need more than a wash, and any extra is always your choice. If a plain wash is all yours needs, that’s what we’ll suggest.
Questions
Handmade rug questions
What people ask us most about handmade rugs. For anything else, we’re a phone call away.
My rug has a Persian pattern. Is it handmade?
Turn a corner over and look at the back. If the pattern shows clearly in small, slightly uneven knots, it was most likely knotted by hand. If you can’t tell, text us photos of the front and back with the size, and we’ll say what we see and how we’d wash it.
Is a handmade rug washed differently?
Yes. Hand-knotted rug cleaning starts with a check of the knots and fibres, and the wash is chosen to suit them. If anything worries us, such as dyes that might run, we talk to you first. We can’t always tell in advance, and colour that has already bled isn’t covered by our stain promise*.
Can you pick up my other rugs too?
Yes. Tell us how many rugs you have when you book, and we’ll plan the pickup around them. Each one is checked on its own and washed to suit it, so your Persian rug and your hallway runner each get the right care.
Does a handmade rug cost more to clean?
Handmade rug cleaning in Toronto is priced by size, like any other rug. Treatments and repairs are extras you agree to first, so you pay what we agreed and nothing more, and pickup and delivery are free. Text us photos and the size for an estimate, or see how pricing works.
Ready for a cleaner rug?
Tell us about your rug when you book. We’ll check how it was made before we wash it.