How to clean Hand Hooked Rugs

How to clean Hand Hooked Rugs.

I am afraid the title of this blog may be a little misleading as there is only one way to clean a hand hooked rug and that is professionally.   With many other types of rugs you can chance it but with a handmade rug of any form it should always be cleaned by a pro.

There are a multitude of reasons for this but they all point to one conclusion - hand made rugs are incredibly delicate.  The dye will run, parts of the rug may shrink and the weave may even fall out.  Therefore get your hand woven rugs cleaned by a pro and you will have some security  over the results as long as you pick the right cleaner.

Picking a good professional cleaner is easier said than done, unfortunately there are a large number of cowboys out there.  Therefore, I have a number of simple ways to ensure you don’t end up with your favourite hand hooked rug being wrecked by an amateur pretending to be a pro.

The first thing you should do is familiarise yourself with the ways that hand sewn rugs should be tested and treated by a professional.  I am going to include a very general list of things a rug cleaner will automatically do if he knows what he is up to:  They should always test the rug to see how colourfast the dyes are, examine the construction of the rug to test for structural weakness, identify the type and age of the material used and discuss with you the type of clean they intend to perform on your rug.

As I said before it is important to know a little about rug cleaning, the reason being that you will then have enough knowledge to ask pertinent questions.  If you are not convinced by a rug cleaners answers don’t hire them.   If you have a rug that is very valuable either financially or in terms of sentiment then don’t give it to a rug cleaner you have never used before instead give them a less precious rug so you can see their results and check their craftsmanship.

If you have been worrying about how to have your precious hand sewn rug cleaned I hope this blog will be of some use to you and if not now you know for the future.