Area rug cleaning across Puget Sound

Area rugs are the one thing in a house we will not always clean where they lie. A synthetic rug on a hard floor can be cleaned in place. A wool rug, a Persian, a hand-knotted Kashmir or anything with a cotton foundation and natural dyes needs to come out of the house, be dusted, washed flat, rinsed and dried in a controlled space where the dyes cannot bleed into the floor underneath.

We do both. Our techs will tell you on the phone which one your rug needs based on what it is made of and how it was made. If it is coming with us, we pick it up, clean it, and bring it back — and if you are mid-move, we will hold it until you are ready. One family had us pick up their rugs at the start of a move and deliver them six weeks later to the new house, cleaned, along with the wall-to-wall carpet.

Seattle-area rugs come to us with a particular set of problems: pet urine that has gone through to the backing, mildew on the underside from sitting on a damp slab, and the gritty road sand tracked in every winter that cuts wool fibers from the inside out. Dusting alone, done properly before any water touches the rug, removes pounds of that grit.

Jobs like yours

A family with an antique Kashmir rug had it picked up, dusted, washed flat, dried under control and returned in beautiful shape along with a whole-house carpet cleaning. The rug had decades of grit in the foundation; dusting alone removed a startling amount before the wash.

A woman had a very expensive Persian rug she had been afraid to have cleaned for years. It came back restored. Hand-knotted rugs with natural dyes need an acid rinse to set the color before washing and a controlled dry so the foundation does not shrink or ripple; done properly, the rug looks the way it did when it was new.

A couple picked up their rugs from us six weeks after we collected them, because the move had taken longer than planned. We held them until the new house was ready, delivered them and cleaned the wall-to-wall carpet on the same trip. Holding rugs for people mid-move is a normal thing we do.

A shag area rug with pet stains and odor was the worst piece in a house we were cleaning. The tech worked on it until it was right. Shag needs the fibers separated and flushed individually, which is slow, and it is why shag is priced by the job.

A homeowner's rug had been sitting on a slab floor in a daylight basement and smelled of mildew. The back had mildew growth; the front looked fine. It washed out. Dry rot, where the cotton foundation has become brittle, would not have, and we checked for that first.

Through the year in Puget Sound

Winter is when rugs pick up the most grit and the most moisture. A rug that goes out for washing in January comes back in time for the house to dry out in spring.

Spring is the best time to send out wool rugs: the wash floor dries them fast and the house is ready to have them back on clean carpet.

Summer beach and lake sand is hard on wool fibers. A rug in a lakefront or waterfront home should be dusted and washed every other year at least.

Before the holidays is when people notice the rug in the front room. Give us two weeks so the rug is back before guests arrive.

What we will tell you honestly

Dye bleed that has already happened cannot be reversed. Fringe that has rotted cannot be restored, only trimmed or replaced. Moth damage is a repair job, not a cleaning job.

Viscose (often sold as 'art silk' or 'bamboo silk') is a fragile fiber that yellows and loses sheen when wet. We clean it dry and tell you the limits up front.

We do not clean wool or hand-knotted rugs in your home, even when it would be more convenient. The risk of dye migrating into your floor is real.

Locally owned, not a franchise

Area & Oriental Rug Cleaning from a national brand comes with an advertised price and a list of add-ons at the door, because the franchise fee has to come from somewhere. We are one family with 3 vans in South Park and a laundromat in Tukwila; the quote on site is the number on the receipt, the techs are the ones customers name in reviews, and on a Sunday night the owner answers the phone. Here is the side-by-side.