Oriental Carpet & Speciality Rug Cleaning

The definition of an "oriental" rug or carpet is quite wide. The word "oriental" suggests the far-east and yet many of the rugs which will fall into this category will include rugs from Turkey, Morocco, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, India, Pakistan and many other countries in the near and middle-east as well as Asia. These rugs are also sometimes referred to as "Persian" rugs even though the region of this former ancient empire no longer exists on maps as it was divided into smaller countries (including Iran) in the early part of the 20th century and does not include all the countries of origin anyway. Furthermore, these beautiful, hand woven products are more accurately referred to as carpets rather than rugs.

At VCRS we prefer to call them "ethnic" or "speciality" carpets as, in addition to the regions already mentioned, they can also come from other regions of Africa, as well as from Europe and America. "Area Carpets" as they are sometimes called by our cousins in the USA, can include methods of weaving brought in to the colonies and developed by european settlers as well as native American-Indian methods and traditions.

These items can vary enormously in value. We have had instructions from clients on many occasions to clean wool or silk "oriental" rugs valued considerably in excess of £10,000, some of these rugs being antique (more than 100 years old!).

In recent years, "oriental" carpets have been made specifically for western tastes so the manufacturing process often involves a final "chemical" wash which produces the "desired" look but compromises the integrity of the wool fibres which went into the product. In any event, these items should be professionally cleaned off-site as recommended by the National Carpet cleaners association as they have a notorious reputation for bleeding dyes and require professional attention until completely dry.

At VCRS we have two rug cleaning facilities, one in our Oxford unit and one in Amersham. We collect your rug, clean it at one of our facilities and return it dry. Collection is normally free but it is subject to the collection and delivery address being within our normal area of coverage and as long as we do not require to send more than one person to collect and return. Some rugs will be too large and too heavy to be uplifted, loaded and unloaded by one person.

All "oriental", "Persian" or speciality carpets are quoted based on our pricing policy.

Our 10 Stage cleaning process complies with the IICRC S100 and Woolsafe Standards.

Carpet Cleaning Standards:

• IICRC S100 - Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Cleaning and Maintenance of Textile Floor Coverings.
• BSI PAS 86 - (British Standards Institute Publicly Available Specification No. 86)
• Woolsafe WS1000 - "The Maintenance and Cleaning of Wool Floor Coverings"
• Woolsafe WS 2000 - "Code of Practice for Professional Carpet Cleaning Companies"