World of Oriental Rugs Est. 1986
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The Wash House, a service of World of Oriental Rugs, Inc. Pickup and delivery across the Southeast.

Cleaning

Washed, not shampooed.

A hand knotted rug is not wall to wall carpet. It needs to leave your house, get submerged, get rinsed until the water runs clear, and dry under control. Everything else is surface work.

Book a wash See the process
Fine Persian silk rug detail after washing

Silk does not get the wool treatment

Different water temperature, different agitation, different drying time. Treating a silk Qum like a wool Heriz is how a valuable rug gets ruined in an afternoon.

The difference

Why in plant washing is not the same as cleaning in your home.

Dust comes out dry, first

A room size wool rug can hold several pounds of dry soil deep in the foundation. Add water before removing it and you make mud inside the rug.

Submersion reaches the base

Surface extraction cleans the top third of the pile. Immersion flushes the whole foundation, which is where odour and old spills actually live.

Drying is the risky part

A rug left damp browns, mildews and bleeds. Controlled airflow and monitored drying is the part a portable machine cannot do at all.

Process

Seven steps, in this order, every time.

1

Inspect and test

Fiber identified, construction noted, existing damage photographed, and dyes tested for stability before any water is used. Some rugs fail this test and we tell you before we proceed.

2

Dry soil removal

Mechanical dusting from the back to drive out embedded grit. This step alone removes most of the weight of soil.

3

Pre treatment

Spots, pet areas and traffic lanes treated individually before the full wash.

4

Full immersion wash

Submerged and worked by hand with fiber appropriate solution and water temperature. Wool and silk are never processed the same way.

5

Rinse to clear

Rinsed repeatedly until the water runs clean, then excess water is extracted so drying starts immediately.

6

Controlled drying

Flat or hung depending on the piece, with monitored airflow. Silk and natural dyes get slower, cooler drying.

7

Groom and inspect

Pile set in direction, fringe finished, final inspection against the intake photographs, then wrapped.

Standard turnaround is 7 to 14 business days depending on size and fiber. Rush service is available subject to floor capacity. Silk and heavily contaminated rugs may take longer, and we will say so at intake rather than at the end.

Pricing

What it costs, for your rug.

Washing is priced on area, on fiber, and on what is actually wrong with the piece. There is no single number that would be true for everybody, so rather than publish an average that is wrong for you, put your measurements in and see the real range.

Loading the estimator. If it does not appear, tell us the size, the fiber if you know it, and what happened to the rug, and we will send a firm number. Ask for a quote.

Estimates are confirmed in writing after physical inspection. Minimum charges apply to wash work, and if inspection changes the number you hear about it before anything starts, not at collection.

Honestly

What washing will not fix.

Forty years of doing this means we know what comes out and what does not. You will hear it before we take your money.

  • Sun fade. Permanent. The dye is gone, not dirty.
  • Dye bleed that has set for years. Sometimes improvable, often not.
  • Bleach and chemical spills. The fiber is stripped. This becomes a repair job, not a cleaning job.
  • Worn pile. A rug walked down to the foundation cannot be washed back to life.
  • Old bad repairs. Washing frequently reveals them. We photograph and quote correcting them separately.
  • Pet urine that reached the foundation. Odour usually goes. Dye change and fiber damage may not.

Book a wash

Tell us what happened to it.

Sizes and a description of the problem is enough for a firm quote. Photographs help, particularly of the back and any damaged area.

We reply within one business day. Nothing is shared with anyone else.