Ruthie here with Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care in Prescott AZ and cleaning stinky rugs is just another day in the life of us here! I can’t say how many clients ask if we can remove the odors from their rugs. For the most part, the answer is yes - especially for musty odors or those caused by urine. However, if your rug is smelling like rubber, there may be nothing we can do for those odors with just cleaning.
Rubbery odors are almost exclusive to tufted area rugs. Tufted rugs are made by punching loose tufts of wool through a foundation mesh fabric (instead of knotting the yarns individually). The rug then is held together by a layer of latex glue and a piece of monkscloth or canvas laid over the back to give the rug a finished look. Odors can arise years down the road or very soon after purchasing the rug, depending on the quality of the glue used during the manufacturing of your rug.
Low-quality glue is what creates the rubbery latex smell that can stink up an entire room in no time. It’s not the most appealing odor and not something you want to have coming from a rug that you enjoy having in your home!
Unfortunately, because the problem is with the construction of the rug itself, these odors cannot be corrected with cleaning alone. At Arizona Oriental, we can do a great job at getting other odors out, but we unfortunately can’t do much for odors caused by the glue that’s holding your rug together.
If you have an older tufted rug that has signs of the backing fabric lifting up and detaching, there is a possibility that we can remove the current backing and scrape away the old, low-quality glue. Your rug will then be thoroughly cleaned and a fresh layer of higher quality glue will be applied before we lay a fresh piece of monkscloth over the back. Removing the old glue can help to lessen the odors - they may not go away completely, but doing this usually helps quite a bit.
Feel free to give us a call or stop by our facility if your rug has mystery odors that you aren’t sure about. Don’t let your stinky rugs get you down!
Till next time, enjoy your beautiful art for your floor and remember a clean rug is a rug that can last you a lifetime!
Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care serves Prescott, Prescott Valley, Sedona, Flagstaff, and much of the Northern Arizona areas. We meet the highest standards in professional cleaning of area rugs with rug wash specialists having earned the highest training, including certification as WOOLSAFE FIBRE CARE SPECIALISTS through the WOOLSAFE ORGANISATION. Such extraordinary certification ensures our client’s area rugs receive the highest quality care.
Give us a call for more information about area rug odor removal at 928-445-1718, visit our website at www.ArizonaOriental.com, or stop by Monday through Friday 10:00 am to 4:00 pm at our rug washing facility at 565 EZ Street, Prescott, AZ 86301 (pick-up and delivery also available). 07-17-2020
