Hi folks! Ruthie here with Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care in Prescott AZ again, hoping you’re all staying safe and healthy! I thought I would take a moment today to talk about crooked rugs, which is something that we see a lot of here at our cleaning facility. It’s actually pretty rare for a hand knotted rug to be perfectly straight! A hand knotted area rug’s imperfect shape is just one of the many things that show off its handcrafted nature.
What do I mean by rugs being crooked? Some rugs are longer on one side than the other, wider on one end, or even have an obvious curve to them. Handmade area rugs also experience various degrees of shrinkage over the years as a part of their natural life cycle. This typically happens when the cotton foundation fibers shrink, but the wool fibers do not.
Flatweave and needlepoint area rugs are especially susceptible to this condition. In fact, simple spot cleaning, washing, and just humidity alone can be responsible for causing various degrees of shrinkage and buckling in area rugs.
Most of the rugs that are badly rippled can be “blocked.” This involves gently stretching the rug out as it dries, so that it dries in a more even shape. There are limits to how straight your rug can get through blocking and it will never be perfectly straight again - there are even some rugs that cannot be blocked without being damaged - but for the most part Arizona Oriental is able to achieve a happy middle ground for straightening out rugs.
You should know that blocking is NOT a permanent solution. Rugs will ALWAYS go back to their misshapen state over time and use.
An easy way to prevent your rug from buckling and becoming misshapen is by placing a high-quality rug padding beneath it. Luckily for you, we carry the best rug padding on the market at Arizona Oriental. It comes with a 10-year warranty and we have samples we are more than happy to send you in the mail!
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 fixing your misshapen area rug 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). 04-28-2020
