Why You Should NEVER Store Your Area Rugs This Way... - Prescott Valley AZ

Most people don’t really think about how important it is to store your rug correctly.  For instance, take a look at this rug that came into our facility at Arizona Oriental & Specialty Rug Care recently.  Our client brought this rug into us because she was concerned about all the missing fibers.  She had kept her rug stored in her attic in a bag for over 10 years!

At first, we were thinking it had suffered a moth infestation because it hadn’t been properly stored for such a long time.  After doing our initial inspection and talking to our client about how she had stored the rug, we discovered that she had folded the rug up and put it in a plastic bag.  We took another look at the rug and noticed that the places where the fibers had been worn away were right where the rug had been folded.

NEVER STORE A FOLDED RUG FOR A LONG TIME!  As I have mentioned in other articles, leaving rugs folded stretches the foundation and can lead to not only fiber loss as what happened in this rug, but also rips and tears.  There’s also the possibility that the rug may never lay flat again. This client was lucky that her rug hadn’t torn or been permanently misshapen from the stress of being folded for so long.

When you store a rug, it should always be rolled and wrapped in a
breathable storage wrap to protect it from moths and mice.

Our client fell in love with the rug all over again when she found it hiding away in her attic after so long.  She wanted to be able to use the rug in her home again but she didn’t want to look at all at those bare spots. So we took the rug to our repair shop and got our client a quote for a paint touch up repair.

A paint touch up repair is when a repair person takes special fabric paint markers and carefully colors in over the foundation of the rug where the missing fibers are.  This brings the colors of the rug over the stark white of the foundation fibers, covering them up and blending all the colors again.  There aren’t any fibers in these areas still, but the glaring white of the foundation is covered up at least.

It’s important to remember that if your rug has been touched up or painted, it will wear off over time. This is certainly not a permanent repair and it will need to be reapplied the next time the rug is cleaned.

The paint touch up was just what our client was looking for.  As you can see by this photo taken after the rug had the paint touch up applied, it turned out beautiful!  Our client was very happy and very thankful that we were able to bring life back into her rug and promised to never fold one of her rugs again when she needed to store them!

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 Valley, Prescott, Sedona 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 the area rugs of our client’s receive the utmost in care.

Call us for more information on proper storage techniques for your rugs at 928-445-1718, visit our website at www.ArizonaOriental.com, or stop by Monday through Friday 10:00 am to 5:00 pm at our rug washing facility at 565 EZ Street, Prescott, AZ 86301 (pick-up and delivery also available). (08-30-17)