AboutJahann and Sons Persian Rugs Expertise I can answer any and all questions you have regarding the cleaning, restoration and repair of Oriental rugs. I am more than happy to view your pictures via email and to give you advice on what you can do yourself and what needs to be left to the pros. I can also advise on the cost-effectiveness of repair on your rugs.
Experience My family has had a Persian carpet store in the Washington, DC metro area for nearly 30 years (www.jahannandsons.com).
Question I purchased an old handmade rug (approx. 8x11) in Turkey 4 years ago. Unfortunately, my dog has had a number of accidents on the rug, which caused color running along much of the perimeter of the rug and fringe.I made things worse by trying to wash the stains with water and pet stain products, and using bleach on the fringe. The color running is primarily red and some dark green, and has covered portions of the pattern, especially areas that originally had light colors (cream, yellow). The fibers also look and feel damaged in those areas. Can the color be repaired and can you explain how it's done?
Answer Hi Jackie,
Thank you for your question. I'm sorry to hear about your rug. There are multiple steps that need to be taken in order to repair your rug, all of which come with some risks, so I don't recommend that you try to fix your rug yourself. I also don't recommend that you hire a carpet cleaning company to fix it unless they are experience with dye work and specialize in Oriental rugs. Few places will admit that they can't help you, so you'll need to do a little bit of research to find the right place to fix your rug. If you're in the Washington, DC area, give us a call, and we can help. I'll outline the process below for your information.
For starters, you need to soak your rugs in water to have any and all urine residue removed from the rug. If this is not done, overtime the urine trapped in the rug can cause the foundation of the rug to crack. Also, your dogs will continue to come back to these spots to do their business because they will be able to smell it. Soaking your rug comes with the risk of color running, but you have to take that risk if you want to completely rid your rug of the urine.
If you're lucky, soaking the rug will help to rinse away some of the areas where color running has occured. If not, I recommend using dye removers to remove the color. The success of the dye removers depends a lot on what chemicals have been used on the rug already. Some stain removers if they do not remove the stains can set the colors, making it difficult to remove the dyes. Rit dye is a company that makes many dye removing products that work very well. However, the products are made for laundry purposes and are very difficult to manipulate and sometimes cause the rugs to turn green. You need to watch very carefully when applying dye removers. If you can, practice on some fabrics in your home. Red will be the easiest color to remove. Green is more difficult to remove and may require a little bit of trial and error.
If the fringe has been damaged by the bleach, you'll probably get the best result by replacing the fringe. You don't have to worry about that, as the condition of the fringe does not affect the rug's value. It can be replaced as many times as you'd like and does not need to be the original.
I hope this information is helpful. You are welcome to send some photos if you'd like for me to provide you with additional information about your rug.
