Education Through Expeditions-Antony Jinman

I want to share with you today what my good friend Antony Jinman is up to.

Antony is a local professional explorer and educator on climate change and he is launching an Antarctic expeditions in the footsteps of Captain Scott.
This will be marking the city's heros death 100 years ago.

Antony will be to travel to the site where Scott and his party died and they will hold a memorial service there. This will be happening in 2012 to help celebrate the 100th anniversary.
Descendants of those on the scoot expedition will be the 2nd party who will meet Antony and his team at the site for the commemoration ceremony.

Antony's Education Through Expeditions project is based at the University of Plymouth.

If you would like to find out more about Antony and his project, and more about the
International Scott Centenary Expedition (isce) please copy and pasted these addresses into your browser.

http://www.etelive.org/index.numo
http://www.etelive.org/content/content.numo?ida=1&idas=21

You can also find Antony on Facebook and Twitter

I would like to wish Antony and all his team the very best of luck for the project.

I could sit here and write a long blog entry about Antony and all that he does, but his website is just so amazing and packed with a ton of information that I would rather direct you guys to him rather then sit and read what I have to say. Antony is a great person and he is doing so much to help educate people on climate change, and the guy is so passionate, he came round to have Dinner with me and The Fox one evening and I could of listened to him talk for hours, its so amazing to hear what he has to say.

Thanks for reading rug fans,
The Captain

A very sexy rug

Hey rug fans!

As you have probably guessed by the title of this post today, I have just finished cleaning a very sexy rug. Now I know alot of you are reading this now with a shocked look on your face, and wondering if im a sandwich sort of a picnic! but im not.
And no, i dont think anyone has ever put the words rug and sexy in the same sentence, until now!

I picked this "sexy" rug up from one of my fans the other day and its a red hand knotted Morrocan rug, and its a stunner. The central medalion is mainly red with a beautiful ivory pattern, and the outer and inner fields are decorated with a beautiful design with bright blues and ivory colours and a hint of green.
And the wefts( the wool fiber that runs from left to right on the foundation of the rug) is RED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this rug is offically a BLEEDIER!!! I had to clean this rug very carefully, so carefully infact I could only dry clean it. I did my dry cloth test and my damp cloth tests and in all my tests the red transferred onto my white towel. that my friends is not good, not good at all.

So I just used my RugBadger on it and cleaned it with my low moisture system and the rug has come up like brand new, with NO colour run. I offically dare any of my not so well educated competitors to get the same result!

Any way I wanted to share this story with you as a warning to you all. Even if you have no intention of using me as your rug cleaner, please, please, please be careful when putting your rugs in the hands of someone who is not properly trained on how to handle "difficult" rugs.

Until next time rug fans, thanks for reading

The Captain

sorry its been a while

hey everyone, dont worry im still here!
I am sorry I have not been blogging for a while, ive been so busy cleaning rugs my feet have hardly touched the ground. Ive had some beautiful rugs lately in my studio, Ive had several amazing Persians and one in particular was the smelliest rug I have ever cleaned. It was a beautiful hand knoted Persian that was in really good condition. but! the owners dog enjoyed sleeping on the rug, so as you can imagine it was a bit smelly! but have no fear i successfully cleaned it and my new number 1 fan was over the moon. She was so impressed with the work i had done she handed me a rather large hand knotted Morroccan rug to clean, which iplan to do this week. Its very red and im very scared!!! only kidding i cant wait to get stuck into cleaning this rug.

Well folks sorry this post is not very interesting and there are no photos, but i just wanted to let you all know that im still here, and if you have any questions for me, please do not hesitate in getting in contact with me.

until next time everyone.
Thanks for reading

Your friend The Captain

Captain Rug Wash's visit to Tunisia

hey everyone and welcome to another blog entry by Plymouth's famous rug cleaning Superhero.

Today I want to share with you the story of my travels with my girlfriend to Tunisia this year. We stayed a week in the 5star Royal Azur hotel in Hammet, which was absolutly beautiful.
We spent the whole week exploring the local areas and meeting interesting locals at the markets and medinas. Picking up quite alot of 'bargins' along the way. At one point I was lucky to get out of the medina one day. All the marketers want you to buy their stock and you have to be pretty quick witted to negoiate your way out. An amazing experience that I would recommend to anyone.

We did plenty of day trips, with a lovely couple we met over their called Laura and Jason, it was nice to spend time with another couple and enjoy these places we went to with them. We visited beautiful places like Carthage, Sidi Bou said and Tunis which are amazingly stunning places. We also had a tour of the Roman ruins which is breath taking.

The highlight of my trip though was experiencing first hand the local women weaving rugs on thier rug looms. We mainly saw these women in small shops in the medinas, sat on a little stool and using the Persian knot to create beautiful rugs of various sizes. I could not help myself i had to come away with a rug! so I invested in a small but beautiful rug that is sat nicely on our lounge coffee table.

We thoughly enjoyed our trip to Tunisia and we would love to head back their one day. I would recommend visiting this country to any one who wants a bit of adventure, busy local life and plenty of beautiful beaches and sun.

Until next time folks, thanks for reading
Capatin Rug Wash

Captain Rug Wash meets Stonecare Superman

I was very fortunate recently to be interviewed by the UK's number one Stone Care Restoration specialist in Manchester. His name Mike Philbin AKA Stonecare Superman.

Mike is a very good friend of mind and he has a very popular TV channel.



every week he airs episodes regarding anything about stone, from cleaning tile and grout all the way through to polishing marble.
This guy is so passionate about stone restoration its amazing. He has been working with his families very successful stone floor and carpet cleaning business for many years now.



I was up visiting Mike for the Stone traing course that he runs. A brilliant course about how to clean and restore every kind of stone flooring.
As a rug cleaner im noticing more and more rugs being laid on top of beautiful natural stone in homes, So i thought it was about time to pay a visit to my good friend ( and the UK leading natural stone care expert!) to gain some knowledge.

I had a brilliant time at StonecareTV studios and enjoyed every minute of being on the show. So thanks Mike for inviting me on.

So please if natural stone is something you are interested in please check out my friend Mike via the links.

Until next time folks.
your friend

Captain Rug Wash

Captain Rug Wash interviewed by Dusty of Rugbadger

Hey folks Captain Rug Wash is fast becoming an international superstar! he was interviewed last night by Dusty of Rugbadger in Canada.

He is one of the giants in the rug cleaning industry and the interview went really well.
Once he has it all downlaoded ill post it on here for everyone to enjoy. so stay tuned to my blog for the awesome interview. Thanks Dusty!

Captain Rug Wash

Stay tuned.......


Its now live on my website at www.plymouthrugcleaning.co.uk

 Go on, go check it out. And while your there, become a fan on my social media sites, and keep up with all the latest news.

Captain Rug Wash Live On The Radio

Hello everyone.
I hope you all enjoyed listening to my appearance on the David Fitzgerald show on BBC radio Devon last week.

It was an amzing experience and one that I really enjoyed. David and the team are so friendly and made me feel very relaxed and welcome. I was really nervous when i first got there, but once I got settled in, I did not mant to leave! I was on air for twenty minutes talking about rugs and i even had some great phones in too.
I could of sat there all day and taken phone in's! it was so much fun and a great chance for me to talk about my passion and to share my passion with a wide audience.

Before I left the show i gave a rug as a gift to Fitzy as a big thank you for having me on his show.

I really enjoyed the experience and I hope one day I can do it again soon.

Until next time folks! this is Captain Rug Wash signing off...
Captain Rug Wash

Captain Rug Wash Live On The Radio

Hello everyone,
Im very pleased and a little nervous to inform everyone that I will be live on the David Fitzgerald show on BBC Radio Devon on August 5th at 2pm.

I will talking about the wonderful world of rugs.
It all came about when i ran a competition in a magazine i advertise in. The competition was won by Caroline Adams who is a journalist for the BBC, she very kindly spread the news of captian Rug Wash and his crew around the BBC.

Before i knew it i received a phone call from the producer of the David Fitzgerald Show and asked me to come into the studio.

So I would like to thank Caroline Adams for supporting Captain Rug Wash!

So folks stay tuned to your radio's on August 5th and hear what i have to talk about.

Thanks for reading everyone and a big Thank You to everyone's support

Your Friend

Captain Rug Wash
Master Rug Cleaner

Hey everyone here is the first video of my journey to become a Master Rug Cleaner, keep posted to this blog to see the next instalment.

You can now enjoy more videos of rug cleaning and see what Captain Rug Wash gets up too exclusively at
www.rugcare.tv

Captain Rug Wash's Journey To Become A Master Rug Cleaner

Im am really pleased to annouce that I have become a Master Rug Cleaner.
The course was a year long study into everythingrug! How they are weaved, where they are from, how they are dyed, what they were used for, what they are constructed from. I took the first exam last year which was held down in Cornwall, and after a year of research and studying i took my second part last week in London. The course was run by two of the top rug experts from America who came over to share their amazing amount of knowledge with us on the area of rugs. It was a long three days and the knowledge i have gained is unbelieveable. The history of rugs is simply beautiful, its one of the oldest traditions and its still going today! When it comes to fine hand knotted rugs the tools and techniques on weaving rugs has not changed for thousands of years. So you can now feel confident in using Captain Rug Wash to clean your hand knotted and machine made rugs. Thanks for reading everyone Until next time... Captain Rug Wash Master Rug Cleaner

Look out for the video diaries of the event coming soon...

is Captain Rug Wash out of business!?!

While visiting my girlfriend's cousin in Manchester last month I noticed this really cool poster in her kitchen. Along with domestic tips and tricks about cleaning and being a domestic goddess (or God, for us men out there), I scrolled down the list and found a section about proper care and maintainace of rugs.

I think I should of seen this poster before I invested a ton of money on machinery and courses!

I am soon to be embarking on a trip to London to take my final part of the Master Rug Cleaners course. This is a 3 day event where I will learn everything there is to know abot cleaning weaving and repairing rugs. Im so excited as I will be the only person in the South West of England with this qualification.

Until next time rug lovers!...

Captain Rug Wash

Mrs Caroline Adams competition winner

Congratulations to Caroline Adams who was our winner of the May competition for a free rug clean.
Mrs Adams had an Indian rug that she gave me to be clean and have some small repairs made to it. The rug cleaned up fantastically well and she was impressed with the final result.

I cleaned her rug using our RugBadger for vibrating out all the dry soil and then I cleaned it using our ECO friendly rug cleaning products.

Keep an eye on our website and other social media sites for up coming competitions.

Once again congratulations to Mrs Adams.

Captain Rug Wash meets author Gerard Donovan

I first meet Gerard Donovan at his office on the campus of Plymouth University early in May, the meeting was to look at his chinese rug that he had recently purchased. It needed a good clean as it had an issue with mould.

I reassured Mr Donovan that I could successfully clean the rug and take out the mould spores. After completing my rug inspection i took the rug back to 'HQ' and proceeded to clean it. The rug was a beautiful red chinese rug and I was worried about the red migrating into the ivory of the medallion on the rug. I did not have to worry, the rug cleaned up lovely, I returned the rug back to Mr Donovan today and he was very impressed with the work I had done. I showed him photos off processes during the rugs clean and I presented him with a bag full of dry soil that i had gently vibrated out of the rug.

If you would like to hear more about Gerard Donovan please check out this link found, there are many other sites about Mr Donovan, so please take some time out and check him out.

 Thanks for reading folks, until next time...

www.theshortreview.com/authors/GerardDonovan.htm

This is a rug I cleaned a few weeks ago that had severe fringe damage.
With all rugs that have fringes you have to be very careful when you vaccuum them not to let the beater bar of the vacuum go over the fringes. This causes alot of damage and eventually the fringes will start to come apart.

Fringes are what is called the Warp thread of the rug. Thi is the cotton or wool foundation of the rug that travels up and down the rug. Vertical. The Weft is the cotton or wool thread that runs left to right. Weft to right is an easy way to remember this. So if you are not careful with the fringes you will be damaging the foundation of the rug.

This is one of my favourite photos. this is dry soil that has been gently vibrated out of a rug using my RugBadger machine. Every rug goes through this process before any water is put onto the rug.

Its real simply, I lay a grid on the floor, place the rug upside down on the grid and then proceed to use the RugBadger on it until it has vibrated out all the dry damaging soil.

Its the same princple your grandmother used to do but she used a rug beating stick, and it was hard work!

For more amazing photos of the RugBadger cleaning results check out my website at www.plymouthrugcleaning.co.uk

A couple of beautifully made Hand-Knotted flat weave rugs on my inspection table.

All rugs get placed on my inspection table as this is one of the most important processes in successfully cleaning a rug.
I also do an inspection when im in rug owners home but i do a further one when I get the rug back to my rug facility.
I look out for things such as dye bleeding any damage or any other problems that may arises during the cleaning process.

http://sharing.theflip.com/session/f64cfba2b27dd9a55b4fcd4db3b7f1d0/video/11467996

Check out Captain Rug Wash's website introduction video
I wanted to welcome my guest's to my website personally, so what better way then to do an intro video. Now I am not an actor and have never been comfortable in front of a camera but i gave it my best shot. well actually this took me about 47 takes to do!

congratulations to our competition winner

We recently ran a competition in a local magazine we advertise with. And the winner was Caroline Adams from Newton ferrers in Plymouth. I have just finished cleaning her Indian rug which is beautiful.

The rug was heavily soiled and had some bad satining onit, but it has come clean like new. I had to do a small repair on the rug as on the backing of the rug the side binding had started to come away from the corners, so I have repaired that and the rug is now ready to be delivered back to a happy customer.

keep a look out for more rug competitions featured on our website and or other social media networks

until next time
Captain Rug Wash

Tibetan Rug

WOW i have just finished cleaning an amazing hand-knotted Tibetan rug a mix of wool and silk.
What a beautiful piece of craftsmanship, the foundation colour of the rug is royal red and wool and the pattern is ivory silk. This was one of my favourite rugs to clean. The dirt and grit that i removed from it using my rugbadger was unbelievable, almost half a freezer bag full.

This is the most important part of cleaning a rug, is removing all the dry soil. If this is not done once its wet all the soil will turn to "mud" and make the rug look awful. The dry soil literally acts like a knife and tears the fibres from the rug. This is why its so very important for rug owners to vacumm their rugs on a regular basis removing all of this dry soil really does increase the life of your rug.

I really do enjoy cleaning hand-knotted rugs and restoring the softness and colours through our cleaning process. You can really appriecate the time and skill it takes to make a rug like these.

Well im off back into the cleaning studio to get started onn the next rug.
Until next time

Captain Rug Wash

Little Critters

I visited a lady today who had a problem with a rug that she was slightly embarrassed about. After reassuring her that I have seen quite a lot of gross things that are related to rug cleaning, she explained her story to me.

Whilst on a weekend break to London with her husband and daughter, she had bought a very nice hand knotted Persian rug 2 months ago from a market stall in North London.
She returned with the rug to her home in Newton Ferrers, with the intention of laying it down in her daughter’s bedroom next to her bed.
After a few weeks their daughter was complaining of itching during the night. After further inspection by my client she found bite marks on her daughter’s skin which were painful.
After a few weeks of using body lotion products she had in the bathroom cupboard the problem was not going away. She visited the doctors and they discovered that her daughter was being bitten by either fleas or bed bugs. My client was horrified as she has always regarded herself as a clean and tidy person and her home is always tidy and kept neat and clean.
I received the phone call from my client and after hearing her story I arranged a time for me to come out and visit her. Armed with my microscope, gloves and inspection pad I arrived at her home and went straight to her daughter’s bedroom. I inspected the bed, carpet, skirting boards, all cracks and crevasse and finally the rug. I noticed bed bug evidence on the bed and mattress and I saw a few Bed Bugs on the mattress. I’ve seen many Fleas and obviously dustmites but this was one of the few times I have come across such a large volume of bed bugs.
As I turned by attention to the rug I noticed that a lot of the bed bugs were hiding in the rug.

Bed bugs only appear in the bed at night time when they can sense a warm body in it, so they can feed upon that body. During the day when the bed is cold and empty they like to stay hidden in cracks around the skirting board.

I showed my client the specimen jar I had used to collect the evidence and she was horrified to now that she had a bed bug problem. I advised her on the course of action I would take and she was more than happy for me to go ahead and do the work.

I went to my van and got the appropriate equipment out to clean the carpets, bed frame, mattress, curtains. I rolled the rug up and sealed it in a polyphene bag so none of the bed bugs could be transported to another room. When I returned to our rug cleaning facilities I gave the rug a full spa treatment clean and a course of action for the bed bugs. I returned the rug to my client and she was amazed at how well I had dealt with the problem. And also how well her rug had cleaned up.

She asked me how the bed bugs would have got in her house and my professional opinion would have been, seeing the rug was the only new (second-Hand) item they had bought into the house environment in the last couple months. I said to her they were probably from the rug and transported down from the previous house to her house.

My client was overjoyed at how well we treated her bed bug infestation. So if you have concerns about bed bugs, fleas, dustmites or any other creepy crawlies please do not hesitate in getting in contact with a member of our team.

Cleaning the flooring at Xcel wetsuits in Plymouth

First of all i want to wish Steve and the team at Xcel wetsuits all the best for the future in thier amazing new warehouse in Plymouth.

Steve phoned me up and explained that he was moving his company into a new warehouse, but before he could fill the warehouse up with wetsuits and surfboards it needed a through cleaning.

So in me and phil went with our scrubber machine and the very best solutions that we use and got to work scrubbing the concrete flooring. Getting rid of all the dirt and grease and dust, the flooring looked like new again after just a couple hours of work.

Next we moved onto the carpets in their lobbyway and showroom and again using our ECO- friendly cleaninf solutions we brought the carpets back to life and looking as good as new.

I even managed to rescue Amanda's handbag from an exploding fountain pen which leaked into the bottom of her bag.
www.ecs-sw.co.uk

www.plymoutstonecare.co.uk

The origins of Captain Rug Wash. The story of a rug cleaning Superhero

Captain Rug Wash was first spotted flying over the windy roads of Dartmoor. Although new evidence has come to light over the years that he has been spotted as far west as Penzance and as far east as Bristol. Spotted in the early part of 2009, locals could not understand why he wondered around looking so sad and lost. A couple of brave locals approached him and asked him if he was okay. The only quick reply that came from Captain Rug Wash was that of sadness and fear. The fear was for the future of rugs belonging to local people. Captain Rug Wash was saddened by fine rugs of the Westcountry being poorly cleaned by uneducated, uncaring rug cleaners who were ruining rugs on a daily basis.

Captain Rug Wash told the local men that he had been sent from his homeland, a distant and magical place, a land full of beautiful rugs. A land where all the inhabitants were growing increasingly worried about the poor conditions and truly awful way rugs were being cleaned. He was sent out by his Elders to find a rug cleaner who was cleaning rugs properly, professionaly, passionately and thoroughly. His mission was to find this educated rug cleaner, he was not permitted to return until he had found such a person to work alongside them spreading the good news of the services the company provided.

He was searching the length and breadth of the Westcountry for many years, unsuccessful in his search, he was starting to give up on his mission. But just as he was thinking his sadness could not get any worse upon hearing more and more stories of people's rugs being shrunk and ruined by uneducated cleaners, he was starting to over hear people talking about a rug cleaning company that was doing amazing work cleaning peoples rugs. So off he flew optimistic of what he would find.

Andi hill, founder of Plymouth Rug Cleaning opened up the door to his rug cleaning headquaters one bright, sunny Monday morning almost tripping over this friendly looking fellow in an amazing Superhero suit, the fabric a quality Andi had never seen. A magical and enlightened glow seemed to radiate from him. Captain Rug Wash soon began to tell Andi about the magical land from which he came a land that was full of beautiful hand knotted rugs. Captain Rug Wash also told Andi about his mission, Andi was not overly surprised at the stories of poor cleaning conditions and techniques that rugs were being put through, that Captain Rug Wash had witnessed.

Upon seeing the great work that PlymouthRug Cleaning were doing Captain Rug Wash was soon seen flying around the Westcountry telling anyone who would listen and anyone who wanted their rugs cleaned about a company he was going to send them too. Where their rugs would be given the most amazing Spa treatment clean it had ever had.

If you listen very carefully and look up into the sky you will see Captain Rug Wash flying overhead helping people who have filthy rugs and no idea who they can trust to clean them.
So if you ever see Captain Rug Wash make sure you follow him to Plymouth Rug Cleaning, where your rug will be treated to the most professional clean it has ever had...