What every rug owner needs to know

Supermarket hired machines and cleaning solutions can permanently damage your rug. 

Rugs are an investment for your home and can be expensive. You would not clean a Picasso painting with washing up liquid so why use a cheap cleaner on your expensive rug.
Poor rug cleaning can lead to dye bleeding, shrinkage and odour. This isn't always easily corrected. Find out how to avoid these problems and not destroy your expensive rug. If your thinking about being your own rug doctor it could lead to disaster.

A few key points when cleaning rugs successfully,

* Dry soil removal
* Check colours don't bleed
* Rapid drying


Don't Turn It Muddy
Why hired cleaning machines don't give a rug a full deep clean that your rug deserves, is simple. The main important process in rug cleaning is dry soil removal. If you don't remove the dry soil from a rug before cleaning, all your are doing is spraying water and cleaning solution down on top of "dust".
What happens when dust gets wet? it turns to mud. And mud is very difficult to remove from rugs and carpets.

What we do at Plymouth Rug Cleaning is very simple but highly effective for full cleaning of rugs. We use our Rugbadger to vibrate out up to 80% of all dry soil in your rug. This means we are cleaning the fibres of the rug and not making mud.

Don't let it  Bleed
Its very important to check the fastness of dyes in the rug. Yes on the label of your chosen machine and cleaning products, it will say test in an inconspicuous area before cleaning. But lets be honest here how many people would do this.

We test every colour in the rug, starting with the colours most likely to bleed, reds,blues and blacks. We then set the dyes as best we can and then clean the rug. The non-colour fast dyes will set in lighter colours, ie ivory, in the drying process if they are not treated.

Dry It Quick
It's very important to make sure the rug after cleaning is dried quickly. If you have used hot water to clean with, the theory is it will dry faster, but, hot water will make the colours bleed more then cold water.

No matter how much water you put on the rug to clean it, the water has to be extracted out. This will avoid dye bleed, shrinkage, odour, mould, mildew and damage to the structure of your rug.

Its always safer for your rug to have it professionally cleaned by someone who has been trained and understands the structure, fibre and cleaning techniques.

Find out more about how and why we clean rugs the way we do at my YouTube channel. Please follow this link Rug Cleaning Videos

You can also find more information at our website follow the link here to take you too it Rug Cleaning

You shouldn't be cleaning your rug, because I need to clean it...

Dirt from rugs- Plymouth Rug Cleaning

This is what I spend all my days doing. I love it. I make my clients rugs look like new by removing all the dry soil from them. I do this by using my RugBadger.

Its also extremely healthy for you and your family. All this harmful dust, soil and dirt lays deep in the pile of your rug. Then I extract out this dirt, while not damaging your rug.

Please, please, please make sure that the rug cleaner you chose to clean your rug, gets all the dry soil out.

If you don't get all the dry soil out, as soon as the rug cleaner puts water on the rug, all that soil and grit will turn into mud. This mud will be very hard to get out of the rug.

I know this because I used to clean rugs before I got my RugBadger. My cleaning results have greatly improved since I use the machine before and after I clean my clients rugs.

Silk rug cleaning - Plymouth

This is a video of a beautiful big Chinese silk rug. My client has had it for a few years, but before that it was in a rug shop for many many years and over time a strange mark had appeared on it, find out more by watching this video.

Cleaning Rugs- Plymouth

Here at Plymouth Rug Cleaning we professionally clean all hand knotted rugs.

As you can see in this video, this rug is used in the hallway of a house and has very heavy foot fall on it.
This foot fall creates wear marks.

Chinese Rug Cleaning - Plymouth

This was an amazing rug I had in to be cleaned. 

A massive Chinese rug that had been mad for a family around 50 years ago. 

It was left in storage for 20 years until the clients moved and the rug needed to be cleaned.

This is a beautiful example of a Chinese rug.

One thing that I love about it is that the field and the borders are as one, with the field design flowing into the rug.

The rug was about an inch thick and their was damage around the side cords. This was due to the client cutting the rug to fitting around their furniture in their lounge! Amazing!

As you can see that's me laying ion the rug and I'm about 5ft 10.

I used my RugBadger on this rug and it pulled out enough soil, sand and dirt to fill a small kitchen bin bag.

Come along and see me at Rugcare.TV

Captain Rug Wash Products

Yes it's true! finally you can buy a rug and carpet cleaner that really works, without the use of detergents, shampoo or bleaches to deal with the stain. You can now own a bottle of Captain Rug Wash's rug and carpet stain and spillage remover.

At only £8.00 a bottle ( discounts available for multiple purchase's) you can now confidently tackle all spillages that happen on your rug or carpet in your home or work environment.

pretesting the solution on the area is always advised, as some dyes on handknotted rugs may not be colour fast.

So please email me at andi@plymouthrugcleaning.co.uk  and order your bottle now!

http://youtu.be/c36y47wS11s

Last month Captain Rug Wash paid a visit to London to do some carpet cleaning in Kensington.
Watch this video and find out what happened.

Properly vacuuming your rug

I get asked all the time about how to properly vacuum their rugs, without damaging them. In this video I tell you how often and which vacuum cleaners are the best to use, without causing damage and getting the best results of dry soil removal.

Thanking some great friends

I would not be where I am today if it was not for the support of my friends in the rug world. S I did this sort video to thank a couple of people who have helped me this month.

Stain Removal

This is a video about the correct way to tackle spills on rugs in your home. Ill tell you what to use and what not to use. So listen closely to this video and it will save you the heart ache of ruining your rugs with poor cleaning products.

The advantage of Rug Protection

This is a short video by Captain Rug Wash telling you about the advantage of having your rugs protected after they have been professionally cleaned. 

You can now find Captain Rug Wash, the UK famous rug cleaning superhero, at his new internet TV Show. RugCare.Tv

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...

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.

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

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.

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...