Persian Rugs v. Oriental Rugs

What’s the difference between Persian rugs and Oriental rugs?  As quality rug cleaning professionals, we get asked this question frequently, even by devout collectors of handknotted rugs.  After all, Persian area rugs and Oriental area rugs share many common features: high quality construction, bold colors, intricate patterns, plush pile, and shared motifs, to name a few.  So, what’s the difference?

Interestingly, the difference between your Oriental rug and your Persian rug is entirely based on geography.  Oriental rugs are constructed by hand in central Asia and may originate from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, Tibet, Iraq, Russia, or Turkey.  These countries in this region were once known simply as “The Orient,” and modern-day Iran, known then as the “Persian Empire,” was included.  Rugs from the “Persian Empire” became outliers, renown for their extraordinary quality which boasted a higher count of knots per square inch than rugs from the other areas of the region.  Rugs from the “Persian Empire” became known as Persian rugs, and remained differentiated by their topnotch quality.  In short, the difference between Oriental rugs and Persian rugs is based on their point of origin, and though all Persian rugs or “Oriental rugs,” only Oriental rugs constructed in Iran are truly “Persian rugs.”

Whether you are the proud owner of a Persian Tabriz, Kashan, or Heriz, or an afficionado of Oriental Gabbeh rugs, Isfahan rugs, or Sarouks, your rug deserves high quality professional rug cleaning to match its high quality handknotted construction and quality dyes.  Not just any local rug cleaning company will do; you need the best rug cleaning technicians in your area to handle your beautiful rug and clean it completely and correctly.

RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning is the best professional rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL rug owners have relied on for years.  Handknotted Persian and Oriental rugs are our passion, and we’d love to help care for yours.  We’re the trusted rug cleaning company throughout Mandarin, Riverside, San Marco, Ponte Vedra Beach, and Jacksonville Beach, and we’re here for you too!

5 Rug Cleaning Myths

Professional rug cleaning is growing in popularity throughout Jacksonville, but so are myths associated with the process.  Let us dispel the confusion and help you determine the best way to clean your area rugs:

Myth: Deep cleaning will damage my rug.

FALSE. If you attempt to deep clean your rug yourself, or send it to a subpar service, you do risk damaging the rug.  However, when you trust your Oriental area rug to a highly rated professional rug cleaning company, deep cleaning is good for your rug, and also necessary in order to keep it in the best condition possible.

Myth: If my pet has an “accident” on the rug, I can just wipe it up.

FALSE.  If your pet has an accident on your area rug, you cannot treat the pet urine or feces like any other spill.  You need to act quickly and take all the correct steps in order to prevent the pet urine from causing significant damage to your rug.  If you value your rug, the best advice is that when pets have accidents on the rug, you hire a high-quality rug cleaning service and allow the experts to clean the rug professionally and completely.

Myth: Vacuuming is enough for keeping my rug clean.

FALSE.  While routine vacuuming is a critical part of keeping your area rugs in great shape, it is not enough.  Knowledgeable rug owners, collectors, and sellers agree that regular deep cleaning at a professional rug cleaning company is necessary for keeping the fibers in your Persian rug clean and protected.

Myth: All area rugs are essentially the same.  

FALSE.  Area rugs differ greatly from one another.  The method of construction, types of fibers used, region of origin, type of dye, and many other features each help to determine the best ways to care for your particular rug, including the safest and most effective ways to keep it clean.

Myth: All rug cleaning companies are the same.

FALSE.  Don’t hire just anyone to clean your Oriental or Persian area rug.  Rug cleaning is an art form that requires extensive and detailed knowledge of rug construction and fibers, cleaning products, cleaning methods, and many other facets.  Your hand knotted area rug represents an investment, and it should only be trusted to highly rated professional rug cleaners in your area.

Your favorite area rugs add warmth, aesthetic, and an element of history to your home, and they need to be cleaned and cared for with the skill and precision they deserve.  There are many good professional rug cleaning companies in Northeast Florida, but RugPro is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their rugs.  We’ve deep cleaned countless precious area rugs for customers in San Marco, Ponte Vedra, Atlantic Beach, and throughout the region, and we’d love to help keep your area rugs in great shape too!

4 Easy Ways to Protect Your Rug

Your favorite area rugs in your house are important to you for many reasons: they’re heirlooms, they’re beautiful, they add warmth to your home, they’re comfortable, they represent a monetary investment, and more.  So what can you do to keep your Oriental rugs in great shape?  These simple steps will help you protect and preserve your beloved Persian rugs.

1. Vacuum Regularly – Routine vacuuming is one of the most important things you can do to keep your area rugs in great shape. Ideally, you should vacuum at least weekly, though you’ll want to vacuum area rugs in high traffic areas more frequently.  It’s important to not only vacuum the face of the rug, but to then flip the rug over and vacuum the underside as well.
2. Rug Pad – A good quality rug pad does wonders in prolonging the life of your favorite Oriental rugs. It also makes the rugs even more comfortable to walk on, and can make them safer too, since good rug pads prevent the rug from slipping.
3. Change it up! – Rearrange your rugs every so often, such as every few months, in order to prevent the fibers from wearing down in the areas that are most frequently walked on.
4. Professional Cleaning – Good rug cleaning companies are great for many reasons. The rug cleaning technicians are professionally trained to clean rugs in a thorough but careful way, and they know how to handle rugs of all types and stains and spills of all types!  If you’re wondering if you should hire professional rug cleaners for your rug, the answer is yes!  Good professional rug cleaning services have what it takes to help protect and preserve your fine area rugs.

There are many great rug cleaning companies in the area, but RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL rug owners have relied on for years.  Our highly trained rug cleaning technicians have a passion for Oriental rugs coupled with the expertise needed to clean them meticulously, and it’s earned us the reputation among Riverside, Nocatee, Ponte Vedra, and Atlantic Beach customers as the best rug cleaning company to call on!

What is Restorative Rug Cleaning?

There are various levels of clean for Oriental rugs, each essentially dependent on the type of soiling present in the rug.  In rug dusting, the dry soils are removed from the rug fibers, and in deep cleaning, a customized cleaning plan is developed that typically entails thoroughly washing the rug in a specialized rug bath.  But what is restorative rug cleaning?  Let’s take a look:

The best rug cleaning companies will include these steps in a restorative rug cleaning:

1. Detailed Inspection
2. Dry Soil Removal
3. Vacuuming
4. Odor Treatment
5. Deep Submersion Hand Washing
6. Stain Treatment
7. Additional specialized steps including neutralizing rinse, fringe brightening, speed drying, application of stain protector, grooming, and wrapping are also included in the cleaning regimens of the best professional rug cleaning services in your area.

So when should you schedule restorative cleaning for your area rug?  Good professional rug cleaners recommend booking restorative cleaning for your rug every 3-5 years, as well as anytime your rug has pet urine, stains, odors, or other contaminations.

If your rug needs more than just a deep cleaning, call on a good rug cleaning company in your neighborhood and rely on the professionals to give the rug the specific and customized cleaning it needs.  RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL homeowners trust with their area rugs.  Our rug cleaning technicians are trained, experienced, and passionate about Persian and Oriental rugs, and it shows in our innumerable repeat customers throughout Ponte Vedra, Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Riverside, and throughout the region.  You can call on us for your rug’s restorative cleaning, and you’ll love the results!

Rug Placement Tips

It’s easy to think there’s no wrong way to arrange an area rug, and that well-crafted Persian rugs are so beautiful and exquisite they’d look good in any room, in any arrangement, and in any environment.  While in some ways this is true, certain rules of interior design show us that there are in fact ideal ways to arrange your rug in a room.  Here are tips for rug placement from the professionals (us!):

• Living Room – When planning how to arrange your living room furniture over your new area rug, there are two main ways to do this, depending on the size of your room and the size of the rug. In one scenario, all legs of all furniture are on the rug.  The sofa or sectional legs, chair legs, end table legs, etc. are all positioned on the rug, with no legs on the underlying flooring.  In smaller rooms, you can position the front two legs of larger furniture on the rug, and end tables or the coffee table will have all legs on the rug.  This arrangement can also help smaller rooms feel larger.  In either scenario, the room should feel balanced.
• Dining Room – When choosing the best rug for the dining room, or when arranging your rug in the dining room in the optimal way, the primary rule is for all legs of all chairs to be on the rug, whether the chairs are pushed in, or guests are sitting in them. This can be tricky in small rooms, or if you have a large dining room table, but it is the look that will provide the most pleasing aesthetic for your rug and for the room.
• Bedroom – In bedrooms, there are several ways to arrange your area rugs for the best look. You can choose to have two smaller rugs or even two runners and position them on either side of the bed.  Or you can choose to have a single, larger area rug, generally positioned underneath the bed with the upper two legs of the bed on the bare flooring and the lower two legs of the bed on the rug.  If you have a very large Oriental rug, all four legs of the bed can be positioned on the rug, as can all legs of nightstands or other furniture that is near the bed.

Your Oriental area rugs deserve the best: they should be arranged in rooms that highlight their beauty, and when it comes to cleaning and maintenance, that means scheduling routine maintenance cleaning – and deep cleaning when needed – with a high-quality local rug cleaning company.  There are many good rug cleaning companies in the area, but RugPro is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL rug owners have relied on for years.  We’re passionate about Oriental rugs, and it shows!  We’re the trusted rug cleaners for Jacksonville, Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra, and Riverside, specializing in the highest quality rug cleaning coupled with outstanding customer service.  When the time comes to deep clean your area rugs, call on us!

Popular Persian Rug Styles

Persian rugs, the specific type of Oriental rug that originates from present day Iran, are known for extremely high-quality fibers and craftsmanship, extraordinarily dense pile, and smaller handtied knots than other Oriental rugs.  If you own a Persian rug, you’re familiar with high quality artisan work, and you likely treasure it!  If you’re thinking of purchasing a Persian rug, this list of 7 popular types of Persian rugs can help you decide which style is right for you.

Popular Persian Rugs:

• Gabbeh Rugs – These thick, course rugs are woven by tribe members in the Zagros mountains, and feature simple designs and natural dyes, typically in orange, red, and rust tones.
• Hamedan Rugs – Hamedan rugs are typically simple in design and use a palette of blue, red, brown, and ivory dyes. The Hamedan region includes hundreds of villages, and each has its traditional patterns.
• Heriz Rugs – These rugs always feature a medallion in the center and large corner pieces, typically in bright, vibrant colors.
• Isfahan Rugs – These silk and wool rugs feature symmetry, typically with a single medallion surrounded by vine designs.
• Kashan Rugs – These are bold, “statement” rugs, and typically feature a large medallion in the center, and vibrant hues of rich red, blue, and ivory. Kashan rugs range from 100-800 knots per square inch, making them very high-quality pieces.
• Sarouk Rugs – Sarouk rugs incorporate blue weft fibers and intricate, colorful designs.
• Tabriz Rugs – Tabriz rugs originate from one of the oldest rug weaving regions: Azerbaijan. They are delicate, high-quality rugs with intricate designs.

Whether you decide on a Gabbeh, Hamedan, Isfahan, or other type of high quality handknotted area rug, you’ll need to find an equally good rug cleaning company to clean and maintain your new treasure.  RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning is the best rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL rug owners have relied on for years.  Our highly trained rug cleaners have the expertise, training, and passion required to deep clean heirloom rugs safely and effectively.  If you live in Riverside, San Marco, Ortega, Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra, or anywhere in Northeast Florida, and want the highest quality care for your rugs, we’re the rug cleaning service for you!

What is Rug Dusting?

Routine vacuuming is an important part of keeping your Oriental rug in good shape.  Once or twice per week, depending on how much foot traffic the rug gets, you bring out the vacuum, make sure the beater bar is raised or deactivated, and give the Persian rugs in your home a thorough vacuuming.  With weekly vacuuming, much of the dirt, sand, and debris that is tracked over the rug is removed and prevented from burrowing into your rug’s fibers and causing damage.

Household vacuums, however, do not remove all of the dust and debris.  To truly remove the dust, dander, and other dry soil from your rug’s fibers, it’s important to schedule professional rug dusting for your rug, ideally 1-2 times per year.  During the rug dusting process, the rug is spread across a grate and highly trained rug cleaning professionals operate an industrial strength rug dusting tool by pushing it slowly and gently over the rug.  This rug dusting tool produces harmonic vibrations (tens of thousands per minute!) which loosen the debris in the rug and cause it to fall out of the rug fibers and into the grate below.  It is not uncommon for several pounds of dry soil to be removed from the rug during this process.  The rug dusting tool used by the best professional rug cleaning companies has the power to remove significantly more debris, dander, and dust than the household vacuum ever could.

Dust and dirt cause damage to your rug’s fibers.  The edges of these miniscule particles are jagged, and they slice and etch the fine fibers of your rug as they’re tracked deeper into the backing of the rug, ultimately causing it to dull and deteriorate prematurely.  The best local rug cleaning service can help!  RugPro is the best rug cleaning company Jacksonville FL homeowners turn to for their rug cleaning needs.  Our teams of rug cleaning experts have provided outstanding service to customers throughout Florida’s First Coast, including Jacksonville, Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Mandarin, Riverside, and more!  Call on us for your rug dusting appointment and be prepared to love the results!

Rugs for Small Spaces

As devout rug lovers, we believe there’s a beautiful handknotted area rug for any room in the house, even the smallest rooms!  Here are some tips for finding the best rug for the small spaces in your home:

1. Solid Hues – Busy patterns and high contrast can make small spaces feel even smaller, so try solid hues or soft, simple, neutral patterns.
2. Stripes – A striped pattern can make the room seem larger. If you arrange the rug so that the strips are horizontal, the room will seem wider, and if the stripes are vertical, the room will seem longer.  Take advantage of this optical illusion, and your striped area rug can make a small space seem much more spacious.
3. Room-Sized Rug – Room sized rugs are great for small spaces, and light hues and tones make the room feel still larger.
4. Padding – Even in small spaces, remember to get a high-quality rug pad for your rug. Good rug pads preserve the rug and make it more comfortable to walk on.

Once you’ve determined the best rugs for small rooms in your home, be sure to schedule routine cleaning to keep the rug in great shape!  All the best Jacksonville FL rug cleaners provide maintenance cleaning, deep cleaning, and other customized cleanings, and can provide rug pads for underneath your rug and rug protectant for overtop your rug.  In short, when you find the best rug cleaner in your area, it will be easy to make sure your rug stays in great shape for years to come!  RugPro is the best professional rug cleaning company used by homeowners and rug lovers in Southside, San Marco, Riverside, Ortega, and Jacksonville FL.  Call on us for your rug cleaning needs!

Removing Pet Urine from Rugs

When your pet has an “accident” on your beloved Oriental area rug, speed is critical.  The sooner you can address the spill, and the faster you can extract the pet urine, the better the chances you’ll be able to protect your rug against the damage that can be sustained from the urine stain.

Why is it so important that you clean up pet accidents as quickly as possible?  Pet urine is highly acidic when it is released, and when this acid comes into contact with the acid dyes in your rug, this chemical reaction can change the color of your rug and create a deep-set stain that can become permanent.  Protect your color and beauty – and cleanliness – of your rug by acting quickly to clean up pet urine!

Here is what to do when your pet pees on your Persian rug:

1. Assess – Check how deep the urine has spread into the rug. If the urine has seeped into the backing of the rug, the best solution is to call on a highly rated professional rug cleaning company.  Professional rug cleaning will be required in order to thoroughly wash the rug and attempt to remove all urine from the rug’s fibers and foundation.
2. Blot – Using a clean cotton towel, gently blot the area. Continually blot the spill until the urine stops transferring.  We recommend using a white towel to blot so that it’s easier to determine when the urine is no longer being absorbed.
3. Pressure – Fold a fresh, clean cotton towel and place it underneath the rug, directly under the spill or problem area. Place another clean cotton towel on the face of the rug, directly over the spill.  Then put as much pressure or weight on the area as you can, ideally by standing on the area.  By placing clean, dry cotton towels on both ends of the spill and then applying pressure, the majority of the spill should absorb into the towels.  Stand on the towel for several minutes.  Then replace the towels with yet more clean dry towels and set something heavy on the top towel, such as brick.  Do not place heavy books on the affected area, or anything else that the urine could transfer to.
4. Check for Odor – Once you have extracted all contaminated moisture from the rug onto your towels, check the rug for odor. If you detect odor, you should contact the best local rug cleaning service and schedule a restoration cleaning appointment right away.  Even if you do not detect odor, we strongly advise hiring a high-quality rug cleaning company to examine your rug and discuss cleaning options.  If you were able to remove most of the urine, your rug could likely still benefit from professional deep cleaning.  If you did not address the urine spill quickly enough or adequately, the rug will require professional deep cleaning, ideally in a rug bath with a custom designed cleaning regimen.
5. Post-Cleaning Protectant – If you have pets, be sure to have your professional rug cleaning team apply a protectant to your rug after it has been cleaned.

Pet lovers know we have to take the bad with the good, but pet urine can spell disaster for your prized area rug if the spill or stain is not handled correctly and immediately.  If you have pets in your home, become familiar with the best rug cleaning service in your area!  Pet owners in Ponte Vedra Beach, Atlantic Beach, Riverside, and San Marco call on RugPro Oriental Rug Cleaning for everything from light dusting to restorative deep cleaning for their rugs.  We are the best professional rug cleaning service Jacksonville FL homeowners rely on, and we’d love the opportunity to provide deep cleaning for your Oriental rugs!

Why Hire Pro Rug Cleaners?

You know it’s important to keep your rug clean, but can you do this yourself, or should you hire professional rug cleaners to do it?  Our tips can help you decide when to schedule a cleaning appointment with the best local rug cleaning company!

• Method – High quality handknotted Oriental rugs need to be cleaned using specific methods. The best way to clean your Persian rugs is in a rug bath, where the method of washing emulates the river currents of ancient times.
• Skill – To get your area rug truly clean takes skill and training. When your rug needs to be deep cleaned with water and cleaning solutions and not just “spot cleaned,” you need to call on a great rug cleaning service that invests time and training into their technicians in order to guarantee great results.
• Safety – Hiring professional rug cleaners to clean your Oriental rug is safer for your rug. If you clean your rug yourself, do you know what to do if the rug starts bleeding dye?  Highly trained rug cleaning experts do know how to handle this.  If you clean your Oriental rug yourself, you risk damaging it; if you call on a good rug cleaning company like RugPro, you can rest assured your rug will be cleaned well and without incident.
• Customized Cleaning – A great rug cleaning company values custom cleaning and will take the time to understand your rug’s makeup, history, problem areas, usage, etc., along with your desired results, and the technicians will then design and implement the best cleaning routine based on that information. As a result, your rug receives the best possible cleaning, you love the way it looks and feels afterward, and it’s ready to be enjoyed for time to come!
• Cost Effective – It may seem counterintuitive but calling on highly rated rug cleaning professionals can save you money. By the time you rent the cleaning equipment you need, figure out how to use it, and spend the day cleaning your rug, you will have spent much of your time, money, and energy that could have been spent doing something else, something that you love.  Trust your rug to a great rug cleaner, and then just relax.  Your rug will look great, and you won’t need to have worried about it.

There are many great Jacksonville rug cleaning companies, but RugPro is the trusted professional rug cleaner for homeowners throughout Atlantic Beach, Ponte Vedra Beach, Mandarin, Southside, Riverside, and the greater Jacksonville area.  We love what we do and it shows!  We have rave reviews and devoted customers, and we’d love to provide the same level of service to you and your rugs.