Do You Have to Clean Rugs?

Do you have to clean rugs to be in the rug cleaning business? I mean it is kind of obvious isn’t it to make money in the rug cleaning business you need to clean rugs, right? Actually no, one of my clients is a large and successful rug cleaner in a major metropolitan area and he does not clean rugs at all. How is he successful if he doesn’t clean rugs at all?

To protect his privacy I am going to call my client Bob. It is not his real name but we don’t need to use his real name or city to look at how he succeeds.

Ten years ago Bob had a staff that ranged from 9 to 13 washers and repair people working in very expensive real estate in the heart of the rug district in one of America’s largest cities. Bob took a hard look at payroll costs, benefits, and the cyclical nature of the rug business and decided to fire everyone except his repair department manager and a porter. At that point his business became much more profitable and began to grow.
Bob took most of the repair and washing departments and converted it to additional retail rug space. To cover his ongoing business Bob helped his old employees go into business for themselves and then he became their best customer in their new business.
Bob works closely with his manager Eli to maintain strict quality control. Every rug is inspected when it comes in. Based on the type of rug Eli decides who to send it to. Bob tells me that depending on the type of rug the majority of rugs go to one of three washers. Not all washers are good on all types of rugs. Repair is an important profit center and the pre-inspection finds a steady stream of very profitable repair work. Many people assume that the big money in repair is in large reweaving jobs. Actually even though it is expensive it is time consuming and the small repairs are far more profitable. Rewrapping selvedges, securing ends, and fixing small slits generates far more revenue and is easy to sell in the pre-inspection stage. If a customer is having a rug washed they are usually open to small repairs if it will head off later more expensive work.
Rugs are washed before they are repaired. So they go out to a washer and then the rugs comeback and Eli inspects them. We all know that rugs after a wash may not be as good as we like. The question is who is going to make that discovery. I have been in rug shops where the rug is unrolled and both the customer and the store agree that it should be rewashed. By involving the customer in this it gives your business a black eye with the customer. What Bob has done is by using Eli to provide a vigorous post inspection most of these problems are detected before the customer sees them. Then once the rug is clean it is either returned to the customer or sent for repair.
This move has been in place and it is good for Bob’s business and it has been good for many of his former employees. Bob continues to grow his business and in good times and bad his costs keep pace with his business. Many of his former employees are still doing his work but rather than as employees they are now small business owners. Some of them have employees of their own and have built up their own clientele. Rather than worry about them as competition Bob can compete because of his superior quality control. Plus he has expanded his retail rug business by better utilizing his space and working capital. Bob is a more successful rug cleaner than ever without washing a single rug.

For our next RugLovers Tour

Link to the The Great Pittsburgh RugLovers Tour

O'Connell's Great DC RugLover Tour

February 10th to 12th, 2012

Friday Feb 10

• 10 am:  Herat Oriental @ 106 South Early Street Alexandria, Virginia
  Rug ID: Class will split out into appropriate skill levels.
  Special Seminar on how to do Rug ID on the telephone by Dusty Roberts
• Lunch
• 3:30 pm: ICR Certification Exam
• 4:30 pm: Break
• Dinner

Saturday Feb 11

• 10:am: Hadeed Carpet @ 3207 Duke Street, Alexandria, VA
  Biological Contamination Remediation
• Lunch
• 3:30 pm: ICR Certification Exam BCS 1

Sunday Feb 12

• 10:00 am:  Marketing with Dusty Roberts and Barry O’Connell
• Lunch
• 2:30 pm: Textile Museum

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COST
We want to encourage you to bring as many people from your firm to this event.

• 1st attendee; $600
• 2nd attendee; $300
• 3rd or more attendee; $150.

There are a very limited number of seats available for this event and you must reserve by Dec 31, 2011

Call Sue Krupp to reserve.
Chem Max Corporation
6479 Norton Center Dr
Norton Shores, MI 49441
231-798-7980

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When reserving a room please let them know the block of rooms is setup under the Rug Lovers Seminar.

1-703-836-4700
Sheraton Suites Old Town Alexandria
801 North Saint Asaph St
Alexandria VA 22314

We have reserved a small block of 15 rooms for this seminar, the dates are from Thursday 2/9/12 – Monday morning 2/13/12.

• The rate for these rooms will be $99.00 a night held with your personal credit card.  
• Room accommodations each person pays their own.
• Incidentals each pays their own.
• The rate is subject to applicable taxes, which is currently 11.5% room tax, and $1.00 per room night occupancy tax and is subject to change without notice.  
• Extra person charge over two guests per room is $20.00 per night per person.  
• All rates are net and non- commissionable.

The hotel offers shuttle service every 30 minutes from Reagan National Airport.

The standard cancellation policy if you need to cancel your room this needs to be done 72 hours prior to cutoff date of JANUARY 10, 2012.  

If you try to cancel after January 10, 2012 the charge on your credit card will be one nights stay plus tax.

Don’t Let Your Carpet Cleaner Clean Your Rugs

 Don’t ruin your fine hand-woven rugs by letting a carpet cleaner clean them in your home. Most hand-woven rugs are wool or silk on cotton and the chemicals used for carpet cleaning can cause irreparable damage. Just because you walk on rugs and wall to wall carpet don’t treat then the same.

Industry expert Stephen Dusty Roberts of RugBadger has three words to describing cleaning hand-woven rugs in the home, “LOSE, LOSE, Lose”. Wool and silk are protein based fibers and need a pH balanced cleaner that is neutral or slightly acidic. Wall to Wall carpet primarily uses manmade fibers such as nylon olefin, or polypropylene. These fibers take a very alkaline pH balance that has a pH of 9 to 13.5. When you us4e carpet shampoo with a pH above 7 the wool can lose the ability to hold its dyes. Once the pH oh the wool shifts to alkaline the dyes are no longer firmly bonded and can cut lose in water. This is called “Bleeding”. When a rug bleeds we often see it in darker dyes such as red or blue breaking loose in solution and red positing on lighter areas. Anyone who has ever washed a red t-shirt with white underwear only to find pink underwear can understand this.

Thirty or forty dollars worth of pink jockey shorts is bad but splotchy pink in the white areas of a fine hand-woven rug is a disaster.

Not all Area Rugs are wool or silk and bleeding is not the only danger. Many rugs are made of abaca (banana), coir (coconut), cotton, hemp, jute, linen as the pile and cotton or jute in the foundation and backing. Water heat and alkalinity can cause the fibers to turn brown. This is not just in the inexpensive rugs but is even more likely in the high end rugs which often use these and other exotic natural fibers. HWE or hot water extraction is one of the most common in-home carpet cleaning methods. The cleaning process is based on heat, water and highly alkaline chemicals which are exactly what is needed to permanently change the fibers and ruin your high fashion area rug.

One particular danger is that a rug can look fine after it is cleaned and then self destruct the next time it is cleaned no matter how it is cleaned. For that reason if a rug has been cleaned in the home it needs to be washed by an expert rug washer who can deal with the problems of bleeding or cellulosic browning if it occurs.
If you have wall to wall carpet you need an in-home carpet cleaner. If you have natural fiber area rugs and Oriental rugs you need a rug washer. To find a reputable qualified rug washer in your area please visit:

Guide to the Best Oriental Rug and Carpet Cleaners and Restorers

The New RugBadger Cub Contest Ends

Dusty Roberts announced that his new mini RugBadger has a new name. In a contest with hundreds of entries 30 people suggested the name RugBadger Cub. In a special Fly-Off to select the winner of a new RugBadger Cub Michael Smith was selected as the Grand Prize winner.

The RugBadger Cub was an outgrowth of input from industry leaders particularly the Rug Chick Lisa Wagner. Lisa felt strongly that there was a need for a smaller, lighter, quieter and less expensive RugBadger. To best meet the needs of Rug Washers Dusty listened to the advice and came up with the new machine. On Lisa’s advice plans to name the machine after Lisa were set aside opening the need for the naming contest.

Rumor has it that another company that considers RugBadger their R&D department is on the brink of inventing a compact rug duster. In some cases imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, other times it is just annoying.

For more on the RugBadger Cub see:

http://rugbadger.com/blog/news/rugbadger-mini-winner/