Oriental Rug Washing: Does Rug ID Matter

Oriental Rug Washing: Does Rug ID Matter
Recently on a message board one rug washer commented “Unless it is a cheap olefin rug”. It made me realize that when you say “Rug” I picture a hand-woven wool rug and base my answers on that. So unless you say tufted or machine made or silk or something I base my assumptions on that.
The problem is that I may recommend cleaning a rug very differently depending on what it is and how it is made. Olefin you can clean pretty much like wall to wall carpet. Tufted, gun tufted, machine tufted whatever you call it is fairly simple as long as the latex backing is good. You need to check that. With hand-woven rugs, is it going to bleed, is the foundation cotton, wool or silk. Is the pile wool, silk, silk highlights, viscose, or cotton? I was with Paul Iskyan at Rug Renovating last Sunday and he showed me a sample rug made with all the different fibers that one manufacturer (could have been Stark) uses in their rugs. I am not kidding they are making rugs from bananas, jute, hemp, silk, soy silk, aloe and many other fibers. I never even knew you could make rugs from bananas or aloe and I had to ask what soy silk was.
My point is that the more you know the easier it gets. Time spent on Rug ID can steer you away from costly mistakes and it can also help you get more business. If you want to cash in on the rug boom you at least want to know the basics. If you took your car to the garage for a tune-up and the mechanic didn’t know if your car was gas or diesel would you trust him. Heck, would you even leave your car there?
I will be teaching a course on Rug ID for the Great DC Rug Tour next February. We will be using the Herat Oriental Rug warehouse in Alexandria Va for the rug ID session. It will include all the main types of new older and Antique Oriental rugs plus examples of everything else we see on the market. We may not see banana rugs but will have over 10,000 examples to learn from. This course was held February of 2012

Urine Contamination: Send Vinegar back to the kitchen

The old fashioned treatment for urine contamination is to wash the rug in a vinegar bath and deodorize giving rug washers anywhere from limited to very good success. One refrain often heard on the discussion boards is who needs “expensive pretreatments” while vinegar is so cheap. That lead me to ask what does vinegar do and how good a treatment for urine contamination is it.

Common white vinegar is a great cheap and common source of Acetic acid. Vinegar is a 4 to 8% acetic acid solution with a pH of 2.4 to 3.5. It does have antimicrobial properties but in the concentrations common in rug washing it has very limited affect as a disinfectant. It also dissipates fairly rapidly in the wash bath which leads to problems but let us look at what vinegar does and doesn’t do.

The key is that the acid in vinegar increases substantivity in the wash bath for the wool fibers and their dyes. Substantivity is the attraction between the dye in the bath and the wool fibers. Dye has a negative charge and an acid increase the positive charge of the wool causing the dye to stay on the fiber. Remember playing with magnets as a child, the like ends; north to north repel each other but opposites north to south stick together. By making the wool a stronger positive it keeps the negatively charged dyes stuck to the wool. This is where the problem of vinegar comes in. Vinegar is referred to as a “soft acid” meaning that it is a plant acid and it dissipated in water. So while vinegar does a great job at the beginning of the wash bath it quickly releases and stops working. So at the end of the wash bath there is nothing to help holding the dye to the wool and this drastically increases the chance of dye instability. Maybe not in this wash cycle but perhaps in the next. So for that and a few other reasons chemists began to create the “expensive pretreatment” formulations.

So vinegar is acetic acid in primarily a water solution and water is less than an ideal solution to get the acid to the surface of the wool fiber. So most manufacturers use acetic acid primarily in alcohol which does a much better job of getting acid to fiber. They also increase the amount of acid in the solution. They cannot go too high since at about 25% the acid would destroy the cotton foundation. But if it were straight acetic acid in the solution we would still have the problem of the dissipation of the soft acid in the wash bath. So what they do is add a hard or mineral acid which does not dissipate. Then they add a surfactant to increase the effectiveness of the pretreatment. That is why you probably noticed that pretreatment is sudsy. This is the way that just about everyone makes their urine pretreatment. The exception is Chem Max which does all of this but adds a special deodorizer. Paul Lucas told me that for 22 years he made chemicals but never made urine pretreatment because he would just be copying everyone else. Then one day he came up with the idea of adding one more ingredient that has made a fantastic difference. The downside to Paul’s Urine Pretreatment is that his requires gloves, goggles, and vigorous flushing. The vigorous flushing is not a big deal since all the treatments involved a hard acid which has to be removed from the rug.

Keep in mind that vinegar has a limited antimicrobial capability the way we use it but the pretreatments have an effective antimicrobial affect because of the higher concentrations and the two acids. Urine is sanitary in a healthy animal when it is first sprayed and it is also acid. But it is rich in food for living organisms and can quickly foster a breeding ground for fungus, viruses, and other harmful microorganisms. It takes about 5 days for urine in a rug to shift from acid to alkaline and then over time the alkalinity can go as high as a pH of12.5. By that point the damage to the fibers and the health risk can be severe.

Today’s rug washer is faced with choices. They can continue to use vinegar which is not consistently substantive through the wash cycle, has limited penetration, and is not an effective antimicrobial agent. Or they can switch to urine pretreatment with consistent substantivity, better penetration to get the acid where it is needed and a safe sanitizing treatment of a rug. Today’s rug washer has to decide whether to save a few cents and take the risk of long term damage to the clients rug as well as long term risk to the health and well being of the client. For the sake of a dollar or two. Effective modern urine pretreatment can

Then there is the question of speed and effectiveness, on a badly urine contaminated rug it is not unusual to see Rug Washers I know wash a rug more than once to deal with urine odor. Does it make sense to wash a rug once and spend an extra $25 in chemicals or wash it two or 3 times for the same money and save $25. It really comes down to how busy you are, how much your time is worth and how important the end result is to you. What does it say about your reputation if the urine odor returns on humid days? Personally I would rather decrease total man hours and turn out a better profit. If you are at $3 per square foot and you have to wash it twice you are at $1.50 a square and at three times. Additionally many Rug Wasters are charging an additional dollar a square foot for urine treatment. At that point instead of a decrease to the profit margin it becomes a profit center.

There are many great prod ducts on the market today. Personally I would choose ChemMax Urine Pretreatment if I don’t mind the goggles and gloves otherwise I would use Bridgepoint’s TCU Neutralizer. For faster more effective cleaning with greater profit I think it is time to send vinegar back to the kitchen.

A major point that I forgot to mention about Bridgepoint’s TCU Neutralizer. I chose it because it includes solvents that can break down the Lipids in urine. Fats, Oils, Waxes, and even excess Vitamins can be a major problem in sever urine contamination. TCU has the power to break them up and make the job much easier. No matter how well TCU works I don’t expect to use it again. Watch for a special wool balanced replacement very soon.

Special news on the NYC Rug Tour Oct 15th

Jason Nazmiyal New York City's leading Antique Carpet dealer will be putting on a special presentation of Antique Oriental Rugs. The presentation will include the best of Antique Tabriz Rugs - Antique Oushak Rugs - Antique Sultanabad Rugs and Antique Khotan Rugs.

Carriage Trade Rug Washing: The Talk

Some terms in the world of Oriental Rugs words get used that are not common in every day speech or take on a special meaning in regards to rugs. Here are a few of my favorites;

Atelier; among rug washers there is a great debate about the place where you wash and repair your rugs. Do you call it a plant or a shop or do you go with the more female friendly Spa, or Salon. My dear friend Harold Keshishian referred to his work shop as his Atelier. An Atelier is the French word for workshop. Atelier has the connotation of a workshop of an artist or master craftsman. Under Harold the shop was very much an Atelier.

Extant: meaning complete. When a rug is as it was when cut from the loom it is considered extant. A rug is always worth more extant then if reduced.

Reduced: less than whole. With rugs it has the connotation of being almost extant or complete but missing something. If a rug is reduced at one end or reduced at both ends it means that there is loss to the pile often extending into the outer guard borders. If the rug is reduced on 4 sides or very far into the rug it is not reduced it is a Fragment.

Fragment; a part of a rug. It may have uneven borders and holes or it may be rectangular and in good shape except that it is reduced on all 4 sides. It should always be valused at a lower price than if it were extant but keep in mind some fragments can still command astronomical prices.

Polychrome; more than one color. Most oriental rugs are polychrome in that they are more than one color. One color is monochrome and more than one is polychrome. This usage is common in auction catalogue descriptions.

Accessioned: bought, acquired. Many great rug collectors don’t use buy or sell in regards to their rugs. Rugs are either accessioned (bought) or deaccessioned (sold). To use buy or sell would be too plebeian.

Acquired: I got this from Academy of Oriental Rugs Senior Fellow Stephen Dusty Roberts. Dusty makes the point of never asking his clients where they Bought their rug. He asks where they Acquired it. A Great point that will work amazingly well with your clients.

Is Sapphire Scientific in Play Again?

Is Sapphire Scientific in Play Again?
No sooner than it is announced that RPM bought Sapphire Scientific then I get the word that RPM is up for sale. RPM who earlier sold 3 brands including Bondo to 3M is now rumored to be ready to sell all of RPM to 3M. My source tells me that the “Due Diligence” paperwork is in process and if legal and financial depts clear the sale RPM will become part of 3M.
Hard to tell just what that means for Sapphire but my source tells me that 3M may sell Sapphire and Chemspec to SEM who is looking at entering the Carpet Cleaning arena. SEM is said to want to expand into carpet since they are a major player in automotive interihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifors especially auto carpet.
Add to this that some of the big boys took a look at MasterBlend but their shrinking slice is too small to attract any interest. At the same time another very small chemical manufacturer with truly innovative products may end up with a major distribution deal very soon. The cream rises to the top while the sludge falls to the bottom.
Best wishes,
Barry O’Connell

Rug Chick Lisa Wagner Announces New Training

Rug expert Lisa Wagner and fine fabric expert Jim Pemberton have collaborated on a new training program to develop the next generation of textile specialists in those respective fields.
This program was quietly announced to the readers of Lisa’s Rug Chick blog, and 40 companies were chosen from more than 125 applying companies from across the US, Canada, and UK vying for a spot in this first group of graduates.
“We have a serious deficit in specialists in the fields of rug and fine fabric care because the current training model in our industry is broken. This is our way of fixing this problem through a multi-faceted training process,” shared Jim.
The Textile Pro program is a three phase training process that expands over six months incorporating on-line basic textile training, in-person advanced training, as well as strategic marketing, busihttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifness development, and technical support.
Lisa added, “Becoming a rug pro is way beyond taking a sit-down class and passing a scantron test. It’s a combination of truly understanding this craft from the ground floor up, not just technically but also from a business standpoint. What good is getting a patch on your sleeve if it is not bringing jobs through the door? Our plan is to create not just another group of rug cleaners, but the next group of highly successful Textile Pros who are the best in their region.”
The next group of Textile Pro companies will be chosen as the first group finishes their curriculum in January 2012. For more information about the Textile Pro program, you can visit www.RugChick.com.

A Supercharged catalyst for creativity!

40 Words To Awaken The Entrepreneur Within by Dave DeBlander,
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A Supercharged catalyst for creativity! It is not about what Dave DeBlander says or how well he says it. This is about what it made me think. I started this book on a jet back from Las Vegas and within the first chapter I had to borrow a pen and start making notes of all the things I need to do, stop doing or fix. This book broke the damn of ideas and became a lens though which I could focus on my problems. If you are successful you need this book and if you are not there yet you really need this book.
Deblander is a succesful carpet cleaner who really speaks to us!
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