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/

Is Rug Washing Bad for a Rug

There is Rug Washing and then there is Rug Washing

Or Is Rug Washing Bad for a Rug

It is not unusual to hear some Oriental Rug dealers advise against washing a rug because “Rug Washing is bad for a Rug”. They will often say that rug Washing will shorten the life of a rug.

Obviously anyone who really understands Oriental Rugs knows that this advice is ludicrous. How can any intelligent person give such bad advice? Well if you understand where the idea comes from it is much easier to understand the mistake. 

Take a look at one of the popular old time books that talks about the dangers of rug washing:

From Home furnishing By George Leland Hunter

 Unfortunately, the price of small antiques is exceedingly high, while that of large antiques is prohibitive. This is the cause of the attempt to finish modern rugs in antique tones.

The first washing done in Constantinople was of the roughest kind. The rug was plastered with a mixture of mud, lime, and Sulfuric acid and then rolled up until the mordants did their work.

The desired effect was quickly gained and for a time some buyers were delighted at the number of large antiques on the market. But before long it was discovered that the process left to the rug only a few months of life, and many dealers had the doubtful pleasure of redeeming spoiled rugs.

This put a quietus on rug washing temporarily and would probably have ended it forever if the American demand had not continued insistent. American buyers came to Constantinople with instructions to purchase antiques at any cost, and, if necessary, to go into the interior—where most of them are about as helpless as a South Sea Islander on the Bowery—and this not through any fault of their own, but because the Oriental has ways of doing business that are distinctly un-American.

What part these American buyers took in putting rug washing on a proper basis is difficult to say. Several of those most actively concerned never mention washed rugs except in a whisper, while others say that they have merely followed the example of the pioneers.

Home furnishing: facts and figures about furniture, carpets and rugs, lamps and lighting fixtures, wall papers, window shades and draperies, tapestries, etc

By George Leland Hunter, John Lane Company, 1913

What we can see is that when the old timers spoke about Rug Washing they were really speaking about chemically antiquing oriental rugs with “mud, lime, and sulphuric acid”. Obviously this would seriously weaken a rug but today they repeat this old advice without understanding what the real issues are. A professional rug washer carefully tests a rug before applying special detergents that in no way harm a rug. In fact quite the opposite a proper cleaning can drastically increase the life, beauty, and utility of a fine hand-woven Oriental Rug. So the next time you hear some well meaning person say that rug washing is bad for a rug just realize that while they mean well they just don’t know what they are talking about.

Barry O’Connell

Professional Rug Cleaners for New York, New Jersey, Connecticut

Preserve Your Investment Contact Our Experts 1-877-784-3463

Museums, interior designers and private rug collectors trust the professional rug cleaners at Nazmiyal to handle regular cleanings, intensive stain removal procedures and all their antique rug care needs. Our team of rug cleaning experts has spent years developing techniques to clean and restore irreplaceable rugs and investment pieces. For the past 30 years Nazmiyal has been one of the best and most trusted professional carpet cleaning companies in New York City with a team specializing in antique rug care, vintage rug cleaning and semi-antique pieces. At Nazmiyal’s specially designed rug cleaning facilities, our expert conservators carefully evaluate each rug to determine the ideal cleaning method. Factors that affect how your rug will be cleaned include its size, geographic origin, construction techniques, fiber content, age and dyes. Once these parameters have been established, the professional rug cleaning process begins with dry dusting to physically remove dirt from deep within the rug’s structure. Depending on the fiber content and dye types, old rug cleaning procedures include a full immersion in an aqueous cleansing solution or an application of specially formulated dry cleaning solvents that gently remove dirt from the surface of the fiber without causing dye bleed, fading and other vintage rug cleaning problems. Our professional rug cleaners are well versed in antique rug care methods with techniques and cleaning formulas to handle vegetable dyes, synthetic colors and sensitive fibers, so darks remain dark and light colors remain pure and unaffected by color bleed and washout. Our professional rug cleaners handle each rug with care while adding experience, knowledge and attention to detail to produce the best possible results for each client. Prices for this professional antique rug cleaning service start at $3.50 per square foot. Convenient pickup and drop off service is available to many customers in New York City and the surrounding areas. If you live outside the NY, NJ, CT area, contact us about sending in your carpets for a professional rug cleaning. Contact Our Experts 1-877-784-3463 / Or Simply Email Us

Joe Hadeed 3 Million a year and growing fast

Joe Hadeed can differentiate the 800 regions of Hamadan rugs

Posted on Oct 26,2011

Photo by John Arundel Joe Hadeed runs the carpet cleaning business that his father founded Joe, Sr. founded.

By John Arundel

ALEXANDRIA, VA. - After feeling that his walks and outside playtime were not appropriately long enough for an English Labrador of his stature, my dog had expressed himself one too many times on the living room rug.

So there I sat recently in the lobby of Hadeed Oriental Rug Cleaning at 3206 Duke Street, with this cheap area rug we bought years ago at Lowe's.

I felt appropriately embarassed when a well-dressed chap in a German-made sports car came in toting this gorgeous Iranian rug, seemingly turning his nose up at me and my machine-made "Oriental rug," which was in fact probably mass-produced in some plant in Dalton, GA. I grabbed some old magazines, hoping to cover up the tags containing its origins

"This is an Imperial Farahan dating to the 1920s which I got years ago on a trip to Lebanon," the man pronounced regally, acting as if he were some Lepidopterist who had stumbled upon some rare and wondrous butterfly. "It's worth, like, $20,000 and I need it cleaned properly."

Joe Hadeed looked at the rug and politely identified the rug as something else. "What you have there, sir, is a Hamadan region rug from Iran," he said politely, as the man quickly deflated. "There are 800 different regions of Hamadan, and that looks like it's from the Malair city of Iran."

Photo by Connie Dale Mike Hadeed, Joe Hadeed and Chamber of Commerce President Tina Leone at the Chamber Awards. The Hadeeds won Alexandria business of the year.

Hadeed, 42, acknowledged that the rug was worth about $3,200 and that he would take care of it appropriately. Hearing this, I felt less deflated about having a rug from Lowe's.

Hey, it does the job.

The Hadeeds have been in the carpet business for nearly a century and know their stuff.

This led to the decision by members of the Alexandria Chamber of Commerce paid tribute to the success and community service of Hadeed Oriental Rug Cleaning with Alexandria's Best Business of the Year Award.

The Hadeeds have come a long way. Michael Hadeed Jr. set up shop here after a stint in the U.S. Army and a job learning the rug cleaning business at the old Hinkel Rug Cleaning Co. Their father, Michael Hadeed, Sr. arrived at Ellis Island in 1905 and fought for the United States Army in World War I. He had also been involved in the rug business, having immigrated from the Middle East.

"I learned the business from the bottom up, starting in the rug drying room," said Michael Hadeed, who turned 81 recently and lives in the Rose Hill area.

Another son, Michael M. Hadeed, was a criminal defense attorney in Springfield and now works at the business, and a sister, Mary, lives in Sterling. "I am proud of my son for carrying on the family tradition," Michael Hadeed said.

The senior Hadeed and his brother Teddy, who died in 1981, started the business on Mount Vernon Avenue in Del Ray on April 13, 1955 with his brother Teddy, at the location which is now Al's Steak House.

"It was a little mom and pop business until I bought it in 1990," said the younger Hadeed, who borrowed $300,000 from Burke & Herbert Bank and grew it into a bustling $3 million a year business with 32 employees. "I started here when I was 19 years old. My uncle Teddy taught me the business."

After college at Radford and a short stint selling cars at Sheehy Ford, Joe Hadeed bought the business from his dad and embarked on a massive expansion. "I was living at the Alexandria House and I noticed one day that the dry cleaners were picking up from the front desk clerk," he recalled. "That seemed to me a great way to expand the business."

Joe Hadeed moved the business to Duke Street and embarked on a massive expansion, adding trucks and advertising the service they provide. With a fleet of nine trucks doing pickups and deliveries, Hadeed cleans, repairs or restores the gamut, from Chinese rugs to hand hooked or hand woven rugs to fine Persian and Oriental rugs. Even my Lowe's special.

A trip to the back rooms of the facility revealed a hardy crew of workers proudly rebuilding tassels, patching, deodorizing, stitching, repairing and meticulously cleaning rugs to their former glory.

Recently they worked feverishly during a three-day period to clean a massive, $4 million Oriental rug from the George Washington Masonic Temple. Hadeed supervised the work himself, flanked by a crew of armed security guards. The average employee works about seven years for the Hadeeds, while several have been with them for 20 years or longer.

"Advertising in the local newspapers and selling Oriental rugs in a showroom next to the cleaning facility grew our business about ten-fold," he recalled. "Then we graduated to radio and now TV."

Hadeed hopes to expand the business so that he's cleaning rugs up and down the Mid-Atlantic, from Pennsylvania to North Carolina. He plans to expand his current facility from 8,500 square feet to a larger facility of 60,000 square feet, adding about 90 new employees if all goes right.

"This will be a $25 million business by the time we're done," he predicted. "I just love this business. I'm here six days a week."

Hadeed Oriental Rug Cleaning
3206 Duke Street
Alexandria, VA. 22314
(703) 241-1111