Rug Cleaning, Repair & Restoration in London

No. We collect across London and the Hertfordshire borders ourselves, and rugs come to us by courier from a good deal further out, which is a large part of what the workshop does. Specialist rug washing is thin on the ground outside the cities, so it is common for the nearest place that will properly wash a wool or silk rug to be nowhere near the rug. Send us photographs and the measurements and we will quote before anything moves.

Because on the floor we can only clean the top of it. The water has to stop well short of soaking through, or it goes into your floorboards, so the grit at the base of the pile stays exactly where it is. That grit is also what wears a rug out, because it cuts the fibres every time someone walks across it. In the workshop the rug can be dusted first and then washed and rinsed all the way through, which is a different job rather than a better version of the same one.

Usually a week to ten days from collection. Wool takes longer to dry than synthetic, silk longer again, and we would rather it dried flat and properly than came back to you quickly and slightly damp. If a repair is involved it depends on the repair. You will get a firm date before we take it.

Yes, and fringes are the single most common repair we do, because they take the wear long before the rug itself does. Depending on the piece and what you want to spend, a fringe can be secured and reattached, replaced entirely with a new one, or removed and the end bound so it stops fraying and does not have fringes at all. On a machine-made rug rebinding is often the sensible answer. On a hand-knotted piece it usually is not, and we will say so.

Often yes, and sooner is much cheaper than later. Moth larvae eat the pile down to the foundation in patches, and while that is still small it can be rewoven or patched so you have to look for it. Once several patches join up you are into a major restoration and the maths changes, so it is worth getting looked at when you first notice bare patches rather than after a summer. We will tell you honestly when a rug is not worth the repair, which does happen.

Usually, yes, and it is a common reason people find us. Stiffness and a lingering smell almost always mean it was washed but never properly rinsed, so detergent is still sitting in the foundation, or it was not dried flat and fast enough and has gone sour. Both are fixable by washing it properly and rinsing it through, and it is worth doing because detergent left in a rug keeps attracting dirt and the rug re-soils much faster than it should.