How To Maintain Your Oriental Rugs

• Vacuum Oriental rugs regularly, always following the nap.
• Rotate your Oriental rugs every 6-8 months to ensure even wear.
• Professional cleaning is recommended every 3-5 years depending on traffic.
• Blot spills immediately with clean absorbent cloth or paper towel.
• Spot clean with a mild detergent or distilled vinegar solution.

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On the average of every four or five years, but the real answer is that you should wash them when they are dirty and not before or long after. You can tell whether your rug is dirty by testing it with a white, wet cloth. Rub the rug's pile vigorously with the wet cloth and check to see how much dirt is transferred to the cloth. Don't worry about a little discoloration; any rug has a little dust on its surface. A dirty rug will transfer a lot of dirt to a cloth, and the results of your testing will be unambiguous. Dirty rugs may not look especially dirty, but typically they look flat and lusterless.

Rugs gradually wear as they are walked on. That can't be avoided, but you can lesson the problem by turning or rotating your rugs from time to time so they don't always get walked on in the same places. Walking on a dirty rug shortens its life prematurely. Dirt and sand fragments act like sandpaper as you grind them into the surface of your rug.

Ends and edges are often the first parts of rugs that need attention as rugs age. It is critical to maintain them in good condition because problems with them soon lead to more expensive problems with the body of a rug. Typically, a rug's fringe begins to wear away noticeably within 10 or 15 years from the time the rug was new and is nearly gone when the rug is 40-60 years old. Fringe can be replaced, though, often, new fringe on an old rug looks inappropriate. Many people who are accustomed to old rugs simply get used to seeing eroded fringes and they don't worry about it. Fringe is not structural, and your rug will suffer no harm from its absence. On the other hand, worn fringe is a sign that the end finish of the rug may be threatened by wear. Rugs are bound on their ends in a number of different ways, but each is designed to keep the foundation threads intact. When the foundation is frayed, a rug begins to lose its pile, and that requires expensive work. So, typically, a rug needs "end stopping" to secure the end from raveling, usually after something like 30 years.

Likewise, the edges of a rug, called selvages, need to be maintained. Selvages are wrapped with wool or cotton to protect the edges of the rug, and eventually this wrapping wears out and has to be replaced. This is routine work and not terribly expensive. To maintain a rug's value it is important that a new selvage looks just like the old selvage: the same color, material and so on. Resist the temptation to replace the original selvage with a cheap, machine binding. A variety of other problems that need repair may beset a rug during its lifetime: holes, wrinkle lines, curling edges, visible wear, moth damage and so on. There is nothing that cannot be fixed.