Cleaning old (and threadbare) oriental rugs

greenbee

Thanks Thriftwizard. I'm pretty sure this one isn't worth much. I have another that belonged to my great grandparents (they brought it back from India after they'd been posted there) which may well be worth more, despite the marks from generations of furniture, sparks from cinders, kids/animals weeing on it and being pretty worn in places. That was cleaned properly before it was given to me, but the rest are probably not worth much. However, I'll let you know if I'm getting rid of any... I'm not that far from you and am down your way every so often to see family

greenbee

I've finally got round to cleaning this carpet as the schedule and order of renovations was changed (thankfullly). The builders tidied and 'cleaned' the garage on Thursday. I tidied it some more yesterday, rehoovered and then spent an hour mopping the rubber mats that are on the floor in there (previous residents had a furniture restoration business in there). Then put down the old carpet from another room, hoovered that and laid the rug on top.

I can unroll about 2/3 of the rug in the space I have available. Having taken thriftwizard's advice on board I did invest in the little green last year (and my brother has been using it quite a bit on normal carpet!).

I did two patch tests last night - one with the cleaning solution, one just with water. And can confirm that the carpet is FILTHY. Good news is that this morning it is looking a lot better, and the cleaning solution gets a better result than just water (not a surprise).

This morning I have cleaned about 1/3 with warm water, and I'm going to do the other third with just water as well. Then I'll clean it with the cleaning solution and keep rinsing till it comes up clean (or as clean as I can get it by the time I need to give up today...). Tomorrow I'll do the rest...

Hopefully it will be warm enough for it to dry.

I'm not using a scrubbing brush as I think it is too fragile, but hopefully it will at least be clean enough to see me through a few more years. I mentioned to my dad how dirty the water coming out of it was, and he informed me that it hasn't been cleaned for at least 20 years, and probably wasn't clean when their friends gave it to them. Hoovering is clearly not enough... so I'm feeling even more justified in my preference for hard floors!

Seakay

well done you! Do let us all know how it comes out in the end

greenbee

I'm not sure I'll make it to the end... I washed it and rinsed twice and am now going over it without water to 'dry' it a bit. Water is still coming out filthy. ALthough possibly a little less filthy than on the first time round!

The machine is certainly earning it's keep. The bits of the rug that were previously mostly grey now have some colour (albeit faded) and I can see the pattern. It's just a pity I don't have a couple more days to spend on it, as a few more rinses would probably make all the difference. The thought that I still have about 1/3 left to do isn't cheering me up either. I expect I'll sleep well tonight!

(I haven't spent ALL day doing this... but probably about 4 hours!