Area Rug Purchasing Tips

Weaves & Construction | Materials & Fibers | Fitting Your Rugs to Your Rooms | Placing Your Rug | Maintaining Care & Cleaning Your Rug

Rugs manufactured today employ six different types of weaves and construction techniques. The length of time and skill along with the degree of fineness to produce rugs will determine the rug price. The most expensive rugs are: antique and finely knotted new Oriental rugs. With very fine hand knotted &. antique rugs supply and demand factors are considered when determining their prices. The least expensive rugs are braided and synthetic machine made rugs that are made quickly and in bulk. In between the most and least expensive rugs are the flat-woven, machined rugs, tufted, and hooked rugs. Today we still have century’s old hand techniques and new modern techniques used in producing rugs from as many as 12 different countries worldwide. Rugs can be identified by their construction, type and their country of origin.

Use The Process Of Elimination When Shopping For Rugs

1. When you shop for rugs look only at rugs that come in the right size to fit your room dimensions since you will want to fit the room size with the right rug size.
2. Next look only at rugs that contain the right colors to go with the colors already established in your room.
3. Make sure you love the design and texture for your rooms personality.

Hand Knotted Oriental Rugs & Antique Rugs
These are produced by hand-tying thousands of individual knots with wool yarn in the form of symmetrical or asymmetrical knots. Rug knots composed of wool are encircled around two cotton warp threads on vertical hand looms then cut thereby to compose and make up the face pile. As natural vegetable dyed hand knotted rugs age their colors can become more beautiful and their value can increase. Interestingly the knots tighten naturally and this improves the tightness, durability and longevity of the textile. It is not uncommon for a hand knotted rug to last a persons lifetime. In most cases the higher the level of sophisicated design work and colors with accompanying fine knot count age the better and more valuable the rug is. Expect to see minor color abrash and small design variances on hand knotted rugs coming from the Near, Middle, and Far East countries. These minor indiscretions are not considered defects and can enhance the rugs character when applied in the right ratios and portions.

Flat Woven Rugs
are smooth surfaced horizontally made rugs currently produced in a few countries by both hand and machining looming. Flat woven rugs are correctly named for they contain no pile and are smooth surfaced. These rugs have no stand up vertical pile. They are made instead by shooting horizontal weft yarns across the loom that alternate between every warp thread. This construction is similar to a darned stitch. These rugs are reversible are casual and contemporary looking. These handsome rugs are especially popular in the southern states in America.

Durries, kilims, soumaks, and braided rugs are all known as flat woven rugs. Navaho rugs are flat woven as are certain Middle Eastern and Russian antique kilims and soumaks. The Navaho’s, antique kilims and soumaks styles can be found more and more in private homes and in some specialty rug stores. Beware they can be older, rarer and thus more expensive.

Machined made, axminister and wilton rugs
These are machine made computer programmed rugs woven on jacquard and Wilton looms. They can be woven with both wool and synthetic face fibers. There are many advantages in power looming rugs. They are woven through the back, are uniform, straight and reproducible. They can also be made in rounds, squares and runners. They are very cost effective and very serviceable. Easy to order, consistence in quality. If anything the range of texture, designs, and colors can be a little limiting because they have similar yarn finishes and are somewhat limited to the range of colors they can use within the rug. You will recognize the brand names that are machine woven. A few are Karastan, Couristan, Sphinx, Nourison, 828 International and more.

Tufted Rugs
Construction is similar to a hooked rug but they are a high style up-grade rug with a velvet cut pile surface finish and very innovative designing and yarn colors. Because these rugs are not knotted or woven through the back they are easier to manufacture. They also lend themselves to different variety of surface pile textures available. Wool yarn is tufted through primary cotton back by machining or hand tufting tools. They are smoothly sheared creating a smooth and velvet like cut pile surface. Lastly these rugs also get a coating of latex on their back to anchor the tufts and a secondary backing is positioned to join the primary and secondary backings permanently together. India and China both produce most of the tufted rugs. Inspect these rugs prior for face yarn shedding and latex off-gassing.

Hooked Rugs
Hooked rug are mainly tufted in China and are made very similar in construction to that of tufted rugs. But here is the difference. Hooked rugs have loop pile surfaces instead of cut pile velvet surfaces thus hooked rugs create a knobby casual and more colonial look.

Lastly a light backing of latex glue is applied on their back to anchor the tufts and a light weight secondary backing can sometimes be applied to permanently join the two backings permanently together. Sometimes oval and round shapes are made.

Braided Rugs
Are Colonial styled in nature. Braided rugs are flat woven and reversible type rugs without any cut pile or nap surface. The yarns may be composed of many different fibers mainly wools and nylons. These are rope style rugs which are braided into a long spiral rope fashion and then sewn together to create a strong durable oval shaped rugs mainly.

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Consider where and how the rug will be used, how you want it to look and feel underfoot. You can then go about deciding what fibers and materials your new rug should be made of. Additionally consider your furniture placement and how long do you want your rug to last underfoot. Will it be used in light traffic or heavy traffic areas? This will largely determine what you end up selecting. The following will help you.

Wool
A strong and natural luxurious lanolin rich fiber is taken from fleece of highland sheep throughout Asia and Europe. It has natural elasticity, is crush-resilience, waterproof, resists static electricity, is flame resistance and the dye is drawn right into the heart of the fiber where it becomes permanent. Wool fiber is the only green and natural fiber that improves indoor air quality. Wool neutralizes and cleanses the air and does not remit the following contaminants: formaldehyde, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and continues to purify air for up to 30 days. Wool is an opaque fiber which hides dirt particles which would otherwise be more noticeable due to the effect of reflected light. Wool rug manufacturing allows for a myriad of colors and design combinations.

Silk
A natural fiber is taken from the larvae cocoons of silkworms in different countries.
Silk is a high luster fiber which has great sheen is soft and luxurious. It reflects a great degree of light from different angles. In special wool pile weavings silk can sometimes be used in highlighting the rugs floral design elements whereby bringing them to life. Although silk rugs wear well physically they normally are used for display purposes and more so in light traffic areas. They mainly appear in small rugs rather then large rugs. Because silk fibers are soft they are more fade prone, show footprints, and can stain and soil more easily. Use careful consideration when determining the traffic and location silk rugs are placed in.

Cotton
A natural fiber that is shiny and taken from the cotton plant Cotton takes many different dyestuffs well, is strong physically and lends itself well to many textures and constructions. Cotton also is used in the primary and secondary backings of tufted and hooked rugs. Cotton fibers are soft and will show footprints and can stain and soil easily so determining the location and traffic they are used in is important.

Grass Fibers
Are all natural plant fibers. They are strong fibers and lend themselves too many constructions, textures, looks and colors. They are environmentally friendly.

Some grass type fibers are Jute, Sisal, and Coir.

Synthetic
These are modern, manmade, smooth and shiny fibers created by extruding nylon, acrylic, polypropylene, and viscose into filament and then weaving or tufting rugs with them. The fibers can come in the form of many different yarn weights and finishes giving soft or knobby finishes and textures. These fibers wear well, are stain resistant, clean well and are cost effective to use in manufacturing. Polypropylene is most suited and used in the manufacturing of indoor outdoor rugs.

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You will want to carefully measure your rooms with a tape measure listing and recording the room sizes in importance. If you have a very usual room layout with walls and cabinets etc. protruding into the floor, make a sketch or diagram, record the measurements and bring it along with you. Don’t undersize your rug since you want your rug to create an island in effect to visually hold all the main furniture pieces together.

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Remember in a living, dining, or family room you want the rug to anchor the room being large enough so it can accommodate both front and back legs of all pieces of furniture. The rug needs to be large enough also to provide an even and smooth surface.

Living Rooms
normally you will place the rug so it length runs length-wise to that of the room. An exception is to counter turn a rug in a long room and still make it fit thus neutralizing the room’s length. If your rug has a center medallion it will then be primary focal point which will draw your eye in the room. Add accent size area rugs in 3x5, 4x6, 5x8, and even in 6x9 sizes to create and stir interest in your room. An example of an accent rug would be placing one in a bay window.

Dining Rooms
rug sizes should be purchased large enough so when you push your dining room chairs back from the table their legs will stay on the rug and not fall off unto the floor.

Bedrooms
can accommodate a full size rug running perpendicular under the bed and covering both sides and also the foot of bed. Or you can use three smaller size rugs on the sides and at the end of bed.

Entrances
that are square or large size can accommodate a 6’ 8’ or 10’ round or square shapes.

Hallways
can be fitted with a runner that is 2.6 width and its length should end approx.12” from each adjoining wall.

Kitchens
can use runners 2.6 x 8, 10 or 12 lengths or 3’ x 5’ rectangular accent size rugs.

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Vacuum regularly
Catch sand and soil on your rugs surface before it becomes embedded in your rug. Vacuum a minimum of once a week preferably with a properly height set brush and beater bar type vacuum cleaner using at least three individual strokes over the same area. If you use a straight suction vacuum you will need to go much slower in vacuuming with more passes over a given area. Rotate your rug 180 degrees every 2 ½ years to distribute wear patterns and soiling.

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THE FOLLOWING STAINS SHOULD BE REMOVED ONLY BY A PROFESSIONAL. CALL US!

Lipstick - rouge - nail polish - rust - dried mustard - furniture stain - candle wax

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Repairs
Trim all protruding ends or tails flush even with the carpet pile or on fringe ends.

Make or call for professional repairs at the first sign of any fraying or unraveling on your rug. Check for short fringes or edge wear or when shortness of fringe is apparent. Consult skilled professionals for cuts, tears, and holes.

Seek Professional Cleaning and Inspection after 5 years time
Send your rug only to us for special immersion cleaning on both sides including fringes. Your rug will go through an 8 step wash process and we will rejuvenate, revive the wool. We also have a 6 step inspection when your rug comes in for any needed repairs or irregularities and will notify you of any damage or problems that you may have not noticed.

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Pads or Stabilizers
Use a ¼” Rubberized Nylon non-skid on all hard surface floors for safety comfort Use a ¼” stabilizer over carpeting if your rug wrinkles, walks, or lays crooked.

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