Each rug is cleaned on your own floor, without leaving the house: £35 if it measures 3 square metres or less, £51 above that. The cleaner checks the fibre and tests the dyes before any water goes on.
Nothing goes off to a workshop. The rug gets the portable hot water extraction machine used on fitted carpets, set up for its fibre, and it stays flat on your floor until it has dried.
Rug sizes and the two prices
Length times width, in metres, tells you which of the two prices applies. A 2 m by 1.5 m rug beside a bed or in front of a sofa comes to exactly 3 and takes the lower price. A hall runner 3 m long and 80 cm wide is 2.4 square metres, so it is the lower price too. A living-room rug of 2.4 m by 1.7 m works out at just over 4 and takes the higher one, as does anything that covers most of a room. For a round rug, multiply the width by itself and take off a fifth. One rug on its own falls below the £67 visit minimum, so most people add it to carpets or a sofa from the London price list.
Wool, cotton, jute, silk and viscose rugs
Wool is the most common rug fibre and responds well to a cooler rinse with a solution made for wool. Cotton flatweaves, dhurries and many kilims can shrink if soaked, and their dyes are often less stable, so they get a light rinse after a test. Jute, sisal and seagrass turn brown when wet and can stain from the back, so the cleaner uses as little water as possible and may advise against cleaning them at all. Silk and viscose are the most delicate. Viscose, sold as art silk or bamboo silk, loses its sheen, yellows and mats wherever water touches it, and real silk can bleed and distort. There is no dry method on offer, so a silk or viscose rug may be turned down on the call. Look for a label on the back before you ring.
Colour checks before the rug is cleaned
Hand-knotted rugs with deep reds, blues and black outlines were often dyed with colours that move when wet. Before cleaning, the cleaner presses a damp white cloth onto each colour in an out-of-the-way corner and checks it for dye. If nothing transfers, the clean goes ahead as normal. If a colour shows on the cloth, the cleaner explains the risk before going any further, and a rug whose dyes run may be left alone. Earlier home attempts matter as well: a rug that has had a shop-bought spot remover on it may already have a pale ring, and the clean can make that easier to see. Tell us about it when you book.
Fringes and edges
The fringe on most rugs is the end of the cotton threads the rug was woven on, so it is a different fibre from the pile. It greys and yellows with age, foot traffic and the vacuum cleaner chewing on it. The cleaner works the fringe by hand and combs it straight; it usually comes up paler, though an old fringe rarely goes white again. Torn or missing fringes are not repaired. Bound edges and the glued cloth backing of tufted rugs are kept as dry as possible, because soaking the glue can stiffen the backing or loosen it from the pile.
Rugs on wooden floors and rugs booked with carpets
A wet rug left on floorboards or engineered wood can mark the finish, and a red or navy rug can stain pale boards. Mention a wooden floor when you book so the cleaner can talk it through with you on the day. Keep a window open and leave furniture off the rug until it is dry right through, underside included. If the rug sits on fitted carpet, have both done on the same visit, since a clean rug on a dirty carpet picks up grime from below. Rug prices are simply added to the room prices on the fitted carpet cleaning page, and sofa cleaning in London lists the seat prices if the settee needs doing that day too.
Questions about rug cleaning
Does the rug leave the house?
No. Every rug is cleaned at home with a portable machine and stays in the house while it dries. That method suits most wool and synthetic rugs, and the steam cleaning page describes how it works.
Can pet urine be cleaned out of a rug?
Sometimes the mark lifts and sometimes it does not. Urine can change the dye for good, and on a wool rug it often soaks right through to the backing. The cleaner treats the area and gives you a realistic idea beforehand, but nobody can promise that a urine stain or its smell will go.
Will my rug shrink?
Wool and synthetic rugs cleaned this way rarely change size. Cotton, jute and some kilims can shrink if they get too wet, which is why they get a lighter rinse and are left to dry flat.