Rug Repair - Fido Pulls Yarn

A customer came in yesterday with a rug that had its yarn pulled out by her dog in multiple places. There were about 10 different spots on the rug that had long pieces of yarn pulled up onto the top of the rug pile. She hoped that we could do something to fix this problem... and she brought that hope to the right people.

Usually we see this kind of damage from cat owners but this dog decided to give it a try himself. While the damage looked bad we can actually thank her dog for not breaking the pieces that were pulled up. The repair was handled by one of our weavers, taking each knot that had been pulled up and pulling it through to the back and then securing the knot so it was in its original place.

The rug came out looking brand new; our customer was thrilled with the results. Our customer's pets sometimes make trouble with their rugs but it is often something that we have seen before and have the process to get the rug back into its original condition. If your pet has done some damage to your rug contact us so we can help you with your rug troubles!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)

Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)

www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com

www.RugIdea.com

Tel. 310-770-9085

Customer Rug Cleaning/Repair - Kashan Rug

Recently a customer came in with a beautiful Kashan rug to be cleaned/repaired. So first a little about Kashan rugs: A Kashan rug is a type of Persian rug from the area of Kashan. Kashan is a city in Isfahan Province in North Central Iran. There was production of Persian Carpet at Royal workshops in the 17th and early 18th century. Many authors attribute Persian Rugs and Carpet to Kashan in the 16th century particularly of the so-called small silk Kashan Persian Carpet group. The Persian Carpet workshops ceased production in about 1722 after the Afghan invasion.  Historically Kashan was a major center in the garment trade. In the late 19th century the market shifted and the local industry went from fine wool cloth to fine wool carpets. High quality wool was sourced from Sabzevar. Today some of the best Kashans are from Ardistan and excellent ones are also produced in Yazd and Kashmar in Khorasan.

Once we thoroughly inspected the rug we pointed out the damage that was slowly happening to the ends of the rug (see above pics). This "cavity" had grown over the last few years, according to the customer, and has started eating into the design of the rug. Rug Ideas to the rescue!

Just look at the difference securing the ends do; The "cavity" has been taken care of and is now completely secure. All of the stitching was done by hand by one of our master weavers and the end result looks fantastic. So not only did they leave with a completely deep cleaned, sanitized and deodorized rug but also had repair work done that will keep their rug in great shape for many more years to come!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)

Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Rug ID Rug Identification

Rug identification is very important if you want to clean and repair a rug. Besides, it creates trust and your client realizes that you know your job and you know what you're talking about. Imagine you take your car to a mechanic for an engine or break job but the poor guy does not know if your car is a Mercedes or a Toyota! Would you trust him to give him the job? Of course NOT. Same thing is true if someone wants to give us a rug for cleaning and repair. There are different ways by which we can identify rugs, their origins, constructions, age, value, etc. Rug ID/Identification will be one of our three important subjects we're going to teach in our Los Angeles Rug Tour and Workshop which will be held August 10-12, 2012.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Kurdish Rugs

We had a very interesting lecture on Kurdish rugs yesterday, Saturday organized by the Textile Museum Associates of Southern California TMA/SC here in Los Angeles. James D. Burns was the speaker of this well-attended morning event. He is the author of several books on rugs. His most recent book is Antique Rugs of Kurdistan.

The Kurdish people have been master weavers for centuries.  However, because they have been a minority culture spread across a wide range of political boundaries, rug scholars have paid little attention to their weavings as a comprehensive whole.  As a result, in most books about rug weaving published over the last 50 years, one can find Kurdish rugs in the chapters on Turkey, Persia, and the Caucuses, but rarely have they been discussed as a cohesive group.  In this lecture, which was illustrated entirely by rugs from Jim Burns’ collection, Jim discusses some of the design and structural features that have defined Kurdish weavings across many centuries, regions and styles. Which color combinations are almost exclusively used by Kurds?  What weaving techniques?  How did this cohesive tradition persist through centuries of migration, political oppression, and cultural intermingling? This important weaving tradition, which, until recently, has been little studied and poorly understood deserves more attention.

There was a show & tell section at the end of the program.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

The Dirtiest Rug This Year (so far...)

Today we completed a job on a circular Chinese rug picked up from one of our customers. When we picked up the rug it was completely infested with moth. They had eaten a significant portion of the rug's wool and the situation was looking dire. Notice the fringes; they had started disintegrating and would fall off the rug no matter how careful one was.

After cleaning the rug looked much better but also showed just how much wool the moths had eaten. Multiple places in the rug had chunks of wool eaten from it (as seen in the pictures below). The next step would be the start of the repair. We had one of our master weavers rejuvenate the rug by weaving in new pile to fix these unsitely holes.

After the reweaving the rug was in much better shape. The huge holes(some larger than the size of a hand)

were no longer there and the next steps could be taken in restoring the rug. So now we had a thoroughly deep cleaned rug and the wool pile was now restored but the fringes were tattered and were begging for some TLC.

Once again we had our master weaver work on the rug, this time refringing the entire piece with brand new fringes. It was all done by hand and put that final touch into the restoration of this rug. Take a look at some of the pictures below of the finished job. The rug went from shabby to chic with help from the Rug Ideas process.

This rug has been risen from the dead and our customer couldn't be happier. It was definitely the dirtiest rug we've received this year; and it was no match for the Rug Ideas touch. If you have a rug that is in a state of disrepair, don't think there is no hope. Come in and see us; we can tailor a process that can bring your rug back to greatness as well. Smiles all around for another great cleaning/repair job!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)

Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)

www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com

www.RugIdea.com

Tel. 310-770-9085

Customer Testimonials

Doing a great job on selling, cleaning & repairing rugs/carpets is our business at Rug Ideas. We love to see our customers faces when they see their rugs deep cleaned/sanitized/deordorized/repaired; and sometimes they are so happy they give us testimonials.

You can see a number of our customer testimonials on our website. We love when our customers come in to see their completed rug work, whether it be cleaning/repair or both, and are so happy they want to give a testimonial. We pride ourselves on our superior work and will continue to give our customers the best service available when it comes to the care of their rugs.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Unique Tapestry Cleaning and Repair

Today we had a customer with a unique job request; her mother made these beautiful three needlepoint tapestries back in the 50's, which are mounted to aging frames, and now the customer is trying to get them thoroughly cleaned so they can be reframed with glass fronts to display them. Couple of these needle points have cat scratches which should be restored and repaired.

At Rug Ideas we handle all types of cleaning, including tapestries. We carefully dismantled the tapestries from the frame, taking great care not to cause any damage to the half century old tapestry. The first layer was mounting screws holding the backing to the tapestry and frame; the 2nd layer was a multitude of nails holding just the tapestry to the frame.Great care needs to be taken during this process to avoid damage to the fragile needlepoint tapestry.

We will keep you updated on the progress of this project and we can't wait to see how they look after the cleaning process. We are all excited to see this project completed thoroughly and this adds another unique job to Rug Idea's belt!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Customer Shag Rug Cleaning

We recently wrote about the cleaning of shag rugs and our superior methods of cleaning them; well recently a customer came in with their shag rug that had some "pet problems". Their dog had used this rug as a bathroom more than a few times and they were ready to take action to clean the rug.

This shag rug had been peed and pooped on and was dirty and smelly. No problem for us at Rug Ideas as we've seen this before many times. We put the shag through our deep cleaning process and had great results! (see below)

Not only did the pet stains come out but a thick layer of dirt was removed from the Shag to reveal a shiny, full pile that was hiding underneath. The rug now looks fantastic and the owner can be rest assured that it is now deep cleaned, sanitized and deodorized.

If you have a shag rug (or any rug, for that matter) that has been vandalized by your pets come in and see us so we can help in the process of getting your rug back into clean, healthy shape!

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Rug Sales and Our Return Policy

We have a detailed sales and return policy on our website. It reads:

4- There is no return on machine-made area rugs, Shag rugs, Silk rugs, natural or artificial, and tapestries. There is only a three-day exchange with similar or higher priced items. The item should be in a good condition, without wear, without dirt, dust or any damage when returned.

5- There is no return on the items which are on sale, promotion, clearance or discounted items. There is no return or exchange on rug pads.

Last year on the Black Friday and the day after that, November 25, and 26, 2011 we had a huge 50% off tent sale. A customer came into our rug store and spent almost two hours and selected four area rugs out of maybe 50 rugs. She was not sure if these were the right types and color so she took pictures of all selected rugs and texted those pictures to her husband. They called back and forth for several times and finally agreed upon what they liked to buy. We applied the 50% discount and this lady paid by credit card and took the rugs.

After 40 days she called in and said she did not like the carpets and would like to return them. Our store manager said that we had no return on the items which were on sale with several signs posted at our store mentioning: ALL SALES ARE FINAL. She said I will return them. As a courtesy, our store manager offered her to exchange the rugs and she said NO. I will return the carpets and will get my money back. She sounded very confident that she would return the carpets!

Last week, we received a note from Visa Credit Card that they had taken money out of our bank account and had credited that customer. It was frustrating. Our store manager and his assistant  called Visa and then spent a whole afternoon writing the story and what had gone between them and the client. They also took several pictures of the ALL SALES ARE FINAL signs at our store and e-mailed the file and mailed the documents and the pictures to Visa Credit Card company.

In a few days, we received a letter from the Visa mentioning that they had credited our bank account. They were convinced that the customer's claim was baseless and invalid. Our store manager and his assistant were so happy to see justice done.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

Rug Cleaning and Stain Removal

When serious stains happen to one's rug some customers take the cleaning/stain removal into their own hands, which sometimes leads to disastrous results. What might first seem like a good idea to save some money by cleaning the stains themselves often leads to in fact paying more to fix any new problems that occur when using over the counter cleaners/products. When that stain hits... call us first!

At Rug Ideas we know that every stain is different. Depending on whether wine was the culprit(or shoe polish, pet urine, pet poo, etc) the way to neutralize and fix the problem can be VERY different. Even the gender of the pet and dietary habits can make a big difference. We also take into consideration the type of material that stain has set on (wool, synthetic, silk, sheepskin) to make sure we take the appropriate professional cleaning to best get the stain neutralized and removed.

Many cleaners are often too harsh to use on rugs; what we often see is customers coming in saying they've tried to treat the stain themselves but the result is that the area being treated gets bleached or gets discolored in the process (The fix for this problem often involves spot dyeing, which is possible but can be a costlier process). We have many decades of experience working with all types of different rugs, and we can help you figure out what the the best method is to get your rug taken care of. So whether it was Fido using your rug as a bathroom, or a guest who spilled some wine at your latest get-together, we at Rug Ideas can step you through fixing the problem correctly.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085

A Busy Saturday at Our Rug Store

Yesterday was Saturday and we were at work from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm. Before and after work, we had appointments with two different customers to pick their rugs up, both in Beverly Hills which is 2 miles or 10 minutes drive from our rug gallery. One pick up was a 9' x 12' rug with pink nail polish on it. We have to do stain removal for this carpet. The other pick up was three needlepoint pieces which need cleaning and repair. They are damaged by the cats who jumped up and down and scratched these needlepoints.

At work, we were also busy with two different clients for appraisal. One of them wanted to sell a nice 7' x 10 hand knotted Persian Kashan rug and needed to know it's value. The other customer wanted to buy a 19th century French Tapestry and needed to authenticate it and know the price of it. We were also busy with selling a couple of small rugs.

My younger son Kash who is our store manager helped me at work and with the pick ups.

Dr. Khosrow Sobhe (Dr. Kay)
Certified Rug Specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
www.RugIdea.com
Tel. 310-770-9085