Tufted Rugs, Hand Tufted Rugs

Tufted Rugs, Hand-Tufted Rugs

Unlike a hand-knotted rug, a tufted rug is made without tying knots on vertical foundation threads called warps. Making a tufted rug takes a fraction of the time to make, and this reduces the cost and time of production. Therefore tufted rugs are cheaper than hand knotted rugs.

Some producers, importers, or dealers use the term "Hand Tufted" rugs to make it sound and look fancier and closer to handmade rugs. Clients who do not know the difference between hand made, and tufted rugs, really think hand tufted rugs are hand made or hand woven. While they are not.

The pile of tufted rugs are usually wool. These rugs are made with a tool called a "tufting gun." These guns can be hand mechanical or electrical guns. Loops of wool are pushed through a backing (also called primary backing) that has been imprinted with the overall design. When the rug maker is through with this process, another foundation, called a scrim is applied with latex glue. The quality of latex glues may be good or bad and this will affect the care and maintenance and durability of the tufted rugs. When this latex glue dries, the final protective cloth backing (also called secondary backing) is applied.

The last step is to shear the rug down so that all of the loops on the top of the rug are cut, and this will create the pile.

Depicting design on canvas, the primary backing

Weaving a hand-knotted rug requires skill and often a lot of time and craftsmanship to produce. The quality and value of a hand-knotted carpet is determined by the number of knots per square inch, material used, country of origin, size, age, provenance (who has owned the rug!), condition, etc.

Electric Tufting gun

An Indian weaver using a simple hand tufting gun

A Chinese weaver using an electric tufting gun

A good quality hand-knotted rug, can become a collector's item, and antique by the passage of time; of course this cannot be true for all types of hand knotted rugs, because there is a whole range from poorly made to high end ones. Hand-tufted rugs never quite achieve the heirloom status and they cannot become collectibles or antique.

When it comes to care and maintenance of rugs, it is possible to remove the pet urine stain and smell from a hand knotted or even area rug (machine made). However, due to the fabric backing and latex glue on the back of tufted rugs, it is almost impossible to remove the pet odor smell and stain 100% from such rugs.

Tufted rugs when new, look nice and beautiful, but by passage of time, vacuuming, and foot traffic, the latex glue disintegrates and powdered glue comes out of the rug. Cleaning of any kind, will not stop the white powder and disintegrating latex glue coming off the back of tufted rugs. Almost all types of hand knotted and machine made rugs can be wet washed and submerged. Due to the fabric and latex glue in the back, tufted rugs cannot be fully wet washed and cannot be submerged. And this eliminates the chance of complete pet odor removal as the smell bonds with the latex glue specially if cleaning is not done right after the pet accident happens. 

Buying a tufted rug is not bad, but at least we should know what we're buying and be aware of the care and maintenance limitations! It is cheaper than hand knotted rugs, but not easier to maintain and care for.

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

My Least Favorite Rugs

What is my least favorite Rug? It is not area rug which is also called machine made rug or even hard to clean shag or flokati rugs. It is rather tufted rugs. Why? Because when they're new, they look fine, but after a while, most of them look like a piece of felt with depressed pile. Many of them have cleaning issues. The backing and the backing border strips fell off and dismantle. They get wrinkles in many instances. Many of them smell bad because of the latex backing.

I prefer a medium quality area rug over a good tufted rug. Some dealers or manufacturers call them hand tufted rugs so the customers get the notion and feeling of owning a hand knotted rug. Not very much so.

Khosrow Sobhe
Certified Rug specialist (CRS)
www.LosAngelesRugCleaning.com
310-770-9085

The Carpet Industry. How Big Is It Here in the U.S.?

United States and the carpet industry

I was browsing the Internet and I found some interesting statistics that I would like to share with you:

* In 2005, Carpet shipments totaled more than 2 billion square yards or roughly 19 billion square feet. The total amount was almost $14 billion at the factory level.
* 45 percent of the world’s carpet is produced by the United States.
* 85 % of the U.S. carpet is supplied by factories located in Dalton, Georgia.

These were the statistics that the Carpet and Rug Institute has gathered for wall to wall carpeting. I could not find any reliable statistics on hand knotted rugs, but based on my other findings from here and there, the sales volume of hand knotted rugs including tufted and area rugs might amount to $1 billion per year.

I would love to see the information and statistics other experts and scholars have gathered.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.RugIdea.com
310-770-9085

Oriental Rugs Classic Traditional Designs Versus Modern Contemporary Designs

Today, I studied the statistics of the design of the rugs I sold in 2007. I did not have the data available based on the types of the rugs: area rugs (machine made), hand knotted or hand tufted rugs. But overall, 78% of the designs of the rugs we sold in 2007 were traditional designs compared with 22% modern.

By traditional design, I mean classic designs such as corner medallion, central medallion, overall, vase, hunting, boteh/paisley, and many other designs which have been in existence for generations, with rich histories behind them. By modern designs, I mean non-traditional, non-classic designs and those which have come into existence only recently . In many cases , younger customers bought traditional designs, but older customers did not usually buy modern designs.

Khosrow Sobhe
www.rugidea.com
310-770-9085