How to Handle A Spot Stain On Your Rug

You just purchased a beautiful oriental luxury rug from Apadana Fine Rugs, and you anxiously await the moment that you can roll it out. It’s the final component to complete your living room—the signature piece that shows off your unique and tasteful design sense, and the final element that ties your home’s entire look together.

Finally, your luxury rug is delivered to your door, and it’s just as beautiful as you imagined! You roll out the rug and tuck it beneath the legs of your couch, making sure it’s in the perfect position in your room. It took a while—but with this rug as the base component of your living room, your home’s look and feel is finally complete. No more shopping at interior design stores. All that’s left to do is enjoy your beautiful home.

You call your husband and kids into the room to check out the new rug, and they love it! Your husband doesn’t care much for interior design, but he’s still impressed with how cool the rug looks in the space. As for the kids, they’re ecstatic—they love to see something new, colorful, and cushy in the house, and they just can’t wait to play around on it. They start running around on the rug, chasing each other around the coffee table.

That’s when you realize your kids still have their shoes on, and they were playing in the mud right before they came inside. Eek! You shoo them out of the room and frantically inspect your rug for damage, and there it is: A soggy, muddy stain on the corner of your brand new luxury rug.

The next few moments are critical to the life and beauty of your rug. So what do you do? In this blog, we’ll help you navigate this tricky scenario with some things to keep in mind when a rug disaster strikes.

Checking the Material

This is the first and most critical step when it comes to properly removing stains from your rug. Rug materials react to cleaners, enzymes, and heat in different ways, so it’s important to figure out the material of the rug, and to check the back of the rug for a tag that provides cleaning instructions (usually only found on newer, non-antique rugs).

Most oriental fine rugs are made of wool, which means you’ll need to avoid heat (which shrinks the rug), strong cleaners (which can cause irreversible damage), and enzymes (which will literally digest the fibers of your rug). Baking soda is an excellent way to get rid of mild stains on a wool rug—just blot (not rub) the area with a towel to remove excess moisture and debris, sprinkle baking soda on the stain, wait 30 minutes to an hour, then carefully vacuum up the baking soda. Please note—this tactic only works for minor stains on wool rugs. If you have a heavy duty stain on your rug, or your rug is an antique, it might be best to take your rug to a professional cleaning service for the safest and most effective stain removal.

For silk rugs, don’t even touch the stain—silk is so sensitive that you’ll need a rug cleaning expert to handle the job.

Things to Keep in Mind

When it comes to rug cleaning, there are a number of cardinal rules to follow to avoid rug damage, regardless of the material.

1. Check the cleaning instructions first. As luxury rug experts, we cannot stress this enough. Even if you don’t learn exactly what to do to clean a stain, you’ll probably learn what not to do.

2. Use the lightest, most gentle cleaning method first. There’s no need to pull out the bazooka when the .22 will do. Start with the most gentle cleaning method and solution, and progress to heavier cleaning methods (or call a rug cleaning professional) if the stain persists.

3. Dab and blot, don’t scrub and rub. Scrubbing and rubbing the stain in your rug will only set the stain deeper into its fibers. Instead of rubbing the stain in, pull the stain out using a dabbing or blotting motion, and use a vacuum to remove loose debris from the area as it’s pulled from the rug fibers.

4. Take it slow. There’s no need to rush a spot stain removal. Use slow, deliberate cleaning motions when removing stains to avoid collateral rug damage. Gentle pressure is often all that’s needed to remove a mild stain on your rug, so don’t overdo it.

5. Know when to give up. If your cleaning methods aren’t removing a nasty stain, don’t increase the elbow grease—call a rug cleaning professional to get the job done right.

When in Doubt…

If you’re unsure of the material your rug is made out of, or the best ways to remove spots and stains from your rug, the best course of action is to call a rug cleaning professional. That’s where Apadana Fine Rugs can help. We offer an advanced five-step rug cleaning and restoration process that will ensure your rug looks its very best for years to come, which includes inspection, deep cleaning, restoration, and the option to add additional stain protection, fire protection, and allergy protection coatings for a rug that fits all of your needs. Don’t wait—request a rug cleaning today!