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Writer's pictureFrank Shaia

Oriental Rugs and our pets

As much as we all love our pets, they are one of the biggest dangers to our rugs. Pet accidents can quickly become major problems and ruin rugs through staining and odor. If your pet has an accident on your rug you need to act quickly to treat the area. Often times once a pet accident dries into the rug, the staining is permanent so act fast! Here are some steps to quickly clean up the mess and avoid permanent damage:

  1. Blot, or scoop as much of the accident up as you can.

  2. Keep the area damp with clean water and continue to blot. (Often times as long as the area stays wet the stain can be completely removed by simply blotting until it is gone).

  3. If blotting does not fully remove the stain, use a little dish soap mixed in water and lightly apply to the area, then continue to dampen and blot

  4. Get the rug to a professional as quickly as possible so they can remove any additional pet problems that may have soaked into the foundation



More often than not, your loving pet will have an accident without telling anyone and it may be a few hours, or days until you notice. In this situation call a professional rug cleaner (I hear Shaia Oriental Rugs does a great job) and have them perform a urine removal process. While this will probably not remove all of the staining, it will remove flush the urine out of the rug so it is clean and sanitary.

Tip 4: Spills and stains of other kinds can be treated the same way as pet problems…act fast and follow the steps listed above. Once a stain or spill has a chance to dry into the rug, removal becomes much more difficult if not impossible. It is tempting to try one of these magic stain removers that are “guaranteed to remove everything” but be careful! Keep in mind an oriental rug is made much differently than machine-made rugs or carpets. Oriental rugs are often woven using natural dyes that may not be completely colorfast. They are also woven using living wool, or wool that still has natural oil (lanolin). Therefore, a lot of stain treatments that are advertised can be harmful to the dyes and wool in your rug. Oh yeah, avoid steam-cleaning or hot water as well…these processes will leach the oil out of the rug and can cause massive dye run and discoloration.

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