[ollie]

Hi all,
I cleaned a wool rug at home for a customer 3 days ago im returning it tonight.
It was very dirty and matted with dog hair etc. My problem is after bringing it out for another last minute vacuum before i return it later I have noticed a dark ruby red part of the pattern that i dont remember seeing on survey or as i was cleaning or drying!? It looks to perfect to be damage..the way it follows the pattern etc..i cleaned the rug with prespray gold, liquid woolsafe and a final rinse with fibre and fabric rinse.. i cant believe it wasnt there i started?! Any suggestions? I will attempt to upload a pic.
Thanks in advance
Ollie

[Fresh Clean]

looks like a manufactures fault with regard to the dye set, it looks to set in the pattern to have been caused by being cleaned with the wool safe & rinsed.the years of being dirty has hidden the brightness of the colour, seen a similar prob with a carpet that i cleaned, it was a bright purple nylon, it had lost colour in certain areas, informed custy that it was a manufactures fault, the custy got a new carpet fitted from the carpet supplier & was very grateful to me, cause she was gonna live with it. i'd dig me heels in though if the custy is after a new rug. freshi 

[ColinFitch]

Ollie,

If possible check rear of rug for dark ruby red colour.

If visible, its part of the design.

After all it was very dirty when surveyed,now clean more visible.

[*paul_moss]

Never come across this before ( you would have def noticed that)
Put a post on Dusty's forum in USA , you should get a answer there.

[ollie]

thanks guys, ive taken it back and she didnt mention it, she even gave me a tip.. I really cant understand it.. im sure i would have seen it before..ive got pics of before i cleaned it but i cant make out that area very well. Oh well if she hasnt rang in a week im ok lol
ollie

[*paul_moss]

Ollie I would be more intereted in why. Try the States as I said earler to see if we can get an answer

[ollie]

whats the site called paul..have you got a link?
cheers

[*paul_moss]

Anything to do with rugs and this is your guy.

http://therughub.com/

[Fresh Clean]

ollie! i bet you feel a lot better after that!!  i thought you done a good clean on the rug!

[elliott cleaning]

Ollie

I came across exactly the same situation a few years ago. Did notice a variance in colour along one section of the rug & pointed it out to the customer. They agreed that it had always been like that.  Trouble is, that when you clean the thing you accentuate the colour difference. The one I had came from India & I showed it to a major importer of these rugs. He told me he had come across this occassionally & that it was a flaw in manufacture & they were usually sold as seconds

[lands]

absolutely Manfs problem. Cleaned some rugs bought from a goat herder in marakesh once and you only had to look at them hard and the colours started moving and I refuse to accept it han anything to do with the 3 tabs of LSD I had taken an hour earlier so I put some pink floyd on, had a conversation with a leprican that was sitting precariously on a very thin branch of a weeping willow in my garden and passed out.

[Kev Loomes]

At the end of the day you cant put colour into a rug - take it away maybe!! so its pretty obvious to me (as per other posts) that it was already there   This is what you need to explain to her Ollie if she asks.

Dont worry about it too much, you know whats true i.e. that you've done nothing wrong.

Pete

You crack me up & I dont even know you LOL!

[Stephen "Dusty" Roberts]

Ollie

Looks like a case of Abrash built into a machine made rug to make it look more "authentic"

First thing to do when you see this situation is to have a look at the backside of the rug and see if the back nodes of the Knots (weave) are this colour as well. This is why we always need pics taken of rugs on the rug hub, in a certain way to ID a rug properly and give good solid advise otherwize we are shooting in the dark.

Abrash;

Refers to the hue or color change found on many older rugs, particularly those woven by nomad tribes. Abrash also is indication of traditional materials and dyeing practices. The variations in color are usually the result of inconsistent dyeing of the wool, or through the introduction of a new wool batch while weaving the carpet.

If you are looking to know more about other rug terminology please look at:

http://www.oldcarpet.com/rug_glossary.htm

[ollie]

Thanks to you all.
Does anyone know of any courses run specifically for rugs and fine fabrics etc?
 ollie

[Fresh Clean]

ollie, alltec do a rug course. www.alltec.co.uk

[Stephen "Dusty" Roberts]

Ollie

Loads of very good rug care class's over on this side of the pond including some very advanced class's.

We have them all listed out on the calender on the rughub.  On top of that the most knowledgeable "guru's" frequent the rughub and are very happy to help.

http://www.therughub.com/cgi-bin/forum/Blah.pl?,b=

[Alan_Harrison]

It's clearly a manufacturing problem. From the pictures I would guess that this is a tufted Indian rug rather than a hand woven item. We always take before and after photos of every rug we clean. Some rugs are so dirty that problems like this only show after a thorough clean.
Another consideration is that rugs with colour faults like this are often painted to hide the problem. This is very common with hand knotted Ziegler rugs. Like this http://olneyrugs.com/rug.asp?id=516 If brown lines appear across the rug after you have cleaned it then this will be the answer. No use checking the back of the rug before you start to clean because that's painted as well.
 
You might wonder why the weavers don't take more care to use the same colour all throughout. Weavers hardly ever dye their own wool these days. It's bought from the nearest dye house. Sure enough they take care to choose matching shades at the time but slight differences in the ply of the wools from the same dye lot make a difference in the finished carpet. The first wool that goes into the hot dye will untwist more than the than wool added later as the dye cools. Try dipping some knitting wool into a glass of hot water to see the effect. The result is the dye being taken up by the wool at a different rate with each lot.

Another factor is the washing process after the rug is made. Often quite aggresive, these can wash colour out of the different dye batches at varying rates and the result is a distinct colour banding

Another problem is colour washing. You can read about it here http://olneyrugs.com/rug.asp?id=584

Al

[Shaun_Ashmore]

what do you tell the customer?

"it's a manufacturing fault Missus"

Shaun

[lands]

What else can you say Shaun. Obviously you back it up with the technical stuff but not more you can do is there?

[ollie]

Thanks all, I will check those altec courses out. I never really get any probs with carpets or suites its always rugs that get me in a nervous sweat!