Water and flood damaged rug restoration

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water-damaged-rugWith the severe flooding and rain we have experienced here in Brisbane recently I thought it would be a good idea to share with my readers how to properly handle water damaged rugs prior to cleaning.

Many times, rugs are permanently damaged not from an incident, but from improper handling. If you phone your Insurance company and they send out a Restoration Company or a Carpet Cleaner to look after your precious rugs, please make sure that they are skilled in the following procedures.

1. They need to extract as much water as possible on location
2. To transport the rug back to RugWash or to their facilities, ensure that they place plastic down on the ground and place the rug on top.
3. Roll the rug up in the plastic. The plastic keeps the rug from transferring dye onto itself and also protects the outside of the rug from getting dye stains from other wet rugs it may come in contact with in the vehicle.
4. If the Restoration Company or Carpet Cleaner do not have a rug cleaning plant or do not have access to one on a weekend, the most important thing to do is to get the rug dry as quickly as possible with water extraction. It is safest to dry the rug flat to prevent colour bleeding. Air movers should be placed underneath the rug. If the rain has stopped and the ground is dry, rugs can also be dried flat outside in the sun to hasten drying. I highly recommend facing the back of the rug into the sun. this can prevent any fading of the colours in the pile.

The longer rugs remain wet, the greater the chance of the dyes running. some rugs will bleed immediately; others can remain wet for hours and not bleed.

I trust this has been of some value to our readers. Always feel free to phone Stephen at RugWash on 3375 9896 to discuss any concerns you may have with your rugs.

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