Oriental rugs are some of the most beautiful in the world. For this reason, they are often a costly investment. Naturally, you'll want to take excellent care of your oriental rug, but there are a lot of mistakes that can damage an oriental rug. To learn more, keep reading.

1. Steam Cleaning

Steam cleaning is a great way to clean carpeted floors. It penetrates deep into the carpet to pull up the dirt and stains. However, oriental rugs are often made from delicate silk or wool, and neither material handles water, particularly hot water, well. Steam cleaning also uses chemicals that may be too harsh for the antique rug.

That being said, if you do spill something onto the carpet, it's fine to use a moist cloth and a small amount of mild shampoo to remove it. However, you do not want to use any bleach-based cleaners or dry cleaners. Bleach-based cleaners can fade the color of the fabric, but bleach also damages fabrics, which can lead to future damage. Dry cleaners use harsh chemicals to remove stains, which can damage the rug.

2. Over-Vacuuming

If possible, you should avoid vacuuming your oriental rug. Sweeping can get rid of debris, and occasional spot cleaning removes stains. Vacuums work by sucking up the debris, but a lot of that debris is trapped in the carpet or rug fibers. Therefore, the vacuum has a beater that helps knock up the trapped dirt.

Of course, not every floor is the same, so vacuums have various settings to raise or lower the vacuum. For example, most people vacuum hard floors on the lowest setting because it puts the vacuum closer to the ground and turns off the beater, which could scratch hard floors.

With carpets and rugs, having the vacuum too low can damage the rug because the beater aggravates more fibers than needed, which can lead to fraying and other damage. Therefore, it is incredibly important to only vacuum your antique rug when necessary and put it at the highest setting to keep the beater as far away as possible.

3. Ignoring Wear Patterns

If you've ever had carpet or a rug, you know that when you walk on the same spot repeatedly, that area wears down faster. The same problem arises with antique rugs, but you can avoid this problem in multiple ways. First, use a carpet pad to absorb some of the pressure from foot traffic and furniture. This will help protect the rug from being crushed between feet and hard flooring.

You should also rotate the carpet, so every area is getting equal wear and tear. In some cases, you may need to change the layout of your furniture to better change the layout of the rug. Speaking of furniture, keeping furniture on the same spot for too long can cause pits in the rug and minor stretching.

4. Placing It Near Windows

When placing your antique rug, be mindful of the location of windows. Windows let in a lot of natural light, but that means they let in a lot of UV light. UV light is what causes skin cancer, but it's also damaging to materials. When exposed to UV light, nearly every material slowly fades in color. In some cases, only part of the rug is affected, leaving it half faded and half normal.

It's best to avoid placing your oriental rug near a window unless the window's curtains are always closed, or you have UV blocking windows or window clings. These let in visible natural light while blocking out harmful invisible UV light.

Oriental rugs are some of the most beautiful in the world, but they can also be expensive, so you must care for them properly. Many people make damaging mistakes when cleaning their antique rug. If you want great results without damage, contact an oriental rug cleaning service in your area today.