Repairing Oriental Rugs

Repairs to Rug Corners and Worn areas on a Fine Rug

Caring for your Carpet & Rugs
Damage the corners of a rug or carpet is one of the most common areas of rug damage. The corners of the a rug are the most easily worn and they are vulnerable to damage, corners can curl or become torn and often worn  It is possible to repair some types of rug corner damage and the corners can be reinforced to protect against future damage .The best way to minimise damage to a rugs corners is to rotate it every 6 months to spread the wear.

The repair may require removing the corners and this will shorten the rug and create new corners. This is a common type of repair in old rugs and after years of wear and tear  it is almost inevitable.   If it is done carefully it may not impact the rugs appearance at all .

Oriental and Persian  and rugs with a thicker pile  wear downwards from the surface,   the pile gets lower as the rug becomes more worn until   the pile becomes so thin that warp and weft threads become exposed and  clearly visible . The worn areas are very visible because the underlying warp and weft threads are often not wool but cotton and are white or ivory coloured .  This is simply the effect of wear over the years and there is no way to mend it unless the rug can be rewoven which is often very expensive. The best way to minimise this is by rotating the rug often so that the wear is distributed evenly.

When  the pile of a rug  has worn down to the foundation , the repair then becomes prohibitively expensive, very large sections of wear simply cannot be repaired because the repair work can never match the original in texture and colour. To repair the rug perfectly is often more than the value of the rug, the repairs to very large areas of worn rug involve tying wool fibres to the foundation of the rug and these knots cannot be tied as densely or as tightly as in the original so the repair work will be very visible which is not what most rug owners want.

Any repair on a very badly worn rug has to be carefully considered because it may be very expensive and the result may not be acceptable. The difference between the repair and the original areas of rug may simply be too great.

An alternative way to  repair  a thinning carpet is by redying the visible  white underlying weft and warp threads in the the rug to recreate the design so that the worn areas are not so noticeable. This repainting is a fast fix and it depends on the skill of the rug repairer as to how effective it is . If it is done carefully and sympathetically it is often a better alternative to throwing away the whole rug. The technician has to use good quality wool dye that will not transfer on to an underlying carpet and if the carpet is washed or wetted it may cause bleeding or fading of the painted areas.   Painting a rug should be the last option  and always examine an old or antique rug carefully for signs of repainting or very worn areas that perhaps cannot be repaired.