You can check a carpet cleaner’s WoolSafe or CleanSeal registration in about two minutes. Ask which mark they hold, ask for their membership number, then find the company on the WoolSafe Organisation’s public register and read its entry. A registered company passes all three checks without hesitation. A logo on a website or a van passes none of them on its own, because a logo is just an image that anyone can copy.
Here is each step in detail, using our own entry as the worked example.
Step 1: ask which mark it is
The WoolSafe Organisation issues marks for three different things, and all three look official. Before you check anything, find out which one you are being shown.
- A product mark (WoolSafe Approved or CleanSeal Approved) is the round mark printed on a bottle. It certifies the cleaning product, not the company using it. Anyone can buy approved products.
- A Fibre Care Specialist mark certifies one person, a technician who has completed the training and passed the examination.
- A Service Provider mark certifies the company: a qualified specialist on the team, years of professional experience, and a commitment to approved products. This is the one that is renewed every year and listed on the register.
All three are legitimate. A company using approved products, or employing a qualified technician, is doing something worthwhile. They are simply different claims from company registration, and it is fair to know which one you are being offered. Our guide to what WoolSafe is explains the marks in more depth.
Step 2: ask for the membership number
A registered company has a membership number, and it will give it to you straight away, often before you finish asking. It is printed on the company’s certificate along with the date the registration is valid until. If the answer is vague, or you are told the number is “being sorted out”, treat the claim as unconfirmed until you can see it.
Ours is SA126 002. It covers the company registration as a WoolSafe & CleanSeal Approved Service Provider and our master technician’s Fibre Care Specialist qualification, and it is valid until 31 May 2027.
What a real certificate shows
If a company offers to show you its certificate, it is worth knowing what should be on it. A WoolSafe Organisation certificate names the company, states what it is registered as (for example WoolSafe & CleanSeal Approved Service Provider), gives the membership number, is signed on behalf of the organisation and dated, and states the date it is valid until. The technician holds a separate certificate for the Fibre Care Specialist qualification.
Two details are worth a second look. The name on the certificate should be the business you are booking, not a related company or an individual. And the valid-until date should be in the future, because the registration is renewed every year. Ours was issued on 25 September 2026 and is valid until 31 May 2027.
Step 3: find the company on the register
The WoolSafe Organisation keeps a public register of approved cleaners, organised by country and then by city. You can search it on woolsafe.org without an account. For South Africa, the register lists its cleaners under the city where each company is based.
Each company has its own entry page. It shows the company name and address, the type of membership, the membership number, the named Fibre Care Specialist, and the services the company offers. You can see our entry here: The Carpet Guys, Johannesburg, WoolSafe Approved Service Provider, membership number SA126 002, with Keaton Oshry named as the Fibre Care Specialist.
Step 4: check that the details match
The last step is the one people skip. Compare what you found with what you were told.
- Is the company name on the register the company you are actually booking?
- Does the membership number match the one you were given?
- Is the mark on their website the one the register says they hold? A company using the Service Provider mark should appear as a Service Provider, not only as a user of approved products.
- Is the registration current? It is renewed every year, so ask for the valid-until date if it is not obvious.
If everything lines up, the claim is real. If something does not, it is usually an honest muddle between a product mark and a company registration rather than anything worse, but it is still worth knowing before someone treats your wool rug.
If a cleaner is not registered
It does not make them bad at their job. Registration takes years of trading, an examination and an annual fee, and very few South African customers ask for it, so plenty of capable technicians have never applied. What the register gives you is an independent answer instead of a company’s own opinion of itself. Without one, ask the questions registration would have answered for you: what pH goes onto wool, whether every colour is dye-tested before any moisture is applied, and how a rug is dried. Our guide to why choose a WoolSafe approved cleaner covers when registration matters most and when it matters less.
The same check works for CleanSeal
CleanSeal is the WoolSafe Organisation’s standard for synthetic carpets and rugs, and it uses the same three marks and the same register. A company can hold WoolSafe, CleanSeal or both. We hold both, which is why our entry covers every kind of carpet and rug we clean. There is more in what CleanSeal is, and the full detail of our own registration is on our WoolSafe page.
Where people get caught out
Most confusion about WoolSafe claims is honest rather than deliberate, but it still leaves customers believing something that is not quite true. These are the usual ones.
- The product mark used as a company badge. The round WoolSafe Approved mark belongs on bottles. A company that buys approved products can say so, but the mark on its website does not make it a registered company.
- “WoolSafe trained” or “WoolSafe certified”. These phrases can mean anything from attending a course to holding the full registration. Ask which of the three marks it is, and for a membership number.
- A specialist who has moved on. Company registration depends on having a qualified Fibre Care Specialist on the team. If the person named on the entry has left, it is fair to ask who now holds the qualification.
- A lapsed registration. Registration is renewed every year. A certificate from a few years ago shows that a company qualified once, not that it still does.
What registration does and does not tell you
A current registration tells you that an independent body has examined the company’s technician on how fibres behave, confirmed years of professional experience, and holds the company to approved products on wool. That is a great deal more than a website can tell you on its own.
It does not guarantee a result. Sun fading, bleach marks, moth damage and worn pile are permanent whoever cleans the carpet, and a registered company should tell you about them before it starts rather than after. So even with a registered company, it is worth asking a few practical questions: what pH goes onto wool, whether every colour is tested before any moisture is applied, where a rug is washed, and how it is dried. A registered company answers all four easily, and you learn how they work. Our guide to choosing a carpet cleaner has the full list.
Common questions
How do I check if a carpet cleaner is WoolSafe approved?
Ask which WoolSafe mark they hold, ask for their membership number, and look the company up on the WoolSafe Organisation’s public register at woolsafe.org, which lists approved cleaners by country and city. Each company’s entry shows its name, membership type, membership number and named Fibre Care Specialist. If the details match what you were told, the registration is real.
What is a WoolSafe membership number?
It is the number the WoolSafe Organisation issues to a registered company. It appears on the company’s certificate, with the date the registration is valid until, and on the company’s entry on the public register. A registered company will give it to you on request. The Carpet Guys’ membership number is SA126 002.
Can a company use the WoolSafe logo without being registered?
A company that uses WoolSafe Approved products can truthfully say its chemistry is approved, and the round product mark belongs on those bottles. What it cannot truthfully claim is to be a WoolSafe Approved Service Provider, which is a company registration with its own mark and its own entry on the register. Checking the register is how you tell the two apart.
Is The Carpet Guys on the WoolSafe register?
Yes. The Carpet Guys are listed on the WoolSafe Organisation’s public register under Johannesburg as a WoolSafe Approved Service Provider, membership number SA126 002, and also hold the CleanSeal registration for synthetic fibres. Our master technician, Keaton Oshry, is named on the entry as the Fibre Care Specialist.
When you are ready, request a quote or see how we approach rug cleaning.