Rug Cleaning in Johannesburg, with Collection and Delivery

Rug cleaning questions

How long will my rug be away for?

Most rugs are back with you in 1 to 2 working days, counted from the day we collect to the day we bring it back. Thick wool rugs hold more water, so they may take a little longer to dry. While your rug is with us it is checked, dusted to get the grit out, washed the right way for what it is made of, rinsed, dried flat until it is dry right through, and checked again before it comes home. If you need your rug back by a certain day, tell us when you book and we will let you know honestly if we can make it.

Do you collect and deliver rugs?

Yes. We collect your rug from your home, clean it at our own rug facility in Gauteng and bring it back to you. Most rugs are back in 1 to 2 working days, and thick wool rugs may take a little longer to dry. The easiest way to start is to send us a photo of the rug on WhatsApp with its rough size, and we will give you a price.

What types of rugs do you clean?

All of them. Everyday synthetic rugs, shaggy and high-pile rugs, kids’ and pet rugs, cotton and flatweave rugs, kilims, jute and sisal rugs, and wool, silk, viscose and Persian rugs. We check what each rug is made of when we collect it, and that decides how it is washed.

Do you clean cheap or everyday rugs, or only expensive ones?

We clean every kind of rug, and most of the rugs we clean are everyday rugs from busy family homes: the lounge rug, the rug under the dining table, the kids’ play rug and the one the dog sleeps on. A hard-wearing synthetic rug gets a thorough machine wash that takes the grit, stains and smells out, and it is priced by size like every other rug. Send us a photo on WhatsApp and we will tell you what it costs.

Do you wash rugs by hand or by machine?

Both, and what the rug is made of decides which. Hard-wearing synthetic rugs (polypropylene, nylon, polyester) go through our rug-washing machine, because that gives them the deepest clean. Wool, silk, cotton, kilim and hand-knotted Persian rugs are washed by hand, because that is gentler, and viscose, art silk, sisal and jute are dry cleaned, because water is what damages them. Either way the rug is washed at our own facility and never sent to another company.

How long does a rug take to dry?

Fitted carpet is dry and ready to walk on in 2 to 6 hours. A washed rug is dried flat at our facility and checked until it is dry right through, not just dry on top. Most rugs are dry well within our 1 to 2 working day turnaround. A thick wool rug holds a lot more water, so it can take a little longer. Drying a rug properly is what stops colours running and keeps it lying flat. Drying happens at our facility, so there is nothing drying on your floor at home.

What does rug cleaning cost?

Rugs are priced by size, from R599 for a small rug up to 1m × 1m. Wool, silk, Persian and other delicate rugs are washed by hand and have their own size-based prices. Stain treatment, smell treatment and the final rinse are included, with no call-out fee. The full price list is on our pricing page, or send us a photo on WhatsApp for a quote.

Can you get pet urine out of a rug?

In most cases, yes. A rug is washed right through at our facility, which is the best way to get urine out, because the urine soaks into the backing and not just the top. Urine and smell treatment is included in the price. Very old stains can leave a mark even once the smell is gone, and we will tell you if we think that is likely before we start.

Where is my rug actually cleaned?

Every rug is cleaned at our own dedicated rug facility in Gauteng, never in your home and never at a third-party wash house. The facility is what makes the correct process possible, and it is equipped for it: dusting machines that vibrate dry soil out of the foundation before any water touches the rug, dedicated rug-washing machines for stable synthetics, a hand-washing area where delicate pieces are worked section by section, centrifuges that spin the bulk of the water back out after the rinse, and drying rooms where rugs are dried flat under controlled conditions and monitored until the foundation is dry through. A furnished room at home offers none of that, which is why a rug leaves the house to be cleaned. Most rugs are back in 1 to 2 working days.

Why can’t you give me an exact drying time?

No two rugs dry at the same rate, which is why a rug is monitored rather than given a fixed drying slot. The fibre matters most: wool holds a great deal of water before it even feels wet, while a synthetic pile sheds it quickly, and silk and viscose have to be dried at a pace of their own. After that it is pile density and thickness, the foundation material, since a cotton foundation stays damp long after the pile feels dry, the age and condition of the rug, because an older, looser foundation behaves differently to a tightly woven new one, how heavily soiled the rug was and therefore how much washing it needed, and the temperature and humidity on the day. Two rugs of the same size can be a day apart, which is why we dry to the foundation rather than to the clock.

Will the colours run when my rug is washed?

Not if it is done properly. Colours run when the wrong cleaning product or too much water is used, and it happens most on hand-dyed Persian and oriental rugs. We test each colour before any water or cleaning product touches the rug, and wash delicate rugs by hand with as little water as they need.

What can go wrong when a rug is cleaned?

Three things cause most of the damage. Too much water weakens the base of the rug and can shrink wool. Strong, harsh cleaning products make natural dyes run. And scrubbing against the direction of the pile leaves it fuzzy and out of shape. All three come from cleaning every rug the same way, which is why we check what each rug is made of first and wash it to suit.

Do you record my rug’s condition before you take it?

Yes. The same photographs settle the question a tag was really there to answer, which is what the rug looked like before anyone touched it. Existing damage is photographed at your home at the moment of collection: worn or missing fringe, moth damage, old pet staining, a previous dye bleed, a repair, a thin patch in the foundation. Those images are date-stamped in the picture itself and held for as long as the rug is with us and for 30 days after it is back with you, so if anything is queried there is a dated record rather than two recollections. It protects you as much as it protects us, and it is also how we can tell you before we start that a mark is pre-existing and permanent rather than discovering it together on delivery.

How do I know I will get my own rug back?

Loading is treated as its own step, because it is the last moment at which a mix-up is cheap to fix. Each rug is ticked onto the van against its own photograph, the picture on the screen held up against the rug in the loader's hands, and the van cannot be signed as loaded until every rug on the job has been matched that way. A job cannot be marked delivered unless it was properly loaded in the first place. It is a plain check, and it is the reason rugs do not arrive at the wrong address. Every rug is photographed at collection, and those photographs are what it is checked against, not a label.

Do you dry clean rugs?

Yes. We are rug dry cleaners as well as rug washers, and our rug facility includes a dedicated dry cleaning area for delicate pieces. Dry cleaning a rug means cleaning it with controlled low moisture or a solvent carrier rather than immersing it, and it is the correct method for a specific set of fibres, the ones that water itself damages. On those pieces the rug is cleaned dry, dried fast under managed airflow, and never put through a wash. Which method a rug gets is decided by fibre identification and dye testing at intake, and we tell you which yours is before any work starts. The fibres that call for it are: Viscose and everything sold as art silk, bamboo silk, banana silk or rayon; sisal, jute, seagrass and coir; antique and naturally dyed rugs whose colours fail a colourfastness test; hand-tufted rugs whose latex backing has begun to break down; and any rug already showing browning or previous dye bleed. Wool, cotton, kilim, hand-knotted and synthetic rugs are not dry cleaned, because the dirt in those rugs is dry grit packed into the base, and that only comes out by dusting and washing.

How do you keep track of my rug, and will anything be attached to it?

Nothing is attached to it. No staples, no pins, no tags, no tape and nothing written on the back. Every rug that comes to us is tracked on P.A.R.T.S., the Photographic Area Rug Tracking System, which is software we wrote ourselves for our own plant floor. Your rug is photographed at collection and that photograph is its identification for the whole time it is with us, so nothing is stapled, pinned, taped or sewn to it and nothing is written on its backing. Its size, shape, fibre and colours are recorded at intake, it is given a job number that ties it to your paperwork, and every stage it passes through is ticked off with a timestamp and the name of the technician who did it. Before a rug is loaded for delivery it is checked against its own collection photographs, which is what makes certain the rug that comes back to you is yours.

What happens if my rug is not properly clean when you check it?

It goes back and is done again. No rug is marked ready by ticking a box. At the end of the process every rug goes through a formal quality check, and a check that can only be passed is not a check at all, so ours can be failed. It begins with a photograph: the rug has to be photographed again, finished and in good light, before anything can be signed off, which means somebody has to walk over and look at the rug rather than sign for it from across the room. The rug is then answered against the same written questions every time, in the same order, and a single no sends it back. A rug that fails its check does not get re-ticked, it gets re-done, and the failure stays on the rug's record permanently.

What do you do with the photographs you take of my rug and my home?

We hold your rug's photographs for as long as the rug is with us and for 30 days after it is back with you, which is long enough to answer any question about the condition it arrived in and the condition it left in. After that the photographs are deleted. What we keep is the plain written record: that we cleaned your rug, when, its size and fibre, and any damage noted at collection, because that is what answers a question asked years later. Photographs taken inside your home are not kept indefinitely, and they are never shared with anyone. The photographs are only used to identify your rug while it is with us, to record what it looked like before we touched it, and to make sure it goes back to the right home.

Can you clean Persian and wool rugs?

Yes. Wool and Persian rugs need a gentler clean, so they are always washed by hand, with products made for wool, and the colours are tested before any water touches them. We are a WoolSafe Approved Service Provider, which means the WoolSafe Organisation has registered us to clean wool.

Can you clean silk and viscose (art-silk) rugs?

Yes, carefully. Viscose (also sold as art-silk, bamboo silk or banana silk) gets weak when wet and can mark easily, and natural silk does not like heat or strong cleaning products. Both are cleaned by hand with as little water as possible, and the colours are tested first. We look at every silk and viscose rug before we quote, and if a mark cannot be safely removed we tell you before we start, not after.

Do you clean rugs for other cleaning companies?

We also take rug work from other cleaning companies. If you clean carpets and would rather not take on a viscose, silk, antique or hand-knotted rug yourself, we will clean it at our own facility, dry or washed depending on what the fibre calls for, and it never goes anywhere else. Send us photographs of the front, the back and a corner and we will tell you what the piece needs before it is collected. Rugs are cleaned at our own facility in Gauteng and are never passed on to anyone else.

How do I look after my rug between cleans?

Vacuum it every week on a medium setting, and turn it around every 6 to 12 months so it wears evenly. Blot spills straight away and do not rub. Most rugs only need a professional clean once a year, or more often if you have pets or small children.

Can you add stain protection to my rug?

Yes. We offer MasterGuard stain protection as an optional extra, put on straight after the clean. Protecting a rug costs the same as cleaning it. It makes spills bead on top instead of soaking in, helps the rug stay clean for longer and slows sun fading, without changing the colour or feel. It is safe for pets and children once dry. Tick it on the quote form or mention it when you book.

Looking for carpet cleaning instead? See our carpet cleaning service