Independent certification
A WoolSafe Approved Service Provider, and what that actually certifies
The Carpet Guys are registered with the WoolSafe Organisation as an Approved Service Provider. That is a registration held by the company and it is renewed every year. This page explains what it took to hold it, what it means for a wool carpet or a hand-knotted rug in your house, and how to check the claim rather than take our word for it.
Three things are called WoolSafe, and they are not the same thing
This is where most confusion about wool cleaning starts, and it is worth being precise about, because the three marks certify three different subjects. A company can honestly hold one and not the others, and the difference matters when you are choosing who to let near an heirloom rug.
- WoolSafe Approved
Certifies a cleaning product
A product carrying this mark has been independently laboratory tested for use on wool: the pH of the solution in use, its effect on colourfastness and fibre strength, whether it rinses out cleanly, and whether what it leaves behind attracts soil. It is the mark you will find on a bottle, not on a company.
- WoolSafe Approved Fibre Care Specialist
Certifies an individual technician
Awarded to a technician who has completed the Fibre Care Specialist training course and passed the examination. It certifies a person, which is why a company can employ one without being registered itself.
- WoolSafe Approved Service Provider
Certifies a cleaning company
The company registration. It requires at least one qualified Fibre Care Specialist on the team, a documented record of professional carpet cleaning over a period of years, insurance, and a signed declaration naming the WoolSafe Approved products the company will use on wool. It is renewed annually and the company is listed on a public register anyone can search.
We hold all three. The chemistry we put on wool carries the product mark, our master technician holds the individual Fibre Care Specialist qualification, and the company itself is registered as an Approved Service Provider. Before the company registration was issued we said so on this website in exactly those terms, because claiming the company registration while holding only the first two would have been untrue.
What the registration required
The registration is not a subscription with a logo attached. These are the conditions, and the second one is the reason it is not available to a business in its first year.
- A technician who has completed the WoolSafe Fibre Care Specialist course and passed the examination.
- A documented record of professional carpet cleaning over a period of years, which is why registration is not open to a new business.
- Proof of insurance covering work carried out on a client's property.
- A signed declaration naming the WoolSafe Approved products the company undertakes to use on wool and wool-rich carpets and rugs.
- Annual renewal, so the registration reflects the company as it is now rather than as it was on the day it first qualified.
The annual renewal is the part worth dwelling on. A qualification you sat once and never revisited tells you what somebody knew on one particular day. A registration that lapses unless it is renewed tells you about the company as it is now, which is the question you are actually asking when you hand over a rug.
There are two of us in South Africa
WoolSafe registration is held by companies rather than by individuals, and two companies in South Africa hold it: RugMaster, and ourselves. Both are in Gauteng. That is not a claim about who cleans wool well, because plenty of good technicians have never applied, and it is not a permanent state of affairs, because the register changes. It is simply the current answer to a question a wool carpet owner is entitled to ask.
We would rather state that carefully than dress it up. It does not mean nobody else in the country can clean wool. It means that if you want the fibre judgement backed by an independent body rather than by the company making the claim, the register is where you look, and the list is currently short.
One piece of housekeeping, since this page is about checkable claims. Our own entry on the register is still being processed, so today a search of it returns RugMaster and not yet us. Our registration was approved in September 2026 and the public entry follows the paperwork rather than arriving with it. We would rather tell you that than have you search, not find us, and reasonably wonder.
Checked on 15 September 2026. Search the register yourself.
What it changes about the clean itself
Most wool damage is chemical, happens within minutes of the wrong product touching the fibre, and cannot be reversed by a second clean. A register exists because there is no way for a homeowner to tell, by looking at a van, whether the person about to wet an heirloom rug knows what wool does at pH 10.
Wool is a protein fibre wrapped in overlapping scales, and it is only comfortable in a narrow, near-neutral pH band of roughly 6.5 to 7.5. Push it alkaline and the scales open: the fibre felts, the pile roughens and the dye moves. Oxygen bleach, the active ingredient in most household oxy spot removers, attacks the protein directly and lightens the dye permanently, leaving a pale patch with a hard edge that no later clean can restore. Enzyme products formulated to digest protein soil do not distinguish between the protein in the stain and the protein in the carpet. Heat accelerates all three problems, which is one of the reasons we extract at normal temperature rather than using hot water or steam.
None of that is visible while it is happening. It shows up as the rug drying stiff, or a colour that has crept into the ivory border, and by then it is done. The practical effect of the registration is that the products we are permitted to use on wool have been laboratory tested against exactly those failure modes, and the technician choosing between them has been examined on why.
It sits alongside the rest of how we handle delicate work: wool, silk, viscose, cotton, kilim and hand-knotted rugs are washed by hand rather than machine washed, dye-fastness is tested before any moisture is applied, and drying is done flat under controlled conditions. Our 7-step process starts with fibre identification for the same reason.
How to check any cleaner, including us
A logo on a website is an image file. These four questions get you to something checkable, and they work on any company you are considering.
- Which mark is it? Ask whether the company itself is registered, or whether the mark being shown belongs to a product it buys. Both are legitimate, they just answer different questions.
- Find it on the register. The register is public and searchable by country. If a company is registered, it is listed.
- Ask what pH goes onto wool. A technician who works with wool routinely will answer with a number and a reason. It is the single most revealing question you can ask.
- Ask what happens if a dye moves. Anyone handling rugs long enough has had a dye test come back badly. What you want to hear is how they test before wetting, and what they do when the answer is no.
There is more on this in our guide to choosing a carpet cleaner, and on the chemistry itself in why wool needs wool-safe cleaning.
Common questions
- Is The Carpet Guys WoolSafe certified?
- Yes. The Carpet Guys are a WoolSafe Approved Service Provider, which is the WoolSafe Organisation’s registration for cleaning companies rather than its approval of a product. It covers the company, and it sits on top of two things we already had: a master technician qualified as a WoolSafe Approved Fibre Care Specialist, and WoolSafe Approved chemistry on every wool and wool-rich piece we clean. Our entry on the organisation’s public register of approved cleaners is being processed, and that register is the right place to check any cleaner’s claim, including ours.
- What is a WoolSafe Approved Service Provider?
- It is the WoolSafe Organisation's registration for cleaning companies, as distinct from its approval of cleaning products. To hold it, a company needs a technician who has completed the WoolSafe Fibre Care Specialist course and passed the examination, a documented record of professional carpet cleaning over a period of years, insurance covering work on a client's property, and a signed declaration naming the WoolSafe Approved products it will use on wool. It is renewed annually and every registered company appears on a public register that anyone can search by country.
- How many WoolSafe Approved Service Providers are there in South Africa?
- WoolSafe registration is held by companies rather than by individuals, and two companies in South Africa hold it: RugMaster, and ourselves. Both are in Gauteng. That is not a claim about who cleans wool well, because plenty of good technicians have never applied, and it is not a permanent state of affairs, because the register changes. It is simply the current answer to a question a wool carpet owner is entitled to ask. Our own entry on the register is still being processed, so today a search of it returns RugMaster and not yet us. The register is public and searchable by country at woolsafe.org, and it is the right place to check any cleaner, including us.
- Does using a WoolSafe Approved Service Provider guarantee a stain will come out?
- No, and any cleaner who tells you otherwise is overselling. The registration is about method and fibre safety rather than outcome. Sun fading, chemical discolouration, fibre oxidation, moth damage and physical wear are permanent regardless of who cleans the rug. What the registration does mean is that the person deciding how to clean your wool has been examined on how wool behaves, and that the chemistry going onto it has been independently tested for that fibre. We identify permanent damage before starting and put it in writing.
- How do I check whether a carpet cleaner is genuinely WoolSafe registered?
- Search the register on woolsafe.org rather than trusting a logo on a website, because a logo is an image file and anyone can upload one. The register lists registered companies by country and is the authoritative answer. It is also worth knowing which mark you are being shown: a product mark on a bottle certifies the chemical, an individual specialist certificate certifies one technician, and only the service provider registration certifies the company itself.
Wool carpet or a rug you care about?
Tell us the fibre, the size and roughly what has happened to it, and we will tell you what we would do and what it would cost. If something on it is permanent, you will hear that before we quote, not afterwards.