Oriental Rug Cleaning in East Village, NYC

The East Village is a great place to find an old rug. Vintage stores, street fairs and family hand-me-downs bring plenty of hand-knotted pieces into small walk-up apartments, where they warm up creaky floorboards and tie a room together.

Rugs like these are too delicate for a machine. Before washing, our team works out what the rug is made of and whether its colors will hold, and the wash itself is done by hand at our facility.

A rug from a flea market may have spent years in a damp basement or rolled in a closet. First we look it over: weak spots, moth trails, old patches, dry rot along the edges. You get an honest account of what we find before any water is used.

To test the dyes, a wet white cloth is pressed onto each color in turn. Reds and dark blues are the usual troublemakers. If something transfers, the wash is changed so that color stays put.

Washing is done slowly, by hand, followed by a long rinse and a flat dry. The fringe gets its own hand cleaning. Seen tiny cases or bare tracks in the pile? Ask for the moth treatment while it is with us.

Collection is free and fits a walk-up. The rug is rolled, wrapped and walked down the stairs, then brought up again in roughly a week.

Back home, keep it out of the direct afternoon sun that pours through a south-facing tenement window, turn it every few months, and run the vacuum with the brush roll off.

Old wood floors here are often uneven. A good pad stops the rug sliding and spreads the wear.

Not sure your find is hand-knotted? Flip a corner. If the pattern on the back is as sharp as the front, it probably is, and we will confirm when we collect it.

Machine-made rugs belong with our East Village area rug cleaning; the East Village page lists everything else. Rugs from just north of 14th Street go through our Gramercy Oriental rug service. A free pickup is one call away: 1-800-589-4364.