The Special Challenges for Coastal Home Owners of Owning an Oriental Rug
For people living in landlocked, inland regions of the country, a trip to the beach is something that happens just a couple of times a year, usually when they are on vacation miles away from their home and its furnishings. However, for those living in a state, like Rhode Island, that boasts miles and miles of gorgeous coastline filled with sandy beaches just a few minutes away from their front door it would be rather silly not to head to the beach on a regular basis.
A day at the beach is fun but it can also be pretty messy, especially if children are involved, and some of that mess, mainly in the form of sand, almost inevitably finds its way into your home. And while loose sand can be pretty easily brushed off hardwood and tiled surfaces, if it finds its way onto the home’s carpets and rugs then it can be much more of a problem.
Oriental Rugs and the Sand Challenge
Taking Oriental rugs as an example, sand presents several challenges that common household dust and dirt particles do not. Firstly, sand particles are very, very fine. This means that they are especially easy to tread deep into the rug’s pile quite by accident and, if left alone the particles will sink down there by themselves anyway. Once there, as sand is comprised of naturally slightly sticky, abrasive shell materials it can potentially do serious damage to the fibers of the rug, damaging its structure for good.
Removing Sand from an Oriental Rug
If you spot sand on your Oriental rug right away the obvious and natural reaction is to grab the vacuum. This is a great idea but you should proceed with a little caution. If the sandy spot is small (footprint sized) then using the nozzle attachment on your vacuum cleaner on the area is the best idea, as the back and forth motion of the average vacuum is likely to push sand particles down into the fibers rather than suck them up. The increased suction produced by the attachment will be more efficient and may be able to draw out sand that has already begun to sink into the rug’s fibers as well as the stuff that you can see.
The one piece of advice commonly found on the internet that you should follow with extreme caution is using a stiff brush to try and loosen and remove wet sand (the worst kind) from a rug. Again it will be all too easy to work the sand deeper into the rug rather than remove it.
Preventing Sand Damage to Your Oriental Rug
There are obviously some things you can do to limit the amount of sand that gets into your home in the first place. A no shoes in the house policy helps as do mats at the entrances to the house. Investing in a higher quality vacuum cleaner with more suction power is well worth considering as well, especially if yours is a Rhode Island home that is fairly close to the sea, as tiny sand particles will travel in the air (as will salt particles) so you may not even have to go near the beach to get sand into your home, just occasionally open a window.
Finally a good, professional cleaning by a company offering Oriental rug cleaning in Rhode Island about once a year should go on your to do list as well. That cleaning should however be done off the premises and should include a really good dusting as well, as the industrial grade dusting machine used in such a process will make sure that all of those unseen sand particles are loosened in order for them to them be efficiently washed away, leaving your precious rug sand free and ready to stand up to another ‘season in the sun’.
Local Areas Served: Bristol RI, Barrington RI, Middletown RI, Portsmouth RI, Newport RI and surrounding Rhode Island cities.