Hi, David -
The 'rest of the story' is that there is a lot to know about cleaning oriental rugs. You think installed carpeting is touchy, just wait until you do a Pakistani bleeder or two. Talk about pucker factor!
To make it extremely brief, rug washing in a tub (or pit) is not unlike washing clothes. First we inspect the rug for pre-existing conditions, next we determine the face fiber and foundation content, then we determine whether or not it's a bleeder. Rug cleaners with much more experience than I can simply ID a rug by its patterns, colors, and geometric shapes. One glance and these experts instantly know the content of the warp/weft yarns, the face fibers, country and village of origin, approximate age, what kind of sheep the wool fibers were used from, etc. In my opinion, only if we get to this level will we truly become expert rug cleaners. Do I know how to wash a rug? Yep, but I would be fooling myself if I said I was an expert.
After ID and inspection, and assuming the rug is soakable and not a bleeder, we set the rug in the pit upside down and vacuum from the backside first. This allows the face fibers to 'grin' and drop dry soils through the nap from the foundation. It would be wise to have a grided mat between the rug and the pit liner for soils to fall through better. When that's complete, we flip the rug over and vacuum the front side throughly.
Next we start the COLD water on the rug. The bigger your service line the better. We're stuck with standard 3/4" garden hose size service and would love 2-3". Continue to thoroughly wet out the rug. Next we use a dilute solution of LST (Chemmax - 800-ultradry) and we put the solution into a garden flower sprinkler. We sprinkle the LST over the rug evenly and then use the Cimex with the SOFT brushes (which have been conditioned on cement for 10 minutes before the first time use) to scrub the solution in. We flip the rug over and do the same thing, scrubbing thoroughly. We're watching to see if there's any problems going on - like fraying/shedding (there will be SOME shedding), color bleed, etc. If we notice it, we stop and address the problem accordingly.
We then restart the fresh COLD water on the rug and use a linoleum roller to squeeze the clean water through the foundation fibers. You may use a lawn roller or weighted drag wand, but we've found the lino roller to be MUCH handier than any other squeezing tool. If it's in your budget, you might want to check into a hydraulic/pneumatic wringer system. It'll make rug rinsing a snap, but they're not cheap nor easy to install/maintain.
After we're satisfied with our rinse, we hang the rug on a bar/pulley and lift it out of the pit. Our hanging bars are right over the pit to allow for dripping rugs. Some rug cleaners prefer to evenly wet out the rug as it's hanging. I haven't employed this tactic in our cleaning operation, but I know some experts that do and trust their judgement.
We then set an airmover aimed at a 45 degree angle on it to dry it. It usually takes 12-24 hours to dry a rug, but could be more or less depending on the thickness and what it's made of.
The process above is more to be used for talking points rather than instructions. There is a lot to know about rugs besides just dipping them in some water and wringing them out. Ruining an expensive oriental rug could literally bankrupt your company so prepare yourself before taking the plunge. ASCR is a good organization to be associated with if you want to become a rug cleaning expert.
Scott
