Rug Restoration Services

Over-Casting

Over-Casting involves securing a rug on the ends where the fringes are located. This prevents future damage or loss of the ends. There are two specific types of over-casting. A loop over-cast and a square-cast. Both are equally effective, the only difference is the appearance.

Genji

Genji is another form of securing the ends that allows adding a bit more closure to the end with color. Its's just a more attractive way of securing the ends.

Binding

Binding protects and closes the sides of a carpet. binding is needed to ensure that the rug doesn't unravel. Intact binding is important; if the border is damanged, the rug is in danger of future, more extensive damage. Sometimes milti-colored borders can be found in antique Caucasus carpets but borders typically are one solid color.

Patching

Patching involves taking a fragment of a rug with similar colors and customizing the piece to the hole, making sure it's secured tightly. Patching is done for two reasons. First, the amount of money to repair a rug can outweigh the value of a rug. Second, the client can't afford to fix the carpet but needs something to secure the hole to prevent further damage.

Reweaving

Reweaving involves building a foundation for the wool to be tied onto. There are different types of foundations depending on the type of rug.

Repiling

To repile, we put wool back into the crapet along with design/pattern already encompassed in the rug once we have the foundation built. There are several different reasons for repiling a carpet. Moths can eat away at wool and holes can be created from dry-rot, animals or constant wear.

Artificial Fringe

Artificial fringe is a replacement of real fringe that has been worn down. We use the artificial fringe to cover and protect the old fringe and to make the rug appear newer. It helps to cover up worn areas and old dirty fringe that can no longer be cleaned. It's an alternative to actually reweaving the fringe.

Blocking

Blocking is a technique used to square out a rug. Some rugs, due to the nature of hand made carpets, tend to be a bit skewed at times. In this process, we block the rugs and tack them to a wodden floor for a couple o days. Some carpets take more time to black than others, so timing varies.

Dyeing

Dyeing a carpet involves mixing numerous amounts of dyes to match the carpet's original color. We dye carpets only if the rug is beyond repair of repiling. Some foundations are too brittle to tie knots onto, so we paint the foundation instead. This is a rare technique, but some old antique pieces require this type of attentiom.

Shearing

Shearing a carpet is when we cut the tips of a carpet to an even level. Carpets over time tend to have traffic patterns worn into them. This makes them shaggy in some areas and worn in others. Shearing a carpet will even out the pile and clean up drawings that weren't as definitive as they used to be.

Kashmir

Kashmir, a form of weaving, involves looping wool onto the foundation of carpets rather than tying knots. This process is mainly used on old pieces that are worn down and with nothing left but the knots. Kashmiring gives you that flat knot look.

Pillows

Sometimes there are old carpets tht have lived out their life. We rescue the pieces of those carpets that are healthy and make pillows out of them. They are great accent pieces for almost any room.