On average, you could expect around $320 in rug cleaning costs for an 8 x 10 area rug. At an outlet store, you can buy a new rug, with a trendy modern design, for less than $100.
Why not just buy a new one then? Why is rug cleaning so expensive?
While there is no shortage of cheap rugs on the market, on the other end of the spectrum, revered hand-woven masterpieces have sold for tens of millions of dollars in auctions. Handwoven rugs, even those found at common retail stores, are made by weavers who train for years in the style of the rug they are composing. They dedicate several months, even years, of continuous labor to weave together a single living room spaced rug. “The outlet rug and the museum rug require the same relative level of work. At their core, they are dirty rugs that need to be cleaned.” Ali Hafezi, Vice President of Babash Rug Services, operates a rug cleaning company in Los Angeles where he and his family carry the flame of their tradition: knotting, patching, and scrubbing the masterpieces from the around world with dignified care. Also a provider of rug repair services, the company is hailed as one of the best rug maintenance companies in the United States.
With proper care, a well woven rug can last centuries, but the cleaning, and especially the repair, requires professional attention. “There are so many different types of rugs out there, none of them come with care instructions, and all of them are made with different types of fibers and dyes that react differently to cleaning. Nothing’s more important than experience.” His father, Reza Hafezi, founder of the business, has been in the industry for over 35 years now. It is important that the people working on your rugs are experienced too: what they can foresee in a pre-inspection can be the difference between a rug getting ruined and not. Their process is a dynamic exercise somewhere in between fine art restoration and a full-blown heavy-duty car wash. Pressure washers, and specialized machinery including dusters, rotary bonnets, and centrifugal extractors are utilized during the process which can restore a rug to like new condition. The process eliminates dust, bacteria, germs, and moths, dust mites and other dangerous insects from your area carpet, leading to better overall air quality and respiratory health that help avoid asthma and other allergy related attacks. A University of Arizona study found that the average carpet in the American household is 4,000 dirtier than their toilet seats. “And I hope you’re cleaning your toilet seat more often than once every two years, which is how often most people clean their rugs.”
Most rug cleaners are small family-owned businesses with business models that are green and restorative by objective. “It’s an escape from the manufactured appetite, the never-ending make-take-dispose lifestyle that a lot of people can become trapped in. When you take into consideration what’s in the best interest of your health, community, and the planet as a whole, it’s a no brainer. Get a good rug, preserve it, and pass it down to your progeny. It’s a beautiful way to preserve family values.”
Not all rug cleaners are created equal. A typical steam cleaning procedure could cost half of what a submersion process costs but takes less than a tenth of the work. On average, steam cleaning takes less than an hour, whereas a proper rug cleaning procedure takes 7-10 days at its fastest. “We had a customer come in and tell us about a five-star cleaner they found on Google who picked up their rug, then told them they have to pay them $400 or else they would sell their rug. The whole thing cost him weeks of his time and a lot of unnecessary stress.”
Ali suggests that you find an authentic certified rug cleaner. “Go check their place out, make sure that they are who they say are. Their place must match the pictures on their website… It’s a little bit of up-front work but then you’ll find an honest business that you can always count on to take care of you in the future.”