What is the best quality rug I can purchase?
Rug qualities vary from hand knotted to machine made. The highest quality rugs are hand knotted.
What is the difference between hand tufted and hand knotted?
In the making of hand knotted rugs, tiny threads are knotted by hand onto the backing called a warp/weft. The knots are later cut causing them to stand away from the backing to create the velvety pile of the finished piece. Hand tufted and hand hooked rugs are created using a tufting gun. The tufting gun, which works much like an oversized needle, pushes and pulls threads of yarn through a scrim (a pre-woven grid). In a hook rug, the loops of yarn remain intact to form a characteristically “knobby” pile. In a tufted rug, the loops are sheared to expose the thread ends for a softer, more “velvety” pile.
What are the knot or line counts?
A knot or line count is a measurement of the density of the knots that make up the rug’s pile. The higher the density, the higher the knot count.
A knot count denotes how many hand knots exist in a square inch. The more knots per square inch, the better the quality of the rug.
A line count denotes the number of lines of knots or tufts that exist in a linear foot. The more knots or tufts, the better the quality of the rug.
What is hooked, hand-tufted, etc.?
Hand tufted rugs and hand hooked rugs are created much the same way.
A tufting gun which works much like an oversized needle is used to push and pull the threads of yarn through a scrim (a pre-woven grid). The tops of the loops are sheared to expose the thread ends for a softer, more “velvety” pile.
In a hook rug, the yarn remains intact to from a characteristically “knobby” pile
Do I really need padding for my new rug?
The benefits of proper padding for your oriental rug are often underestimated. Padding not only keeps your rug securely in place, but it protects the back from abrasion and can add years to the life of your rug at minimal cost.
How do you relieve shedding in a rug?
Shedding is a normal and acceptable process of any natural fiber. The shedding of wool rugs will dissipate over time with frequent vacuuming, and may take several months to stop shedding. It would be hard for anyone to speculate when the shedding process of a rug may end because each rug is different. If the rug continues to shed after a long period of time please contact us.
Is there any way I can prevent damage to a rug from a vacuum cleaner?
Regular vacuuming of an Oriental rug is excellent in helping maintain the life of the rug.
A dirty rug wears prematurely, and regular vacuuming helps prevent dirt on the surface or the rug from getting down into the pile where it can accumulate and cause increased wear. Be careful with a vacuum equipped with a power brush or “beater bar”; these powered brushes in the vacuum head help the vacuum do a good job on the machine made carpeting, but if used on a hand made Oriental rug they may cause a raking effect on the top layer of the rug’s pile if used too strenuously. If your vacuum cleaner has a power brush, use it only occasionally and make sure it is on the highest pile setting. For routine cleaning, use the plain vacuum nozzle. This is especially important for fringes; do not run an upright vacuum or a power brush attachment over fringes. Fringes will get caught and shredded up by the rotating mechanism of the brush.
How accurate is the color I’m seeing when I look at rugs on your web site?
As with any image you may view on the Internet, the quality of the color is ultimately dependent on the monitor or printer displaying it. At our end, we make every effort to ensure that all the images posted on our web site are as faithful as possible to the actual products. We do all of our photography, color proofing and color management as in- house functions. Whether it is a web image or PDF file, we do our utmost to provide color-accurate digital representations of all of our products.
We cannot, however, guarantee how your particular monitor or printer will reproduce these colors. Therefore we ask you to take this variable into consideration when viewing our products digitally. As you make your purchase decisions, we strongly recommend that you see our rugs in person at Rugs Plus.
