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Rug cleaning in Tampa — area, oriental and wool rugs
Synthetic area rugs cleaned in your home in about an hour. Wool, silk and hand-knotted oriental rugs collected, washed properly off-site, and returned flat, dry and color-fast in three to five days. Free pickup across Tampa.
Why we won’t steam clean a wool rug on your living room floor
It’s the most common rug mistake we get called in to fix, and in Florida it’s worse than anywhere else.
A carpet wand on a hand-knotted wool rug does three things you don’t want. The heat and alkaline chemistry make unstable dyes run — that’s the pink halo around a red border you’ve seen on somebody’s rug. The rug stays wet on both sides against a hardwood or tile floor, and in Tampa humidity that means browning, a sour smell and, on cotton-foundation rugs, mildew in the foundation within days. And nothing gets the dry soil out first, so you’ve just turned two pounds of sand into mud in the pile.
A proper rug wash is a different job. It happens on a wash floor, not a living room, and it starts before any water touches the rug.
How we wash a wool or oriental rug
This is the process for hand-knotted and hand-tufted rugs collected from your home. Machine-made synthetic rugs are usually cleaned on-site instead — see below.
Inspection and dye test
Fiber, foundation, dye stability and pre-existing damage noted with you at pickup. Every color is tested for bleed before it goes near water.
Dusting
The rug is vibrated face-down to shake out the dry soil. A 9 × 12 from a Tampa house routinely gives up a pound or more of sand at this stage.
Wash and rinse
Immersion or surface wash depending on the rug, pH-appropriate for wool, then rinsed until the water runs clear. Fringes detailed by hand.
Controlled flat drying
Dried flat with moving air so the foundation dries evenly and the rug returns square — not rolled damp, which is how ripples and mildew start.
What we clean, and how
The fiber decides the method. If you’re not sure what your rug is, send a photo of the front, the back and a corner of fringe and we’ll tell you.
| Rug type | Where we clean it | Notes from the wash floor |
|---|---|---|
| Hand-knotted wool (Persian, Afghan, Turkish, Indian) | Off-site wash | Dye test always. Cotton foundation must dry fully or it sours. Never steam cleaned in the home. |
| Hand-tufted wool with latex backing | Off-site wash | Latex breaks down in Florida heat and sheds white powder. We clean gently and tell you honestly if the backing is failing. |
| Silk and wool-silk blends | Off-site, specializt | Cool water, no agitation, dried flat. Water spots on silk are permanent if done wrong. |
| Viscose / “art silk” / bamboo silk | Off-site, with a warning | Viscose yellows and stiffens when wet. We’ll explain the risk before we touch it; sometimes the honest answer is to leave it alone. |
| Jute, sisal, seagrass | Low-moisture on-site | Water browns natural plant fiber. Dry compound or very low moisture only, and we say no to full wet cleaning. |
| Cotton flatweave, dhurrie, kilim | Off-site wash | Dyes on cottons run more than on wool. Tested, washed cool, dried fast. |
| Polypropylene, polyester, nylon (most machine-made rugs) | In your home | Hot water extraction on a tarp or over tile, dried in an hour or two. Same method as your carpet. |
| Shag, high pile | Depends on fiber | Deep pile holds a surprising amount of sand. Thorough dusting matters more than the wash. |
Pet urine on a rug
The number one reason a Tampa rug comes to us. It’s also the one where in-home cleaning fails most often.
Urine soaks through the pile, sits in the foundation and dries into salts. Clean the top and the smell is gone for a week, then the first humid day pulls moisture into those salts and it’s back. On a hand-knotted rug the fix is a full immersion wash with an enzyme soak that reaches the foundation — something you cannot do on a floor. We also check for dye migration from the urine itself, which is sometimes permanent, and tell you before we quote.
Cat urine is worse than dog urine and older stains are worse than fresh. Bring it to us sooner rather than later.
Pickup, turnaround and pricing
Free pickup and delivery in Tampa
We roll it, bag it, and bring it back to the same spot. Furniture on the rug moved and replaced. Outside the city, a small fuel charge.
3 to 5 working days
Longer for silk, heavy urine contamination or repairs. We text you when it’s dry and arrange a return time.
Wool and oriental: from $3.50 per sq ft
A 5 × 8 is around $140; an 8 × 10 around $280. Urine treatment and fringe repair quoted separately.
Synthetic on-site: from $60 per rug
Cleaned with your carpet appointment or on its own.
Rug cleaning questions we answer every week
How do I know if my rug is wool or synthetic?
Can you clean an oriental rug in my home?
Why does my rug feel gritty even after vacuuming?
My rug has a wavy edge or won’t lie flat since I washed it myself.
Do you clean rugs from South Tampa, Brandon and Wesley Chapel?
Is it worth cleaning an inexpensive rug?
Want a price for your rooms?
Tell us the rooms and the fiber and we'll quote it on the phone in a couple of minutes. Same-day slots most weekdays.