Cleaning a turkish rug

[Dom Tuk]

Whats the best way to clean an expensive 2 year old turkish rug (red/cream/green cloured). It has been lyiing on the living room floor since purchase.

[ipek]

Well having seen the way they do it out in Turkey, it seems the rugs are pretty immune to abuse!!

Seriously, they are quite hardy in as much as you can scrub or beat them.  I usually beat mine upside down over a wall first (the rugs, not me!) to get all the dirt from the knots.  Then I scrub them with a decent carpet shampoo, then I rinse them with clean water on the scrubbing brush and then put them out in the sun to dry.

The secret is not to wet them too much and to dry them as quickly as possible, so pick a nice hot sunny day.  I would recommend you test the rug somewhere unobtrusive for colour-fastness and maybe try one corner first, before attempting the whole thing.

One of those professional carpet cleaners (you know the vacuum cleaner types that squirt/scrub and them suck it up all in one stroke) would be a good solution if the rug is big.  Certainly less effort for you and probably better for the rug.  You can hire them from Homebase or a local hire centre.