Caring for your carpet
Special natural fibre carpets need special care. They will perform as well as any other carpet if certain guidelines are followed.
Household Spills
As part of being affiliated to Woolsafe, we have invested in a specialist project where an expert cleaning company member subjected our Graphite carpets to common household spills and stains.
After stringent testing procedures were carried out, conclusions were drawn as to the best method of successfully dealing with spills as they happen and also if they have dried into the carpet.
More often than not, we are asked about how to deal with accidents involving cups of tea & coffee or glasses of red wine. All such substances can be successfully removed from any of our carpets without the need to call in a specialist.
However, we understand that, in the heat of the moment, panic can set in and the correct procedure is not always considered.
So, in preparation for that unfortunate occasion, we recommend that you ALWAYS keep an ample supply of paper towel and a plastic spray bottle at the ready.
Then, we suggest that you follow five simple steps:
As swiftly as you can to prevent the spillage soaking further down the pile, tear off enough paper towel to fold double to cover the spill and place over the area and press gently so that the liquid soaks into the towel, working inwards from the edges. DO NOT compress the pile and DO NOT scrub or rub. Use your finger ends to encourage the paper towel to come in contact with the entire spill area. Replace the towel and repeat the exercise until you find that no more liquid soaks into the towel.
Then, take a fresh piece of paper towel. Lay it flat over the area and, using a spray bottle, spray a fine mist of cold water onto the towel and allow to settle for a couple of minutes. DO NOT saturate the towel or the carpet. Again, use your finger ends to encourage the damp paper towel to contact the spill area. This should help to draw any residual stain up into the towel. Repeat this exercise until such time as no colouration remains in the towel when removed from the area. Patience and persistence at this stage will pay off with the result in the end.
The carpet should now be just damp to the touch and in a state where a fresh piece of paper towel lightly applied flat over the pile will not absorb more liquid. It can then be left to air-dry.
If, when the carpet has dried, there remains any trace of a stain, you should call us on 07812 890502, email us or fill in the 'Contact Us' form and we will help you through a colour-correction process or recommend a ‘Woolsafe-approved’ cleaner.
Please DO NOT use proprietary carpet stain removers which you might obtain from high street stores. Most of them contain bleach or other chemicals which may attack the natural pigments in the wools.
Finally, if you have other spillages or accidents, do get in touch and we shall do our best to help.
Water spills
If water is spilled or rain comes onto the carpet from an open patio window, please ensure that you use paper towel to absorb as much as possible as in Step 1 above. Do NOT leave a wet patch of carpet to dry on its own.
pet incidents
Urine - follow the 5 steps outlined above.
Vomit or other matter - carefully lift the semi-solid out of the pile with a knife or similar, trying to avoid pushing it further into the carpet. Once this has been done, follow steps 2 to 5 outlined above except that it may be necessary to apply the water spray gently direct to the affected area in the first instance if there is still material which will not soak into the towel without dilution.
Unfortunately, the potential for resultant staining of the pile in these cases depends on the sex of the animal and the diet that preceded the incident. This is because of an unpredictable change in the chemical state of the wool. The effect of this can worsen over time if the occurrence is not immediately apparent.
For this reason, we would strongly recommend that, if it does not appear that the pile is clean after following the above procedures or that a stain is beginning to develop, you call us on 07812 890502 or immediately call a ‘Woolsafe-approved’ cleaner.
Carpet cleaning
The natural colouring and resilience of most of our carpets should obviate the need for them ever to be cleaned. However, if you wish to have your carpet cleaned, we would recommend a low temperature, low moisture or dry powder extraction method. This should be carried out by a professional carpet cleaner with experience of dealing with natural carpets. Details of these can be found on the Woolsafe website www.woolsafe.org.
If you live in Cumbria, we can highly recommend Lakeland Carpet Cleaning Ltd of Windermere who can be contacted on 07814 727291.
Do call us if you are in any doubt.
Mothproofing
None of our carpets are moth-proofed. This is deliberate for the following reasons:
1. We cannot apply mothproofing during the scouring and setting process because of the environmental constraints.
2. Most of our customers prefer to have a carpet which is natural and free from chemical applications.
If you have undisturbed/dark areas of carpet where moths may choose to lay their eggs, we can recommend that you use a natural spray mothproofing agent such as you may purchase from www.mothprevention.com.
Full advice is available on the site for what to do about this. We have not found that these natural products affect the shade of our carpets but it is always a good idea to test a piece of spare carpet first.