ADVICE
ABOUT THE BLEMISHES ON YOUR CARPETS
All the handmade carpets are based on their cotton, wool or silk fibre which is called warp.The edges of the warp are the well known fringes of the carpet. For the design of the carpetto be spinned, it is needed the warp to be "standed" on the loom. This is the most sensitive piece of the carpet.
From the moment you will become an owner of a handmade carpet, it's good to know, how you'll take care of it. Generally, handmade carpets are more authentic than the industrial ones. That is because at the handmade ones, every floss of it is tightened round the warp, increasing the strength of the carpet. If the carpet is being cleaned on a monthly basis and storaged with the right way, then it'll be bequaethed from generation to generation like a family heirloom.
Kyritsaki's
carpet cleaning, is advising cleaning the carpet on a yearly basis only
from specials carpet cleaning who know how to handle them.
Many housewifes are wondering about the use of a vacuum cleaner on their handmade carpet. The answer is YES. But the frequency of cleaning it depends from the closeness of it. More closeness of your carpet, less cleaning that is needed.
Before you proceed to the storage of the carpet, turn over it and then step on it. With this way and after a week you'll get rid of a large amount of dust, and the carpet will be cleaned better. With the vacuum cleaner you are cleaning the dust on the floor and the dust on the pile of the carpet. One cleaning per week is enough to remove the dust from the dialy use of your carpet. Remember always to clean the carpet from the other side too.
Many housewifes, before they proceed to the storage of the carpet they are tossing them on their balcony. This is not necessary. If the carpet is being cleaned good and regularly, then the tossing is not needed at all.
We also advise you not to toss the carpets with infrequently knots.
On the silk carpets, which are more sensitive, it is better to use a brush instead of a vacum cleaner.
You can keep the colors of the carpet live with a soft brush and a mixture of a water and vinegar. Regarding the yearly cleaning of the carpet, you can use three parts of tepid water and one part of vinegar. Then, use a little soft brush and you brush it to the direction of the pile. You can dry your carpet under a cool place and NOT under the sun to avoid the denaturation of the colors.
The fringes of your carpet is the most indefensible component of it. If they get destroyed, then the whole carpet is being threatened. So, be extremely carefull with the fringes of your valuable handmade carpet. If you have noticed loosed fringes please call us to give you some advices. For the cleaning of the fringes, you can use detergent with a soft brush, but be carefull not to awash the pile. You can use the same brush we use for cleaning the shirt's collar.
Your carpets
must be kept wounded in rolls for storage.
It is often a bad habit to keep a carpet plicated in the form of a big package. But be careful, incase a carpet is plicated for more than 2 weeks, the trails of the plication will be visible on the carpet. It is also possiible, with the pressure that the carpet is taking by the plication, to cut off the warp which is the base of the carpet, something that demands special repair.
The majority of eastern carpets, passes through a special anticarpetbeetle process. Though, we will refer to preventive actions against carpet beetle. Carpet beetle is the most important enemy of the carpet. There are many sprays on the market, but we recommend you to stay away from them. Vapona, camphor and mothballs are the best solutions. Just make sure they don't come in direct contact with the seal of the carpet.
Make sure there is no carpet beetle on your carpet before you store it at a cool and dry place.
Cover the whole surface of the carpet with white or brown wrapping paper on which you place camphor or mothballs. This is done to avoid contact between wool and camphor or mothballs. Avoid newspapers, bacause ink can mark your carpet.
Wrapping straight and tight your carpet in rolls you can make sure that there is no moist and remember to wrap to the directgion of its warp. It is good for the roll of the carpet to be placed horizontally on the floor so that its edges won't break. However the carpet can be wrapped from the beginning as a roll around a hard paper cylinder that will be longer than the carpet so that when the carpet will be placed upright on the floor, the cylinder will touch the floor, not the selvage of the carpet.
Finishing,
wrap the carpet in a rought-and-ready cotton sheet. placing camphor again
and letting
the edges of the carpet open so that the carpet will be ventilated. During
the summer seal the
edges of the roll precautionary against the carpet-beetle and during winter
open them again.
You cannot avoid a bad moment. That's why it is useful to keep, at home, white vinegar, white gasoline, white alcohol and neutral detergents for sensitive clothes or baby clothes. Also buy from your close market special products that can be used for cloth dry cleaning. All these could save your carpets. Absorbent towels or papers can help you absorb the moist part of the spot at its beginning. The faster you will move against the spot, the easier you will clean it. Many clean towels are useful for applying on your carpet the following solutions.
Make sure about the unfading colours by moisting a white towel and rubbing itat the edge of your carpet. If the carpet will become coloured, refer to a carpet cleaner. If the towel won't become coloured, start cleaning from the outer edge of the spot to its centre and to the time of the seal of the carpet. Each cleaning must be followed by an absorbing towel that will abosrb the moist from the spot. Do not moist the spot area too much. At the end dry locally with hairdryer.
The 2 following solutions will be used according concerning the type of the spot. Remember the succession : solution application - absorbing towel for moisture.
a. Detergent
Solution : a tea spoon of neutral detergent in have litre warm water.
The detergent will
be totally dissolved.
b. White Vinegar
Solution : in 3 parts of warm water add a part of white vinegar. Increase
the dose of white
vinegar, (3 water/2 vinegar) if your carpet is too dirty.