Persian, oriental, wool and silk — washed by hand, repaired by hand.
Chattanooga sits on a limestone valley floor at about 676 feet, with Lookout Mountain standing some fourteen hundred feet above it and Walden Ridge a thousand feet up across the river. Cool air slides off those slopes overnight and settles down here, and it does not flush out in a hurry, so the damp near the floor outlasts the forecast. The grit that rides in on shoes comes off weathered limestone and chert — pale and sharp, not the red staining clay of further south. We collect rugs, wash them by hand away from the house, dry them flat, and bring them back.
A hand-knotted Tabriz and a polypropylene flatweave off a shelf are not the same object, and they should never meet the same brush. Vegetable dyes bleed. Silk scorches under heat. A cotton foundation lifted out of the bath still wet and dried under tension will pull the whole rug out of square. Guessing is how rugs get ruined.
So nothing gets cleaned until it has been looked over: fiber content, dye stability, weave construction, backing, previous repairs, and whatever a decade of valley summers and wet winters has left in the foundation. Only then does the rug get a method. That inspection costs nothing, it happens before you commit to anything, and if a rug is not worth the cost of cleaning we will say so.
Wool, silk, cotton, jute and synthetics each get their own water temperature, pH and agitation, and a rinse controlled so no mineral hardness is left to dry back into the pile.
Chewed corners, unraveling fringe, moth grazing and split foundations rebuilt by hand.
The musty smell that comes back every wet week is treated in the foundation, not perfumed over.
We collect and return across Hamilton County and the Georgia line. You never lift a roll.
Washing, structural repair, and getting water back out of a rug before it becomes a mold problem.
Full immersion hand-washing for Persian, oriental, wool, silk, cotton and modern synthetic rugs. Dry grit and carbonate dust come out before any water is introduced, then the rug is washed, flushed until the water runs clear, and dried flat under moving air.
Rug cleaning detailsFringe replacement, edge binding, moth damage, pet destruction, worn pile and lost corners, rebuilt on a loom. Wool is matched for color and for the weight it was spun at, and the knot density is matched to the original, so a finished repair disappears into the field instead of announcing itself.
Repair servicesA failed water heater, a split supply line, a basement that took water up one edge. Rugs in that state need flushing and controlled drying, not a fan pointed at them. We extract, decontaminate, dry flat, and document the condition throughout.
Water damage service
Rug care advice written for a dry climate does not transfer here. Downtown sits at about 676 feet on a floor of Chickamauga limestone, with the river through the middle of it and ridges standing a thousand feet and more on either side. Air that cools overnight drains off those ridges and settles on the valley floor, and better than fifty inches of rain in an average year keeps the ground under these houses loaded. Wool is hygroscopic, which is a polite way of saying it takes on whatever the air around it is carrying. Down here the air is carrying a great deal.
Most soaked rugs in Chattanooga never met a river. They met a water heater at the end of its life, a supply line behind a washing machine, a slow leak under a dishwasher, or a finished basement that took water along one wall after a heavy week. Whatever started out clean has crossed a floor by the time it arrives at the rug, and it brings the floor along with it.
What matters is what happens next. Wet wool over a damp cotton warp is food and shelter both, and through a valley summer the room is already sitting at the temperature that makes it easy. Point a fan at the surface and the top dries while everything that came in with the water stays down at the base of the pile; the rug reads fine for a month and then it does not. It has to be flushed right through, treated, and dried flat with the moisture read off a meter rather than judged by hand — and photographed before any of that, because it is the first thing an insurer asks for.
Off-site washing, hand finishing, and a route that covers the valley and the ridges on both sides of it.
From the brow of Lookout Mountain to the far side of Chickamauga Dam, and south across the state line. Collection is included.
These are real rugs from recent jobs, photographed before and after cleaning with no stock images and no retouching. Every rug gets the same process: inspection, fiber-appropriate treatment, full wash, and controlled drying.
A classic under-furniture soiling pattern: clean center, gray border. Deep-pile shag traps soil a vacuum can't reach. A full wash and careful drying restored an even white edge to edge.
Dozens of dark spots across a light flatweave. Each spot was pre-treated, then the whole rug was washed so it came out clean with no rings or shadows.
Deep navy next to ivory is a dye-bleed risk. Colorfastness was tested first, then the rug got a pH-balanced wash. The yellow streak is gone and the colors are sharper, with no bleeding.
Yellowing this widespread sits deep in the fibers and foundation, not on the surface. Targeted treatment plus a full wash flushed it out and the trellis pattern reads cleanly again.
Send the form and we will come back with a real number. Estimates are free and there is no obligation to book.
How rugs are actually built, how to tell hand-knotted from tufted in ten seconds, and what any of it means for a house on this valley floor.
Free estimate, collection and delivery included — anywhere on the route.
