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How to Clean Nylon Carpet Leave the cleaning of your sheepskin rug to the experts. Learn all about our professional rug cleaning methods, prices and deals.
A sheepskin rug offers comfort and style, as well as it’s a great addition to a home interior, especially in the cold months of the year. But how to clean a sheepskin rug at home?
And as with any other type of fabric or floor covering, your luxurious, decorative furry rug needs attention and proper maintenance, in order to serve you for a long. So, this post will look into the ways how to wash a sheepskin rug and store it correctly. We’ll also share a few important notes to keep in mind before approaching this delicate cleaning task.
Here’s how to clean a sheepskin rug without damaging it…
So, can you wash a sheepskin rug in the washing machine?
You can wash wool at a very low temperature in a machine or by hand, but no higher than 30 degrees, and use a teaspoon of non-biological washing powder, preferably a specialist wool shampoo. This, however, generally applies to ivory-coloured (natural) rugs. Dyed sheepskin rugs should be ideally dry-cleaned because standard washing may remove or damage the dye.
Now, then, first things first. Here’s what you need to know before you start:
Now that you’ve learnt about all the possible issues with cleaning your sheepskin rug, it’s time to roll up your sleeves and gather your tools.
Tools you’ll need:
In addition, make sure that your washing machine has a wool-wash cycle setting or simply consider using your bathtub and/or shower.
Leave the cleaning of your sheepskin rug to the experts. Learn all about our professional rug cleaning methods, prices and deals.
Follow these steps on how to machine wash your sheepskin rug or clean it by hand, as well as dry it out properly for best results.
So, let’s go again in more detail over what you should keep in mind before washing your rug:
The leather backing will never be as soft as when your sheepskin was new. Depending on the tanning process used, some sheepskins come out pretty good, as long as the drying process is nice and slow, and you use the correct woolskin shampoo.
That yellow-aged colour will never wash out. The yellow colour you see is the wool ageing and the cellulose in the wool oxidizing. So exposure to the atmosphere and also sunlight will make a sheepskin go yellow over time.
Washing sheepskin rugs older than 15 years is a high risk. As sheepskin rugs age the leather can slowly deteriorate and perish. The leather may look and feel OK but once it gets wet the leather fibres can disintegrate. Especially if an older sheepskin rug has never been washed before, and then suddenly at the age of 20 or 30 years someone decides to wash it, the leather may fall apart. If a sheepskin rug has been washed a few times during its life it seems to be able to handle washing a bit more easily.
If the leather backing goes hard there is not much you can do to fix it. The sheepskin may be old, and the leather fibres have dried out. Washing old leather can “shock it” and cause the leather fibres to constrict and shrink. Or the tanning process may not be suitable for washing. Chrome tanning and White tanning are OK to wash.
If you don’t brush out the knots before you wash a sheepskin bad things happen. Some people think it’s OK to skip the first step in the washing process, which is to thoroughly brush out a sheepskin rug before washing. This untangles knots in the wool that will potentially become matted into felt if you don’t brush the skin first. If you let the wool matt-up you will never be able to untangle it after you wash it.
You shouldn’t wash sheepskins that have been dyed. It can be very hard to tell if a sheepskin is dyed. Some skins that look light cream or champagne have actually been dyed that colour (natural sheep is an ivory off-white colour). If you wash a dyed sheepskin there is always a risk of the colour changing or a chemical reaction may happen with the dye and cleaning products. Get dyed sheepskin rugs dry-cleaned by a good quality dry-cleaner with experience in cleaning sheepskins.
To store correctly your sheepskin rug, when not in use, follow our expert tips below:
Find a carpet cleaning specialist to take care of your rug.
Here are some final thoughts and takeaways to consider when washing your sheepskin rug.
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Do you have any tips of your own on how to clean best a sheepskin rug? Then, don’t hesitate to share them in the comments below! And if you’ve found this post helpful, why not pass it on to a friend?
Header image source: Shutterstock / THPStock
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