Tips For Cleaning Your Wool Carpet

The unique properties of wool can resist odours and help control moisture. Naturally durable, stain-resistant, and easy to clean, our lifestyle carpets work hard to withstand whatever modern life throws at them. However, it’s good to know how to effectively deal with a mess. Keep reading to learn our top tips for cleaning wool carpet!

Looking after your carpet/rug is important because you're preserving its original texture and increasing its lifespan when you regularly remove the dirt that can lead to stains. General cleaning should be proportional to your carpet's exposure to dirt and foot traffic. We recommend more frequent, lighter cleans over the harsher treatments required if your carpet/rug is cleaned infrequently. Dry vacuum at least once a week and more often in heavy traffic areas. This will prevent soil embedding in the pile and grinding at the base of the tufts, which wears them out faster.

Please note: We recommend you use a plain suction head vacuum with strong suction.  Do not use a revolving brush head vacuum as it can cause excessive frizzing and can affect the tailored appearance of your carpet. 

Remember, even though wool fibre naturally resists stains, carpets are likely to stain if spills are left untreated. Staining occurs from the chemical bonding of a pigment with the carpet fibre; once this bonding has taken place, separating the two is extremely difficult without causing damage to the carpet pile. That's why it's critical to sort out spills and stains as soon as they happen.

Try to ‘contain the stain’ before using any recommended stain treatment or remedy. If the spill is of solid nature, carefully scoop up as much of it as you can.  If the spill is a liquid, you can head straight into the next step.  Carefully tip a small amount of room temperature water on the spill and press on the spill using clean white paper towels (for solid spills you may have to apply less pressure until the majority of the spill has been uplifted, for liquids you can apply more pressure from the start).  Be careful not to apply too much water or the spill could spread further.  You will see the spill appearing on the white paper towel so keep discarding the towels as necessary (you want the paper towel to have the ability to soak up moisture).  Once most of the water has been soaked out of the carpet apply slightly more water and blot again and again until you can no longer see the spill.  The carpet should feel almost dry when you are finished (at the end you can apply a lot of pressure to make sure you’ve soaked out all of the water from deep in the pile).  Never rub or scrub a carpet as this can cause permanent damage to the pile.

Remember that the cleaning solution for various spills will be different depending on substance. In many cases spills can be removed using water and white paper towels as per above but for oily and greasy stains we need to take a different approach.

Most oily or greasy stains can be removed, even after some time. We produce a top-selling stain remover for dry stains that’s very effective on oily/greasy spills. However, certain stains may have a chemical reaction with the fibre and can cause irreversible damage. Refer to our stain guide to check what to do for specific stains.

If you have tried everything and the stain isn’t budging, it may be time to seek assistance from a professional carpet cleaner. They have tools such as steam cleaners to help remove even the most stubborn of stains. Steam cleaners can be very effective on carpets and rugs. They can deep clean, help to loosen and dissolve dirt, cut grease, and grime, and sanitize your carpet or rug.

It's important to us that you have full confidence in the quality of our carpet. With 60+ years of experience designing and making premium quality carpets right here in New Zealand, you can be sure you're getting nothing but the very best with Bremworth. This is why we offer a Lifetime Food and Beverage Stain Resistance Limited Warranty* and a Lifetime Soil Resistance Limited Warranty*.