In February the IICRC “S100 Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Carpet Cleaning” was mentioned. The good news is the 2011 Edition is about to go to press with the title “Standard and Reference Guide for Professional Cleaning of Textile Floor Coverings.”

I have been writing The Rug Cleaning Specialist for 15 years, and every year another crop of new cleaners dip their toes into the industry waters, so if you long-time readers will bear with me, over the next year we will take a look at some rug cleaning basics.

When I do rug cleaning courses, invariably a student will say, “Just tell me how to clean it. Why do I need to know what the rug is?” Unfortunately, rug identification is not really understood by many cleaners. 

The rug-cleaning specialist works with customers who tend to have high-value home furnishings. This customer is more affluent and better educated than average, and is concerned about health and safety issues.

Last time, we touched on machine-woven carpet in the United States. The story is incomplete, however, if we ignore how woven carpet developed in Europe.

Machine-woven carpet can be fabricated into very expensive area rugs as well as budget floor coverings. So the Rug Specialist should have a good understanding of how they are produced and a bit of the background of a great American industry.

If you have attended a rug training course, odds are the Ardabil Carpet was briefly discussed. It is very interesting how a 500-year-old rug and its twin have survived the centuries to remain in reasonably good condition.

Several cleaning companies have taken a bold new approach to marketing their services to customers who have concerns about the health of their family. To get an idea of what I’m talking about, take a look at www.allergysweep.com.

In June we discussed French rugs; today we will look at a Frenchman who revolutionized the weaving of patterned textiles. What does Jacquard have in common with sabotage and computer programming? Read on and find out.

We have French toast, French cuffs, French nails, French food, wine and even a kiss, so why are French rugs not well known? Most likely it is due to their cost; the rugs we will look at this time are expensive.