Frequently asked questions

It depends on the work. A hand wash is above all drying time: laid flat under ventilation, a rug dries in under 24 hours, and the rest of the delay comes down to the collection and delivery round. A restoration is counted differently: we re-knot by hand, knot by knot, and a loss the size of a palm already runs to thousands of knots. We give a date at the moment of collection, and we tell you if it moves.

By appointment, yes. It is not a shop: nothing is on display, the floor is taken up with wet rugs and the way through is narrow. A visit makes sense when it serves a purpose — deciding on a colour rework in front of the piece, seeing a reweaving under way on your own rug. Otherwise, photographs before and after say the same thing without your having to travel.

We supply what a loss adjuster needs: a written condition report, dated photographs and a quote itemised line by line. It is the document that travels, not us. We are not a party to the policy and we do not negotiate on your behalf: it is your insurer who decides what is covered. One practical point matters more than the rest — do not leave a wet rug rolled up in a corner waiting for the adjuster, mould takes hold within days. See water damage.

Yes, and rather before a home attempt than after one. A diffuse smell — wet dog, basket, mustiness — goes with the bath like any other organic soiling. Urine is another matter: uric acid crystallises in the foundation, does not dissolve in water, and the smell returns with the first damp. It calls for an enzymatic treatment, not a wash. Mould is less simple. It can be cleaned off, but it has sometimes already attacked the fibre and leaves a brown stain that will not come out, above all on pale grounds. We say what will go and what will stay before wetting anything at all. The detail of urine treatment is on the pet odours page.

We tell you so, and it costs nothing: the valuation is free and commits you to nothing further. A machine-made rug, a tufted one, a recent decorative piece — there is no specialist buyer for that, and we do not pretend otherwise. No market value does not mean no interest: a rug you are attached to is well worth a wash.

Sometimes, and it is decided on the back. A machine-woven rug with a textile backing can be washed. A tufted one, whose pile is glued to a cloth, takes immersion badly: the adhesive ages, softens in water, and the backing can come away or split into two. We look at the back, we say yes or no, and we do not take that risk on your behalf. Buying and restoration, for their part, do not apply to these rugs at all.

Yes, it is a regular part of the fitted carpet work. The constraints there are first of all a matter of hours: we work in the evening, at night or at the weekend, and the method is chosen according to the time the premises have to reopen. For the common parts of a building, a plan of the areas to be treated, the type of fitting and access to a water point are enough to price the job.

Yes, and a share of the rugs we see goes back home with its owner. One useful point: what we give is a cash purchase price, not an appraisal for an insurer nor a certificate of authenticity. Those are two different exercises, and the second is not done from photographs. See free valuation.

It is first washed by hand, which often brings back colours that dust had kept grey. Then we look at whether it is worth a restoration: fringes, selvedges, losses. Some deserve one, others sell on as they are to whoever knows how to do the work. After that it goes back to the antique rug market, to dealers, to collectors or to the saleroom. It is that circuit that allows us to pay on the day of collection, in cash up to €3,000 and by instant transfer above that.

No retail sale: no window, no stock shown to the public, no online catalogue. The workshop buys, washes, restores and maintains, and the pieces we buy go back to the trade and the salerooms, not to private buyers. If you are looking to buy an antique rug in Brussels, the antiques market of the Sablon and the place du Jeu de Balle are a few hundred metres from here, and that is where we will send you.

Almost always. The mineral dust shut in at the base of the pile cuts the fibres with every step and throws off the colour matching. Hand washing therefore comes before restoration — except where an area is at risk of tearing when handled: that one is made safe first.

From photographs, to be sent by e-mail or by message: the whole rug laid flat, the back, and a close-up of each damaged area with a coin or a tape measure for scale. We reply with a costing within 48 working hours.

In the great majority of cases, yes. The larva digests the keratin in the wool and leaves the cotton warp intact: the structure still holds. It is the very large grazed areas, where not enough design is left to match to, that pose a real problem.

A tufted or machine-woven rug, with its back coated in glue, cannot be re-knotted: there is no knot to redo, only a glued layer. We say so from the photograph rather than charging for a repair that will not hold.

That depends on the technique and the ventilation, not on the area. Encapsulation uses very little water and returns a surface to use quickly; hot water extraction takes longer. We choose the technique to suit your window, and we blow air across it until the end.

Yes, in three ways: too much water reaching the substrate and lifting it, too alkaline a pH dulling a wool fibre, too aggressive a rotary brush opening up the pile. That is why we identify the fibre and the type of fitting before bringing out a machine.

Yes, with a different protocol. Wool is washed between pH 5 and 7: above pH 8, the alkalinity lifts the scales of the fibre, which swells and yellows. And it felts as soon as the temperature goes above 40 °C. So we work colder and gentler than on polyamide.

Not necessarily, but you should know what you are buying. A dark corridor is dirt plus flattened fibre. Cleaning removes the first and lifts the second a little; the difference recedes without disappearing. We say so beforehand, not afterwards.