Rugs in Braine-l'Alleud: buying, restoration, cleaning
We travel to Braine-l'Alleud, 25 km from the workshop, to value, collect and return your rugs. Here is what we find there, and what difference it makes.
- Postcode
- 1420 · 1421 · 1428
- From the workshop
- 25 km
- Residents
- 40,461
- Sector
- South-west of Walloon Brabant, on the battlefield
What the ground changes
What the ground changes in Braine-l'Alleud
The building stock
It is the most populous town in the province of Walloon Brabant (40,461 residents at 1 January 2024) and it covers 5,232 hectares (52.32 km²). It is the result of the 1977 merger between an urbanised centre and two villages that stayed rural: Ophain-Bois-Seigneur-Isaac (1421) and Lillois-Witterzée (1428).
One town, two realities: a flat in the centre gives us a living-room rug that is washed and put back in a single round, while a small farmhouse at Lillois or Ophain gives us large-format pieces that call for flat washing at the workshop.
The local setting
The Butte du Lion stands on the territory of Braine-l'Alleud, not of Waterloo (official address: route du Lion 1815, 1420 Braine-l'Alleud). Raised between 1823 and 1826, it stands more than 40 m high, has 226 blue stone steps and carries a cast-iron lion of 4.45 m and 28 tonnes cast at the Cockerill works in Seraing. The neighbouring Panorama (1912) is a circular canvas of 110 m by 12 m.
The Butte du Lion really is in your town, not in Waterloo: we know the area, and our rug collection rounds take the route du Lion as often as the chaussée de Bruxelles.
What the buildings tell us
The Sept Fontaines golf club occupies 100 hectares of woodland and rolling open ground around the château de l'Hermite, turned into a clubhouse when the course opened in 1987. The estate straddles the language border.
Large properties, private drives, gates: we come right up to the drawing-room door. The van comes into the drive, the rug leaves rolled, and after washing it comes back laid in the same place.
Who lives here
Average income per resident: €23,742 (2021 tax year), above the Walloon Brabant average (€23,442) and well above the Walloon average (€19,192). The town records around 2,000 residents of some twenty nationalities and states that half its population is under 40.
Many young owners here inherit a rug that does not go with their interior. We take it off your hands: valuation at home, cash purchase, and you keep the space for what you like.
Collection
Braine-l'Alleud lies about 20 km south of Brussels as the crow flies (25 km by road from the centre), has a station on line 124 Brussels–Charleroi, and is served by the N5 (chaussée de Bruxelles / chaussée de Waterloo), the historic Brussels–Waterloo–Charleroi route.
Twenty-five kilometres by the N5 and free parking in front of the house: we load your rugs, they go off to the workshop to be washed and they come back with no pass and no parking meter to deal with, which is not the case in central Brussels.
The rug market
The town is home to CHIREC Braine-l'Alleud and more than 500 small and medium-sized businesses, and remembrance tourism (Butte du Lion, ferme d'Hougoumont, Mémorial 1815) draws visitors all year round to the battlefield site, which lies within its boundaries.
Professional practices, shops and hospitality businesses: that is fitted carpet wearing out in circulation areas and stairwells, and cleaned on site. The local taste for old things also brings us rugs to appraise.
Braine-l'Alleud
What we do Braine-l'Alleud
Sell your rug — Braine-l'Alleud
We buy oriental rugs in Braine-l'Alleud (1420), 25 km from the workshop. Free valuation on site, payment the same day, collection included — cash up to €3,000, instant…
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Rug restoration — Braine-l'Alleud
We collect the rugs to be restored in Braine-l'Alleud (1420) and bring them back once the work is done. Fringes, selvedges, holes, faded colours, destroyed weft: the…
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Rug cleaning — Braine-l'Alleud
We wash rugs from Braine-l'Alleud (1420) flat, at the workshop: mechanical dusting, a neutral soap bath below 30 °C, rinsing until the water runs clear, controlled…
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Wall-to-wall carpet cleaning — Braine-l'Alleud
We clean the fitted carpets of offices, hotels and stairwells in Braine-l'Alleud (1420), at night or at the weekend, so that work never has to stop.
View pageOur other services in Braine-l'Alleud
Rug buying in Braine-l'Alleud
Hand-knotted rugs bought in Brussels: valuation from photographs, free collection, immediate payment.
Rug restoration in Braine-l'Alleud
We repair from the structure outwards: warp and weft, then pile, then colour.
Rug cleaning in Braine-l'Alleud
We dust before wetting, wash below 30 °C between pH 5 and 7, and dry flat within 24 hours.
Fitted carpet cleaning in Braine-l'Alleud
A fitted carpet is washed in place, by machine: exactly what a hand-knotted rug cannot take.
Frequently asked questions
Frequently asked questions
I live in Lillois (1428) / Ophain (1421) — does that count as Braine-l'Alleud for a collection?
Yes. Since the merger of 1977, Braine-l'Alleud has brought together three entities and three postcodes: 1420 for the centre, 1421 for Ophain-Bois-Seigneur-Isaac and 1428 for Lillois-Witterzée. We cover all three at the same collection rate. In the small farmhouses and old houses of Lillois and Ophain, we also take the time to check the state of the cellars and the beaten earth floors, which often explain the tidemarks and the moth damage on the back of the rug.
How can I tell whether my rug is hand-knotted?
Turn it over. On a hand-knotted rug the design on the back is as sharp as the one on the front and the knots are slightly irregular. On a machine-made rug the back is smooth, often lined with a glued cloth, and the design appears blurred.
Do you really travel free of charge?
Yes, across the eighteen towns we cover, valuation included and with no obligation. We charge nothing until you have said yes.
Where we travel
All towns
Or call us directly on +32 478 05 84 84