Rugs in Etterbeek: buying, restoration, cleaning

The building stock

54% of Etterbeek's building stock predates 1919: these are the three-bay Brussels houses, often divided into flats. More than two thirds of households are tenants. The original stairwells, narrow and quarter-turning, dictate the way a rug leaves the building.

A quarter-turn stairwell settles everything: a rug either goes through rolled and upright, or it has to be folded — which we avoid on old wool. We look at the landing and the width of the steps before we come to collect it for washing.

Collection

3.2 km² for 15,290 residents per km² (2022), twice the regional density, and only 4% of the territory in accessible green space: Etterbeek is one of the densest municipalities in the Brussels Region. Narrow streets, unbroken lines of parked cars, no room to manoeuvre — a collection is prepared, it is not improvised.

Crowded streets and not a metre to manoeuvre: we do not turn up unannounced. The collection is agreed for a precise slot, the van gets into position, your rugs are loaded and go off to the workshop.

Damp and water

The town's very name comes from "beek", the stream. The Maelbeek rises in what are now Ixelles and Etterbeek and was vaulted over in 1872, precisely because the steep slopes of its basin caused sudden floods and endangered public health. The streets at the bottom of that valley are still the ones where cellars take in water.

On the floor of the Maelbeek valley the cellars take in water and wool comes apart on the back. If your rug has spent a winter down there, show it to us before you throw it out: a wash and some work on the selvedges are often enough.

Who lives here

4,295 officials of the European institutions live in Etterbeek (2022 data, IBSA) and 50% of the population are foreign nationals, led by the French (9%) and the Italians (6%). An expatriate population that arrives with rugs, buys more here, and leaves at the end of a posting.

A contract coming to an end means a rug to take along or to leave behind. We clean before the check-out inventory, we wrap what goes into the container, and we buy for cash what stays.

The rug market

The place Jourdan market is held every Sunday from 8.00 to 13.00 with 36 permanent stalls and some thirty occasional ones — the neighbourhood fixture that shapes Sunday in Etterbeek, and the place where second-hand objects and furniture change hands.

What changes hands on the place Jourdan on a Sunday often ends up in a drawing room with nobody knowing where it came from. Bring us the piece: we tell you what it is, what it is worth, and whether it deserves restoration or simply a wash.

Access and parking

Etterbeek's municipal parking plan works by colour: in the green zone, parking is free for residents holding the resident's card and limited to 4 hours 30 for everyone else, Monday to Saturday; in the red zone, on the shopping streets, the limit drops to 2 hours — and to 30 minutes on the place Jourdan. The first quarter of an hour is free everywhere.

Thirty minutes on the place Jourdan, two hours on the shopping streets: the clock is running while we load. We go through the way the rugs will come out with you by telephone before we come, so that the van is not left standing.