Rugs in Wavre: buying, restoration, cleaning

The building stock

Wavre is the administrative capital of the province of Walloon Brabant. It covers 42.06 km² at a density of 844.34 inhabitants/km², and only 37% of its building stock consists of detached houses (2023) — the lowest proportion of the three municipalities measured by the Maison de l'urbanisme du Brabant wallon.

Here there are as many flats and town houses as there are villas: so we clean as much glued-down fitted carpet and standard-size living-room rugs as large drawing-room pieces.

The rug market

The Wednesday market (8.00-13.00), which occupies the place Cardinal Mercier, the rue Haute, the rue du Chemin de Fer, the rue de Nivelles, the rue du Pont du Christ and the quai aux Huîtres, brings together around 200 stalls and is presented by the town as the largest in Walloon Brabant. It is attested from 1292. A second, smaller market is held on Saturday mornings.

A market attested from 1292 means a town where second-hand goods have always changed hands. An inherited or hunted-out rug finds a taker here — and if you would rather not wait, we buy it directly, after a valuation.

Collection

The Wavre North business park covers 186 hectares and brings together 349 companies for more than 13,400 jobs; a further 18-hectare project is under way for R&D and biotechnology. It comes on top of the South business park. GSK has committed an investment of €250 million there in a new vaccine production unit.

Two business parks and more than thirteen thousand jobs: that is a great deal of office fitted carpet, stairwells and circulation areas. We treat those surfaces floor by floor, from stain removal to deep cleaning.

Access and parking

The A4 / E411 motorway (the autoroute des Ardennes) reached Wavre in 1969; the town is 28 km by road from the centre of Brussels, about 31 minutes.

Twenty-eight kilometres of motorway from end to end: a large-volume collection stays simple to organise here, whether it is a floor of fitted carpet to take away or a lot of rugs to buy.

The local setting

Walibi Belgium, opened on 26 July 1975 on 64 hectares in Wavre, together with the covered water park Aqualibi, received around 1.45 million visitors in 2018. The Dyle runs through the town, partly culverted beneath the centre.

Hotels and hospitality businesses around the park: bedroom, corridor and staircase fitted carpets to be put back in order between two seasons. And under the centre, the culverted Dyle keeps cellars damp — a bad place to store a rug.

Who lives here

Average income per resident: €22,889 (2021 tax year), below the Walloon Brabant average (€23,442) but well above the Walloon average (€19,192). The population breaks down into 19% under 18, 58.39% aged 18-64 and 22.61% aged 65 and over. Median price of a house in 2024: €395,000, up 8.2%.

Fewer villas and more flats than elsewhere in Walloon Brabant: cleaning a living-room rug and buying an inherited piece are what we are asked for most often here.