A hand-knotted rug copes very well with everyday care at home. It copes very badly with recipes found online. The difference between the two comes down to three things: water, soap and drying.

What you can safely do

Vacuum, in the direction of the pile, with a smooth nozzle: this is the single most important thing. Avoid the rotating brush, which pulls out fibres and damages the fringes. Vacuum the back once a year: the sand that collects there wears the knots from underneath.

Turn the rug every six months to spread the wear and the exposure to light.

Blot a fresh stain straight away, with a clean white cloth and cold water, dabbing from the edge towards the centre. No rubbing, no products.

What damages a hand-knotted rug

Carpet shampoo and spray-on foams. They are designed for glued synthetic fibres. On wool, they leave a sticky residue that attracts dirt and dulls the pile, and their pH can make vegetable dyes run.

Steam cleaners. Steam heats the wool and wets the cotton warp without drying it. The usual result: colours that run, a smell of damp, a rug that buckles.

Washing in the garden or the bath. The problem isn't getting the rug wet, it's getting it dry. A thick rug soaked right through takes days to dry at home; in the meantime, the warp goes mouldy and unstable dyes run. A workshop extracts the water in a centrifuge and dries the rug flat, in moving air.

Machine washing, even for a small rug: the twisting breaks the knots and distorts the piece.

When to call a workshop

When the rug looks dull despite vacuuming, when a stain has dried in, when it has got wet by accident, when it smells, when moths have been at it, or simply every three to five years for a full wet-wash.

There is nothing mysterious about professional washing: dusting, washing flat with plenty of water and a soap suited to the fibre, rinsing until the water runs clear, extracting the water without twisting, drying completely, finishing the fringes. What makes the difference is the equipment and the experience of drying.

In short

Vacuum, turn, blot fresh stains with cold water. For everything else, a photo and the dimensions are enough for us to tell you what we recommend.