The week before Thanksgiving is when a lot of people rent a carpet cleaner from the hardware store or pull the Bissell out of the hall closet and aim it at the living room rug. On wall-to-wall carpet that's what those machines are built for. On an area rug the answer depends on what the rug is made of and what's under it. On some rugs a home machine does a fine job. On others one pass leaves brown rings, a sour smell or a rug that won't lie flat again.

Check what the rug is before you fill the tank

Look at the label on the back, then look at the back itself. Our guides to telling synthetic fibers apart and hand-knotted vs. hand-tufted rugs go through it in detail. Short version:

  • Usually fine: polypropylene, nylon or polyester, machine-made, with a woven or plain back. These don't absorb much water, their dyes are stable, and they're the rugs carpet-cleaner makers have in mind. Most inexpensive rugs from big-box stores are polypropylene.
  • Risky: wool. Wool takes a lot of water and holds it. Hot water, a strong carpet shampoo (most are alkaline) and heavy scrubbing can make dyes run and can shrink or fuzz the pile. A wool rug can be cleaned with a home machine on cool water with a wool-safe product, but most people put far too much water into it.
  • Don't: viscose, "art silk," bamboo silk or real silk. Viscose loses most of its strength when wet. The pile mats and twists, and it often turns yellow or brown as it dries. Our post on silk and viscose rugs and water explains why.
  • Don't: jute, sisal and seagrass. Plant fibers brown when they get wet and dry slowly, and the stain is usually permanent.
  • Don't: hand-tufted rugs with a canvas or cloth sheet glued to the back. The glue is latex. Soaking it can loosen the backing and release a sour, rubbery smell that's hard to get out.
  • Think twice: hand-knotted and other handmade rugs. Most have a cotton foundation. Cotton that's soaked and slow to dry can brown, and if one area shrinks more than the rest, the rug ripples. Our guide to cleaning an oriental rug at home covers what's safe between washes.

Why rugs come out worse than they went in

A home carpet cleaner sprays water and detergent into the pile and sucks some of it back out. It never gets all of it. On wall-to-wall carpet the leftover water sits in a synthetic backing over a pad. An area rug has no such buffer, so the water goes down to the foundation and keeps going through to the floor underneath. Three things tend to happen next:

  • Wicking. As the rug dries from the top, water rises up through the fibers and carries dissolved dirt and old spill residue up to the tips. That's how a spot you cleaned comes back a day later, or a brown ring shows up around it.
  • Detergent left behind. Most people use more solution than the bottle says. The soap that stays in the pile feels slightly sticky and attracts dirt, so the rug looks dull again within weeks.
  • Slow drying. A rug that's still damp after a day can start to smell musty. In November, with the windows shut, that happens fast. If yours already smells, our post on musty-smelling rugs covers what to check.

If you're going to do it, do it this way

  1. Vacuum first, both sides if you can. A carpet cleaner turns dry grit into mud. Vacuum the front slowly, flip the rug and vacuum the back, then vacuum the front again.
  2. Test a corner. Press a damp white cloth with a little of your solution onto a hidden corner for a minute. If any color comes off on the cloth, stop.
  3. Get the rug off the hardwood. Water that soaks through will mark or cup a wood floor. In an apartment, lay it over a plastic drop cloth for the cleaning pass, then lift it off the plastic for drying. In a house on Long Island or in Westchester, a swept garage or basement floor works.
  4. Cool or lukewarm water, and less soap than the label says. Half the recommended amount is plenty on an area rug. Skip the "oxy" and heavy-duty pet formulas on anything that isn't synthetic.
  5. Do more dry passes than wet ones. One wet pass, then two or three passes with the trigger off to pull water back out. Then a pass with plain water in the tank to rinse out the soap, followed by more dry passes. This step is what most people skip.
  6. Dry it in under a day. Prop it up so air reaches the back, over a couple of chairs or a drying rack, and put a box fan on it. Turn on a dehumidifier if you have one. Keep it away from direct contact with radiators and heating vents. Don't put furniture back on it until it's dry all the way through. Press a dry paper towel into the base of the pile to check.

On a big rug in a city apartment the drying is usually what defeats the plan. An 8 × 10 is hard to prop up in a one-bedroom, and a rented machine is heavy to carry up a walk-up and back to the store the same day. If you start a job like this and the rug stays wet, our guide on drying a soaked rug applies the same way.

Signs it's time to stop and send it out

  • Color showed up on your test cloth.
  • Brown spots or rings appeared after the first try, or the rug went stiff or crunchy.
  • The rug smells worse now than before.
  • It's wool, viscose or handmade and the dirt is ground in across the whole rug, not just one spot.
  • It has rippled since you cleaned it. Our post on rippling and buckling rugs explains what uneven wetting does.

What a full wash does differently

When a rug is washed off-site it isn't lying on your floor, so both sides can be cleaned, it can be rinsed until the soap is gone, and it can be dried as a whole instead of one damp section at a time. Our page on rug steam cleaning vs. whole rug washing lays out the difference between cleaning a rug where it lies and taking it away to wash it.

Pricing is by size. A 5 × 8 is $260 and an 8 × 10 is $520, both with pickup and return included. A 4 × 6 is $206 total, which includes the $50 pickup and return fee for orders under $250. Pickup is usually within 48 hours of booking, and the rug comes back cleaned 7 to 10 business days after pickup. Thanksgiving is November 26. A rug picked up this week would come back around Thanksgiving week, so if you want it down before guests arrive, book now. Measure it flat, edge to edge without the fringe, and enter the size in the rug cleaning price calculator to see your total.