Picked this up after the big storm. Should have been tossed but the lady loves it. River flooded and ran through the log cabin! here is what I did: Brought it home and laid it in the driveway (out of room anyplace else). Hit it with some soap and left it outside in the rain - squeegeed it off all the while. Figured the rain would flush some of the crap and mud out of it. Got it dried and into the shop. Cleaned it with a rotary dri master hooked to a truck mount (figured the mass amount of water would be good) front and back. Vacced like crazy and extracted again with a wand - pre-scrubbed with Cimex. (still had lots of other rugs to deal with). Finally cleared out some room - flooded the rug with X-tol and water and scrubbed - let sit overnight. If you look at the pics you will see white spots all over - looks like mold but they are actually packed down and full of white dust. This rug is old and was never cleaned before the flood to boot. Was thinking of another soak? don't know how much more this thing can take!
Wow! Hope you make a lot off this one. Great work so far. Keep us posted. I am really learning a lot in this rug section.
Is the dust now more like concrete since the rug was already cleaned? Or is it still dust? Maybe try dusting it really well with compressed air, then wash it again. BTW, what makes you worried about how much more the rug can take? Is it delicate? Just trying to learn what pitfalls to avoid.
Been dusting it upside down and vacuuming it - this stuff won't move - almost liked the fibers a locked down. can't seem to get them to relax. It is an older rug and got the crap beat out of it in the flood - also, since it was never really taken care of doesn't help.
Try agitating with a Brush Pro counter-rotating brush machine. Use this technique in a pit with an acid side cleaner for color stability and lubrication plus suspending the soil you loosen with the agitation. Helps if the water is also moving.
Looks like an old chinese Art Deco. These things can be pretty bad,, i suspect it was severely ground in before the flooding as well. Try to do some post dusting/badgering on it and see if the sediments will drop out easier. Let me know if this helps.
Dusty - been post dusting my a$$ off (don't have a badger). Most of the river mud is out - it is this dust that id driving me nuts. I am going to give it a nice long soak to see if that will relax the fibers a little.
