We had an area rug come in that smells like rubber. The tag says dry clean only. The custy said they called and the manufacturer said go ahead and wet clean. I was wondering ...has anyone ever had this smell before in an area rug they cleaned? Is there a rubber primary backing or something? I'm pretty sure it's just a wool rug. Its heavy like it might have rubber in it though. If so; will cleaning remove the smell? Do you think?
Humm... rubber-smelling. If there is "rubber" in it, it would be fusion-bonded vinyl (like commercial matting) and you would see that when you separate the face yarns (if possible) if it is not obvious from the backing. If it's a new rug and there is vinyl or dense black polyurethane foam in the construction, you may be smelling rogue plasticizers here and/or synthetic oleoresins and they will require time to off-gas. If the manufacturer okay'd wet-cleaning and the dyes look friendly and your customer is okay despite the labeling, do it and use a very good quality water-based deodorant in the solution. You are not looking for the common lemon, cherry, or midnight-at-the-Sierras type. If I were doing it, Odor-Bane by Certified/Nilodor is a superior product for this and will work well and penetrate that type of odor and leave it smelling nice. That's the original concentrated Odor Bane, not Odor Bane 2. There may not be any vinyl or foam or anything like that, as the label stated to dry clean it. That would not be specified for vinyl (or anything rubbery). Since the labels are selected according to the constituents there may be none. You may just be smelling everyday off-gassing of synthetic yarns, coatings on the yarns, synthetic materials, or manufacturer's lubes they use to run these through spinners and tufters/looms. If you wet clean, a high solvent prespray will assist in removing anything like that left behind. If it's new, accept the job with no guarantee. You may very well correct it, but there is a chance it will continue to smell to a small degree with off-gassing. If its not new, gather some facts about the odor's potential origin. Lastly, there may be a real defect with it in manufacturing. Don't assume that or even say that to the customer, but it sure as heck happens more than most think. Hope that helps -Brian
The rug is not new. It has been like this for quite a while. That is why the customer brought it in to us. I like the odor-bane idea. Thanks Brian.
hi Crash, Seeing it's not new and maybe has always smelled like that, then it's probably an imported item with off-gassing fillers or latex used to hold it together. It's not uncommon. Some large retailers sell things like this and there can be problems with them. When it's new, the customer assumes it's a "new smell" when in fact it's problematic materials in manufacturing. The Odor Bane will help, so long as the customer does not mind wet cleaning. If you have a hot fogger and can contain the smoke in and through the rug, this would help immensely also. The Odor Bane is an unsung hero in our business and works very well. Good luck! - Brian
Crash. Sounds like a latex stinker all right. These are normally not fixable, however there are some rare cases where we were able to pull these rugs apart and remove most of the stinky latex and fillers, then rebuild with high quality latex and a new backing, binding on the edge, cleaning etc. Of coarse without a pic showing the front and the back I can not be 100% this is a "tufted" latex stinker. When you get yourself out to a real HOBO (hands-on, boots-on) rug class you will quickly learn how to id these and fix the few that can be done. btw, manufacturers know NOTHING about cleaning, they have never cleaned a thing. see if you can snap a pic of the front and back and we can help you more on here.
Thanks fellas! I'll see if I can get a couple of pics tomorrow. Will post asap. The backing looks like dyed monks cloth. It really smells though from 6 to 8 ft away. I said rubber because it smells just like the rubber pad we install. I'll get the pics though.
monk cloth, most definitly a very crappy tufted. Many times these are the ones that can be pulled apart and rebuilt,, not worth the cost, however if the client has decorated around it and can't find something to replace it then a rebuild can be in order. I did have one client a while back with just this situation, he purchased a very dramatic red rug with a beautiful pattern in it then went nuts decorating his livingroom around it,, I betting he had over 20K into that room with the couchs, wallpaper, drapes, paint, and even a faux ceramic tile front on his fireplace, it looked amazing, but holy crap did that rug stink.. fortunatly the backing did peal off and as there was so much filler in the latex I was able to brush 90 plus percent of the stinky stuff off, then rebuilt the rug. I charged him @ 700. to do this and he was so happy,, to this day still one of my best referall sources! Lesson to learn, even a crappy cheap rug can be very valuable,, always let the client decide to go ahead or not as they may have a very good reason to keep the rug! Hope this helps.
Just a lil update...I called the customer and told them the price to TRY to fix the problem. They told me to throw the rug away. Guess I'll send them the "approval to throw the rug away" form. Thanks for the help fellas.
