Silk Rug?

While you wait for the official answer from Lisa -

There may be silk fibers in this rug but it is not a silk rug. Likely wool on cotton foundation. You can carefully get a few fibers to burn test.

Do your complete inspection first. Always the first step to cleaning a rug.

Soaking in a rug pit is the first step for urine saturated rugs. There are sveral good threads on soaking rugs to eliminate urine.

An alternative is to apply an acid neutralizer - TCU Neutralizer is what I suggest. Saturate this and give it some time to work.

Then flush it with plenty of water. You can put your solution line on the face of the rug and your vacuum tool / Spot Claw or whatever on the back side to flush the urine and draw it through the rug rather than pulling it to the surface.

When you have finished that process, you will need to decide what further risks are warranted. Most further cleaning agnets for urine pose at least some risk of damage but urine in the rug is the biggest damage of all. It is a choice between the lesser of two evils.

You might consider a reducer such as Red Relief for wool because reducers can be safer for wool. However an oxidixer will likely give better results.

Thanks for the post on this Scott - you are always making good comments here!

Pete - this is a wool Chinese sculpted rug (probably 90-line) - super popular in the 80s/90s. Also AGGRESSIVELY chemically washed to make it "shiny" which is why your client thinks it is silk.

Because of the chemical washing - it makes these rugs susceptible to all staining, easily faded by sun, and VERY reactive to stain removers (in fact I had a student in one of my past workshops ASSURE me that Stain Magic for Wool would remove a similar stain on a Chinese rug in class ... and since it was one of my rugs in my RUG DISASTERS collection, I let him show me ... and it turned into an orange glowing result WORSE than the pet stain ... the product may work great on regular wool, but it does not in my experience work well on chemically treated wool - which most product from China is.)

Any stain removers you use - use with EXTREME caution and in small test areas first. With my clients, I tell them all pet stains on these Chinese rugs are permanent -if they get better, that's great, but often they do not. You can give these rugs a bath and remove the odor (Scott's right - we've talked already about pet odor removal on rugs and this one will not be a dye bleed issue) - but removing the stains, don't set yourself up for a failure here ... tell her they are permanent and if she still wants you to clean this even if the stains do not come out.

Dr. Aziz wrote an article for Cleanfax about chemical washing that Tony Wheelwright posted a little while ago - here it is down below.

Hope this helps,
Lisa

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By Aziz Ullah, Ph.D., MBA
Oriental rug manufacture is an art.
This discussion explores the final steps in securing the pattern and
design of newly-woven Oriental wool rugs chemical washing. Understanding this process is useful to cleaning professionals cleaning Oriental rugs.

Chemical washing used to make "Chinese rugs"
1. The raw rug is placed face down on the floor and the extraneous fibers on its backside are burnt with a propane torch.
2. The rug is placed face up in a large open pit and wetted copiously with water.
3. A dilute solution of sulfuric acid is sprayed on, ensuring the acid penetrates the rug completely.
4. The rug is vigorously scrubbed with a thick, stiff-bristled nylon broom.
5. A dilute solution of chlorine bleach is sprayed on the rug. Some extraneous dyes run but cannot set in adjacent fibers due to the chlorine bleach.
6. The rug is scrubbed vigorously again with the nylon broom and thoroughly flushed with water.
Voluminous chlorine gas is liberated at this stage, so take adequate precautions. As a general guide, between 1 and 2% (of the weight of the goods) of available chlorine is required. It is important that sufficient acid be used to maintain balance condition to prevent the wool from yellowing.
The above procedure is repeated three to six times, depending on the type of rug. Single-knotted rugs brighten after two or three washings; double-knotted rugs need five to six washings.
7. A dilute solution of caustic soda (oven cleaner) is sprayed on the rug, which is scoured again with the nylon broom. Additional dye bleeding may occur, but residual chlorine in the wool prevents the dyes from setting in adjacent fibers. The caustic soda provides a controlled, uniform dissolution of the wool fiber. However, extreme care is taken because excess caustic soda can dissolve too much of the wool.
Once the chemical washing process is begun, it is essential to complete it or the rug will be damaged. After each treatment of chlorine bleach or caustic soda, the rug must be flushed with water before starting the next step. Finally, the rug is washed with substantial water to remove all alkali.
8. Steel-edged scrapers squeegee out the water. Along with the water, loose and weakened fibers are removed.
9. At times, the wool has an objectionable chlorine smell. Treatment
for 15 minutes with either 2 percent (of the weight of the goods) sodium sulfite or bisulfite will remove residual chlorine.
10. Since chlorinated wool tends to leave a harsh hand, a final application of laundry soap or cationic softening agent is required. Laundry soap (or a suitable cationic softening agent) is applied to the rug, which then is rolled and left overnight. The next day the rug is washed again with water and dried in the sun. At this point, the rug has a worn, aged appearance.
11. The rug is then stretched between steel pipes and sheared with oversize shears. This brings about a uniform pile height, and brings out brighter, more vivid colors.