Wednesday, December 29, 2010

How to Remove Dog Pee Out of Rugs

After a long tiring day at work you come home only to have your nose bombarded with a horrid smell. You start your investigation to find the source of the foul odour and to your horror it is your favorite area rug carpet. Your beloved dog has peed on it while you were away. Upon further investigation you also find that this wasn't the only time your rug was used as an indoor bathroom. Now what do you do? First don't panic, I know easy to say not always easy to do. Grab some COTTON Towels, do not grab any cleaners or spot removers, just cotton towels.

Depending on if your rug is wool, synthetic, or another fiber type and if your rug is hand-knotted, hand tufted, or machine-made will decide how easily urine will be removed from your rug. These tips are at your own risk since I do not know your exact type of rug. Getting a professional WoolSafe area rug cleaner to deal with urine is always best.

The thing about pet urine is the older it is the harder it is to get out of area rugs. When you get a new puppy it almost guaranteed they will pee on your rugs, A LOT. Do not wait until your puppy is fully trained to get the rug taken care of. When you first notice that your rug is used as a bathroom get it professionally cleaned and afterward if you don't need to use the rug keep it stored away until your puppy is fully trained.

Another fact about your dog peeing on your rug is when you catch them doing it, it probably isn't the first time they have done it. Depending on the type of construction your rug has it may be hard to see where your dog has peed. The only real way to tell is to get to down and start smelling your rug. Dogs tend to like to pee in the corners, the middle of the rug if it isn't covered by furniture, near furniture legs and by entrance doors. A round or oval urine stain is from a female, and of course a splatter is from male.

When you do find that your rug is being used as an indoor bathroom this is what you can do:

  • If the urine is fresh place cotton towel on the floor under where the urine is and take a folded white cotton towel and blot the spot by stepping on the towel all around the urine. When the towel has become too wet, use another clean, cotton towel and continue to step all over the spot until you are getting no more wetness on the towel. Check the towel underneath your rug to see if it is getting too wet. Change the towel as needed to protect your floor from the urine.
  • Now dampen a towel with water and blot the top of the rug where the urine was. DO NOT RUB your rug in a circular motion. This causes pile distortion which is permanent. Keep the urine spot moist until you can get your rug to a professional wool safe area rug cleaner the next day.
  • Do not wait days or weeks to get your rug taken care of. The longer the urine is in your rug the harder it is to remove. If you are unable to personally take the rug in see about getting the cleaners to pick it up.

When you have not seen your dog peeing on you rug, but find out from the odour, or you were moving the rug and noticed your floor has evidence of urine spots, there isn't much you can do to fix the rug yourself. When the urine is absorbed by your rug and is now dry and any efforts you make by applying miracle cleaners from bottles will completely ruin your valuable rugs.

The best and safest thing to do is get it to your WoolSafe area rug cleaners as soon as possible. Anything you may try can ruin your rug. Here at Luv-a-Rug Cleaners in Victoria BC, Canada we see rugs all the time that have been permanently damaged by DIY (Do-It-Yourself) cleaning. It isn't worth the hassle or expense to try to clean your rug yourself when it comes to urine removal or for that fact most spills.

Whenever you are in doubt call your professional area rug cleaners.

Since there are more than enough articles written about DIY rug and carpet cleaning here are some things to avoid using on area rugs:

  • Baking Soda, it can discolour wool area rugs, plus it is not made for used on rugs
  • Oxi-sprays, not made for any type of area rugs period! (read the fine print on the bottle, the risk is all yours)
  • Hosing your rug with a power washer, can cause the pile to change texture, your rug to warp or worse your rug to start coming apart
  • Any cleaners or spot removers that are not WoolSafe, if they don't say anything about being safe for wool they can cause permanent damage to your rugs
  • Ammonia, it is not made to be used on area rugs
  • Bleach and any cleaners with bleach, not made for use on rugs

Things that are safe to use on most rugs for spills:

  • Water to dampen the area, not wet the area. getting some area rugs wet causes damage
  • Salt to absorb red wine spills and most wet spills, make sure it is regular white salt, not a flavoured salt
  • Oatmeal/ Quick Oats absorbs wet spills
  • Vinegar mixed with water in a 2 parts water to 1 part vinegar for urine on wool rugs or if your rug bleeds dye easily
  • A dry cleaning product called Host Sponges. Call around to carpet and rug cleaners to buy this moist cleaner that absorbs dirt. Made from corn husks and citrus. It is designed to clean your wall to wall carpet and is Wool safe

To help prevent your dog from starting to use your rugs as indoor bathrooms:

  • Sprinkle your rugs with Pepper when you first put them down, either as a new rug or after it was cleaned. As long as the pepper doesn't get wet it won't stain your rugs and you can vacum it up after a couple of days. This is good to do when you get a puppy or a new dog in your house, and after you move to a new place.
  • When you go away for vacation and have someone house-sitting roll up your rugs and put them in an unused room. Pets don't like their routines messed with and when you are not there they can act out of character and pee on your rugs.

Check the floor where your rug covers and the backs of your rugs if you suspect they may have been peed on. Whenever your dog stops following their regular bathroom routine it may because they found a more convenient place to go, your rugs.

There is no magic solution for urine removal at home. There are products made that promise you great results, but most cover up the odour and are not made for every fiber type used to make area rugs. The best thing to do is to get your rugs professionally cleaned as soon as you know they have been peed on. Pets will always seek out your rugs for their business because they are absorbent just like outdoors, even if you only own one rug they will target it.

Tag : rugs,bath rugs,area rugs,floor rugs

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mary_J_Morris


Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Classroom Rugs - Capture the Hearts and Minds of Children

Children today have so much vying for their attention that they are easily distracted when it comes to learning. It's just the times in which we live. Teaching children is tough and teachers and childcare professionals need all the help they can get when it comes to educating children. A classroom rug is one such teaching aid that is invaluable in the classroom. These bright and fun carpets come in many shapes, sizes, and themes. All geared to help the classroom teacher or daycare professional educate and inspire children of all ages.

Who uses Classroom Rugs?

Many classroom rugs on the market today have been designed with the preschool or elementary school teacher in mind. Also, faith-based rugs have made a big impact in private schools & churches. Educators that teach pre-k to elementary age children use alphabet rugs and number rugs to teach the early learning concepts. Plus, there are childrens rugs available to teach color and geometric shape recognition. Librarians and media specialist use library rugs and seating rugs at story time to organize the children for optimum quietness and order. There are even map rugs, bilingual rugs, and music rugs to teach kids geography, foreign languages, and music notes. Lastly, we know kids are full of energy and need playtime for good health and social interaction and to meet this need there are many play rugs on the market.

Classroom Carpets that Teach and Organize

Above we discussed who uses classroom rugs and briefly touched on how they are used, but let's take a deeper dive. Below is list of some of the common themes of classroom rugs currently available.

Alphabet Rugs - These are available with uppercase letters, lowercase letters, combination of both, and with images and letters. An alphabet rug will aid in letter recognition and phonics. Children's rugs with letters and images aid in letter association with a word --- for example, the letter "A" and a picture of an apple. Teachers can use an alphabet carpet to teach preschool and elementary school students the alphabet and reading. Learning this way is more fun and exciting than learning from sentence strips!

Number Rugs - With a number rug children will learn to recognize the numbers and learn to count. Some children's rugs come with both the alphabet and numbers. Teach children by having them walk to and stand on the number that is called out. Some carpets even come with simple math equations so that a teacher can start introducing children to math.

Seating Rugs - Seating classroom carpets usually come with colored squares or circles arranged in a grid or pattern and are designed to seat a certain number of children. Depending on your classroom size you can expect to seat up to 20 to 30 kids on one classroom carpet. The larger the carpet the more children you can seat. Seating rugs are great for circle time sharing or story time reading. A seating rug organizes the children in the classroom which translates into a calmer more peaceful atmosphere. Both teachers and librarians will love these rugs!

Shape and Color Rugs - Teach geometric shapes and color recognition. Elements of this theme of rugs is often found in some of the other classroom carpet types, but if you need to teach color and what a square, circle, triangle, oval, hexagon, etc. look like then pick one of these kids rugs.

Faith Based Rugs - A faith based rug usually includes elements of the above carpets, but also includes a religious teaching. If you teach in a Catholic school, Christian school, Jewish school, or church you will find a large selection of religious rugs to choose.

Bilingual Rugs - Today more than ever teaching another language is so important as different cultures come together. A bilingual rug in Spanish and English or French and English are available to teach either ESL kids English or English speaking children Spanish or French. Look for bilingual rugs that teach numbers, letters, colors, shapes, and word association. Some bilingual rugs teach several of these on the same carpet. What a fun way to learn another language & teach cultural diversity!

Map Rugs - Whether you are teaching geography or social studies a map rug is a great teacher's aid. Look for carpets that include all 50 U.S. States or a world rug that includes all the continents and their names. With a map rug children will learn U.S and world geography in a snap!

Play Rugs - When rainy days occur or kids need to be inside look to a play rug as a fun alternative. Although some play rugs can even be used outsides. Hopscotch rugs are a fun activity that most all kids will love. Also, road rugs that have city streets can be used for playing with toy cars and such. These carpets help kids learn fine motor skills, coordination, and balance.

Carpet Squares - Carpet squares and rounds can be found to be used with many of the rugs mentioned above. These usually are made in 12 inch squares or rounds with letters, numbers, shapes, animals, bilingual, phonics, etc. --- great for matching and playing games!

As teachers look for new, exciting, and fun ways to grab the attention of children and inspire them to learn, one option is to include classroom rugs as a teaching aide. There are many shapes, sizes, colors, and themes on the market that early childhood and elementary teachers, daycare centers, and churches can find that will fit their needs.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jeff_Cabaniss

Thursday, December 16, 2010

An Easy Guide to Good Rug Care

When you choose an area rug for any room in your house, one of the things that you have to take into consideration is how to keep it clean. This does not only mean how to train the residents of your home not to spill things on it or to how to avoid damaging it, but how well it washes and how to keep it looking good for as long as possible.

Let's look at the various kinds of rugs and a selection of ways to look after them:

- No matter what your rug is made from, keep it away from direct sunlight. Rugs tend to fade very easily, especially if they are under a large window. If this is not always possible, then at least rotate it fairly often so that it is not left with unsightly, faded patches. Similarly, rotate the carpet every so often that it will also be trodden down on all sides, rather than in one direction, which could make it end up looking quite weird after a while.

- Vacuum your carpet or rug often to remove grit, which is anathema to any carpet, but don't overdo it as you could end up stretching the fibers, which is not a good idea. In most places, once a week is sufficient.

- Occasionally, you may feel a need to wash your rugs, though this should not be done too often. Obviously, the first thing that you need to do is read the washing instructions and then follow them absolutely religiously. Don't try to be too clever - you could end up messing up your rugs if you do.

- If you have a natural flokati rug, you are best off brushing it. However, if you wish to wash it, you are probably best off hand-washing it. The best way to do this is to put it in the bath and clean it with cool water and a very gentle wool detergent. Remember: hot water may cause shrinkage, so do not use it. Soak in the water, agitate by hand, and then rinse again with cool water. Hang the rug to dry in a place that is free of sunlight as this could cause damage.

- If you want to clean a bamboo rug, this may prove more difficult because excessive moisture could easily cause mold. But do not think it is impossible. Use some household detergent on a cloth, and wipe clean any marks or mildew. Otherwise, stick to dusting, sweeping, and shaking it out.

- Make sure that it is totally dry before placing it back down, especially if you have wood flooring as the moisture can damage both the floor and the rug.

- Whatever happens, and no matter what your rug is made from, it is always extremely important to clean away stains as soon as possible, before they set in and cause permanent damage to your rug.

Caring for your rug, therefore involves a lot of common sense more than anything else. Remember reading the manufacturer's instructions, as we mentioned above, so that the rug will not get ruined when you tried to clean it. Do your best to keep it clean, and put a lot of effort into it, and you will soon see some very positive results.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sacha_Megan_Miller

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Use Traditional Rugs For A Classic Style

With more and more homes seeming to be kitted out with all the latest mod cons and having new-look contemporary decor installed in them, the need for more traditional rugs is obviously less apparent in these cases. However, these types of rug can be perfect if you want to steer away from the modern styles of chrome detailing and fresh, funky patterns. Choosing to go for a more classic style of rug can really help to create a defined look for any room in your home. Putting a bit of time and effort into your search is certainly worthwhile as you can create a great centrepiece for your room by finding the right product.

When you are looking for a less contemporary style of rug, using the internet can be a great way of cutting down on the time taken in your search. You will generally find that most online retailers will have a wide range of products available and you will be able to look through numerous colours, textures and materials. Clearly the choice that you end up making is going to ultimately depend on your own personal preference and the rest of the colour scheme and style of the room you are purchasing it for but whatever your preference you will have plenty of options.

By going online to look through the ranges you can easily compare a lot of different styles and get a good idea of exactly what is available. You will find that the majority of rugs that are on sale can be bought in a number of different sizes, this means that if you find something you like then you can get it in a size that is best suited for the room it is intended for.

A classic style within your home can be so much more elegant than the same old modern decor and furniture that can be found in so many houses. Getting the mix right can give your home a stylish look that can be hard to beat. Looking for traditional rugs to go in a particular room can help to bring the whole room together. A rug can either be used as the focal point of a room, it can be used to break up a bit of empty floor space or maybe to add a bit of extra style or comfort. Whatever your reason for buying a rug, finding the right one for your home is worth spending the time and effort.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chris_Roche