Spring Cleaning Allergy Tips

Published June 28, 2016 By Aladdin

As the thermometer creeps up and Spring and Summer arrive, many people will begin sneezing – a sign that allergy season has officially started. While the warmth of the sun surely will be welcome over the freeze of a few months ago, it also brings about a large amount of allergens – namely pollen which can make it’s way into the home, and stick inside upholstery and carpets. By utilizing regular carpet cleaning to eliminate impacted allergens and grout cleaning to remove any mold from tiles, you can prevent your allergies from getting that bad, so that instead of suffering from clogged up sinuses and a runny nose, you can get outside and enjoy the much nicer weather. Here’s some great tips for keeping your home healthier and allergy free.

Be Aware of What your Triggers Are

It’s important to learn what allergens trigger allergic reactions in you or your family members. The most common allergy triggers are animal dander, pollen, dust mites, mold spores, and cockroaches. If your triggers are outdoor alxlergens, keep your windows closed. If they are indoor allergens, open all the windows in order to air out the entire house. Read More →

Getting Oil off a Carpet

Published June 23, 2016 By Aladdin

If either you or your children make a big mess in the kitchen, it might behoove you to train yourself with some rudimentary carpet cleaning skills. One of the toughest kitchen stains to deal with is grease or cooking oil stains – the good news is we have your back. If you’re trying to deal with a cooking oil or grease stain, check out our tips and tricks on how to remove oil from a carpet.

Step One: Blot

First, blot up as much of the oil as possible. Use an absorbent fabric like a rag or towel – or in a punch, a brown paper bag. Don’t use newspaper because the ink can easily run and make the stain worse. This can help you get rid of the bulk of the stain.

Carpet Colors and Emotion

Published June 16, 2016 By Aladdin

If you find inspiration in the pages of an interior design brochure, or from the bold-colored carpets in your local design store, think about how you may feel when the color paint inside your new home finally dries. Many interior design professionals and psychologists acknowledge the strong effect that carpet color can have on people’s mood.

How Color and Decor can affect Psychology

Color psychology is the study of how different colors can affect human’s feelings and emotions. According to a quote on the Pantone Color Website, there’s a whole bunch of stimulation happening inside one’s brain when they see color that may not be immediately apparent. “The psychological association of a color is often more meaningful than the visual experience… Scientists have found that actual physiological changes take place in human beings [when exposed to particular] colors. Colors can stimulate, excite, depress, tranquilize, increase appetite, and create a feeling of warmth and coolness.”

Top Causes of Residential Water Damage

Published May 23, 2016 By Aladdin

It can happen to any household, at any time. There’s a billion ways it can happen. You walk in, and notice that the entire floor is soaked. This is the extreme scenario. In another, common and more subtle version, a small unchecked leak causes thousands of dollars of damage over the course of a long period of time. Here’s the 4 major causes of residential water damage that require professional intervention.

Nature

You can’t help this. Homes in certain locations are more vulnerable than others. Natural disasters like hurricanes or storms can flood your home with water – and if your home is within a flood zone, just a moderate rainstorm can cause rampant overflowing in nearby creeks or streams, causing water to enter your home. Earthquakes or tremors can make your water pipes crack, causing flooding. There’s no way to prevent a natural disaster from happening, but when it does, it’s important to do everything that you can to safely mitigate the damage.

Hard Floors are Worse for Allergies

Published May 17, 2016 By Aladdin

Spring is the season for allergies. Even if you don’t have any dietary allergies, the inflow of pollen in spring months can trigger allergy symptoms in almost anyone. Common opinion holds that rugs and carpets are inherently more allergy provoking than hardwood floors, as the fibers in carpets are more supple and might carry more pollen or pet dander. However surprising, this is actually incorrect. Hardwood floors are actually much worse for allergy sufferers than carpeted floors – here’s some of the reasons why.

Hard Floors retain bacteria, germs, and allergens

Even if you regularly mop the floor, your mopping is only removing a layer of dust. Many other germs, bacteria, and allergy triggering substances can remain on the floor unless you very thoroughly clean the carpet with special cleaning solutions. Carpets, in many ways, are much much easier to clean.

Removing Chocolate Stains from Carpets

Published May 5, 2016 By Aladdin

There’s no doubt about it; chocolate is simply the best. Even if it’s not at the bottom of the food pyramid, we can all agree that chocolate simply makes life better. However, regardless of how yummy it is, we simply can’t deal with indelible chocolate stains on your favorite carpet or rug. Chocolate stains are some of the most deep, hardest to remove stains around. Let’s say you’re already dealing with a chocolate stain; here’s how to treat it.

Carefully Scrape it Off

Since chocolate melts quickly in higher temperatures and quickly solidifies in low temperatures, carpets and rugs can get ruined by melted chocolate that becomes a mold as the temperature drops. If you notice dried chocolate on your rug or carpet, try gently rug cleaning method of scraping it off – the key word is ‘gentle’ as you can cause more structural damage to the rug if you’re too rough. While this won’t completely remove the stain, it will help make it less thick and much easier to handle. This way you know that even if the carpet or rug gets exposed to higher temperatures that the chocolate won’t re-melt and spread, causing a larger stain.

Draught Marks (Filtration Soiling) on Carpets

Published April 17, 2016 By Aladdin

What are draught markings?

Draught markings are dark, dirty, or soiled spots that appear on carpets on the edges of the walls or under doorways. Sometimes they can even be found in other areas of the rug along the pattern of the floorboards.

Draught markings are otherwise known as filtration soiling, fogging, or dust markings. They are caused by contaminated air with microscopic dirt particles – the carpet filters the dirt from the air, causing an ugly stain on the carpet or rug.

Carpets can be soiled by contaminated air in these ways:

It passes upwards through gaps between the floorboards.
Through gaps under the skirting boards.
Through holes within the carpet caused by carpet fitting devices or nails.
Through gaps under doors with high air concentration.
Through gaps under the underside of curtains, which usually creates a wavy line pattern.
Through air vents that are positioned close to the carpet.

How can we prevent draught markings?

The most effective way of preventing these unsightly marks from marring your carpets is to draught proof your carpet – this can be accomplished by putting hardwood sheets above the existing floorboards, taping their joints together to prevent air leaks, putting paper on top of it for extra protection, and using a flexable weather stripping like mastic to seal any space between the floor and the board. If all these steps are followed it’s highly unlikely you’ll have the necessary air currents to create draught markings.

How can we cure draught markings?

Unfortunately it’s quite hard to completely remove evidence of a draught marking. Since the soiling of the rug happens on a microscopic level, the oil of the dirt might remain bonded to the fibers of the carpet. The ability to remove the stain depends on what kind of soil it’s made of and how long it has been on the carpet. The fresher the stain, the easier it is to remove. Venting marks – the marks that run the perimeter of rooms or rugged stairs, is caused by the limitation of upright vacuum cleaners to get right up to the carpet’s edge – prevented from doing so by bulky casing. Eventually all the unvacuumed dirt in the edges accumulates and becomes a serious black stain. We recommend the use of a crevice vacuum, or vacuum plug in to help suck up all the dirt caught up in the corners of your rug.

How to Clean a Red Wine Stain

Published April 3, 2016 By Aladdin

Picture this: you’re relaxing at home, enjoying a glass of red wine on the couch – allowing yourself to decompress after a long workday or busy weekend – when the worst happens. You slip. A noise startles you. You trip. The important thing is that the glass slips out of your grib, and it’s almost like it’s happening in slow motion – you watch, dejected, as a giant red stain appears on your perfect, (formerly) immaculate carpet.

What should you do? What emergency measures should you take? Should you be reaching for the bleach? Does cold water take out stains… or is it hot water? Try not to panic. It may look like dire circumstances but you can absolutely remedy the situation. Here’s the steps to follow so you can do that.

Soak up all the excess wine

Before you reach for any other cleaning solutions, grab an absorbent cloth and start blotting the stain, using a fresh (not absorbed yet) area of the cloth each time you blot down – the goal is to absorb as much liquid as you possibly can from the carpet. After you’ve absorbed as much liquid as you can, pour some clean water on the stain, and continue blotting it. Repeat this a few times – but you don’t want to completely saturate the couch with water, rather make sure that as much of the surface stain transfers onto the blotting cloth as possible. This will make the entire cleanup process much more effective.

Test all cleaners before final use

If you have a dark colored carpet, or a delicate antique rug, you don’t want to be using a harsh or intense cleaning solution that could degrade or abrade the fabric, damaging it. We recommend testing a small hidden spot of the fabrics reaction the solution before using it on the rest of it – this makes sure that the quality and color of the carpet won’t be affected by it – which could be irreversible.

Choose your Weapon

Carpet Stain Remover

The directions for this plan varies based on whatever brand you’re using – we recommend simply following the directions on the label if you don’t want to encounter any accidents.

Baking Soda

Mix baking soda and water on a 3:1 ratio until it’s a paste, and pat some of the paste into the stain completely. Once dry, vacuum off; keep in mind that for extra power try mixing baking soda with hydrogen peroxide.

Club Soda

The internal carbonation in a bottle of club soda helps it remove stains efficiently – we recommend using it when you’re blotting (instead of water.)

Vinegar

Vinegar works great on red wine stains – mix it with a bit of water and blot the stain – when you’ve done all that you can, blot afterwards with a bit of dish soap.

Dish Soap

Mix soap and hydrogen peroxide, apply it to the stain, allow it to rest and penetrate the stain and then blot it away.

Salt

Poar a huge amount of salt onto the stain and give it some time as it absorbs the time – this should be a fantastic immediate post-stain therapy – simply vacuum to finish up.

See what you’ve done

If you were not able to get rid of the entire stain (as many people are) it’s wise to call in professional assistance. The expert cleaners at Aladdin are prepared with top-of-the-line equipment to clean up all stains – including red wine. Although nothing beats a professional carpet cleaning, these tips should do you well in the event of an emergency, It’s wise to keep these items around the house.

A Helpful Guide for Buying New Rugs

Published February 8, 2016 By Aladdin

Here’s a great guide for buying rugs, full of tips and valuable information that can help you make your decision about finding the perfect one for your home or business. Are you looking for a traditional design – or a modern one? Today, many traditional rugs blend traditional and modern patterns. Here are a list of questions that you can ask yourself to help get a picture of the kind of rugs that you should purchase.

Do you want your carpet to be more of a muted background for the room?

Match the carpet to the room’s general color – you can choose a single square of color or a subtle pattern. If the room needs a centerpiece, use a center focused medallion design – and if there’s another centerpiece in the room, use an all over design.

Do you want your carpet to be bright in it’s pattern and design?

If the room has a lot of preexisting patterns in it’s furniture or walls, it might be a tasteful choice to choose a solid color rug in a single neutral color. If you want your room to seem cozier, choose a darker color. Bright color rugs make rooms appear larger than they are.

How many people pass through the room?

Do you have children? How about pets? Rugs vary in their durability – if there’s constant traffic, wool flatweave rugs preserve very well. Busy patterns are good for camouflaging footprints and stains.

What’s your desired price range?

Wool is more expensive than cotton, but lasts much longer. Machine made rugs are cheaper than handmade ones.

Once you have an idea about the answer to these questions, it helps to know a few of these words and terms – details about the material and make of carpets.

Types of Material

All kinds of material have different textures and feels. It’s up to you to decide which rug material is best for your room.

Cotton

This material is easily dyed, so it’s available in a huge range of colors. It’s soft, and a more relaxed and affordable than wool. Cotton rugs are usually braided or flat-weaves.

Wool

This is the traditional material choice for rugs. It’s durable, soft on feet, and as time passes takes on a finish that contributes to it’s surrounding environment. These rugs are thicker than those of other materials. Wool from sheep raised in high altitudes have the strongest fiber. These rugs are best when they get professionally cleaned.

Seagrass, Sisal, and Jute

These materials are durable and perfect for floor coverings. Sisal is the strongest. while Jute is the softest. None of them are as soft as cotton or wool – but they boast special textures that other materials can’t quite match. If you’re allergic to wool, these rugs are an excellent choice – however they should be protected from both the sun and damp environments. These rugs are not easily cleaned.

Polypropylene

This synthetic fabric is stain-resistant, making it a good choice for outdoor rugs.

Silk and Viscose

This material is usually blended with wool in combination rugs – the addition of this material often contributes to the design by adding a light quality.

Types of Weaving Patterns

Hand Knotted

This pattern is complicated, and takes artisans much labor and maneuver. The pile is made by knotting yarn around pairs of warps all along the rug’s length. Both the asymmetric/open Persian knot and the symmetric Turkish knot patterns can be used. The more individual knots, the more long-lasting the rug will be.

Tufted

This pattern can be completed by people or machinery – it involves loops being pulled through a attached backing material and trimmed to make a smooth surface. Then another layer is connected to the back of the rug to hold all the loops in place.

Hooked

Similarly to in tufted rugs, yarn is here attached to a backing under an additional cloth layer – however the pile is not cut to create a smooth appearance.

Flatweave

This rug doesn’t have any knots or any pile – these rugs are created on looms and put through warps.

Most Expensive Rugs Sold

Published January 26, 2016 By Aladdin

Value in Handmade, Traditional Distinction

Well made carpets or rugs contribute huge amounts of beauty to the decor of any abode or business. With their patterns, colors, and designs, rugs add to the aesthetic of any surrounding furniture, and completes a space really well without being overwhelming. They add a sense of vitality and life to homes – and their placement inside living rooms, the traditional center of family life, can really contribute to the emotional and performative dynamic of homes.

It would be totally logical to assume that these rare rugs cost more than the Home Depot machine manufactured alternative. Oriental and Persian rugs are inherently valuable and pricey do to their intricate craftsmanship and limited availability. It’s no surprise that these rugs often sell for lofty price points comparable to rare artworks or sculptures – that’s because these rugs demonstrate the attention to detail that goes into any special work of art.