Posted by John Bolton on 11/1/2009, 3:04 pm, in reply to "Re: Area Rug 8x10 "
94.168.81.245

Danni, Start with a thorough dry extraction. Place the rug pile-down on a tarpaulin and 'back-dust' with an upright vacuum cleaner, moving very slowly. Lift the rug, then brush or vacuum away the soil that has been deposited. repeat this process until no appreciable amount of soil is being removed. Then top-vacuum the rug. I often spend more time on the dry extraction than I do on the wet and the amount of soil removed by this is astounding. This from a fairly lightweight rug - heavy rugs can hide considerably more soil. Most of this would not be removed by top-vac'ing alone. Having removed up to 80% of the total soil-load, you then tackle the remainder with a wet extraction. First in this stage (after the customary pre-testing) comes the pre-conditioning. Apply a suitable pre-spray and brush in well. After any required dwell time comes the rinse. You may wish to add an acid rinse to your Recoil but whatever rinse agent employed should be warm or cold rather than hot. A handtool is better than a wand for several reasons which I can go into later. Use of an air-mover will not only speed up drying but will impart a softer 'hand' to the rug.