Originally published in Installation & Cleaning Specialist magazine.

Rug cleaning specialists should be aware of a new design trend in rugs called "tea wash" or "herbal wash." This process gives a warm "antique" look to the rug. This should not be confused with the "antique wash" discussed in a previous article. What was discussed then is the aggressive chemical wash process that removes dye to make the rug look old by muting the colors.

Tea washing a rug adds a warm color, resulting in a yellow hue. This is a design trend toward vintage, antique or an old-world look. Figure 1 is Karastan's most popular rug design - the Kirman. This standard design is done with a tea wash. Notice the warm yellow tone this rug has. This look has become so popular some rug stores can not sell a rug that has not been tea washed.

The tea wash process is generally performed after the rug is woven but before a final chemical wash is given to the rug. A final chemical wash removes excess dyes from the tea wash and hopefully results in a rug that is fast to future wet cleaning. You will need to identify this treatment when doing your pre-cleaning inspection. Some of the first rugs that were given a tea wash were done with tea or henna, a natural dye popular in the Middle East that is used to color hair. Some rugs are treated with synthetic dyes including pre-metalized acid dyes. The problem for the professional cleaner is having no assurance of how the tea washed rug will respond to cleaning. Unless it is one of the major programmed machine-made rugs like Karastan, there is a good chance the tea wash will bleed or lighten in color during cleaning or drying. This has resulted in some cleaners calling tea wash by another name that rhymes with tea.

During your inspection, test for color fastness with a white towel and the cleaning detergent you will use. If you get a color transfer on the towel, plan on a cleaning challenge. For example, the tea wash could migrate into the fringes. Strippers or oxygen release bleaches that could result in a color change on the fringe that would be difficult to correct. Machine-made rugs have fringes attached following the tea wash process and should not have this problem as they generally are dyed with color fast materials to match the rug.

If you find the tea wash coming off during your color fastness test, it would be best to turn down the job. You could try the route of obtaining a customer release from liability. However, you are the professional and if the customer is unhappy with the results, you may still end up refunding the cost of cleaning or more.

The question most people are asking is "Will this trend last?" Now that many of the larger companies are selling tea washed rugs, it is certain this look will become a basic part of the retailer's repertoire.

Everyone's most time-consuming cleaning step is the fringe on rugs. They look great when the rug is new, but often go downhill from there. They act as dirt magnets, untwist, mat or bloom and are subject to cellulose browning.

Most fringes on hand-tied rugs are cotton. In many tribal rugs, the foundation yarns are wool (see illustration 2). Learn to recognize the look of a fringe on a tribal rug. The dark appearance is the natural color of wool or of the goat hair that is sometimes blended with the wool. This is not discoloration or browning, and should not be treated with bleach-type chemicals. Silk rugs will often, but not always, have silk foundation yarns. As with wool, silk fringes should be cleaned - but not with bleach.

On area rugs that are machine made, a separate fringe is often sewn onto both ends of the rug as shown in illustration 3. These fringes can by cotton, nylon, rayon or the fiber of the rug pile.

Because most problems occur with them, cotton fringes will be the focus of this article. The primary source of the problem is cellulose browning. This is the same problem you'd experience if you improperly cleaned a Haitian cotton sofa.

Cellulose degrades and oxidizes over time. When moisture is applied to it, a natural dye is released to the surface. A common example of this can be seen when a newspaper has been left outdoors for the weekend. When the paper if finally picked up, a brown color will have appeared on its surface. This is the result of cellulose in the paper "browning." The problem of brown or discolored fringes increases when a rug is hung on a dry pole, as is the practice in most plants.