Area rugs in Burnaby homes: wool vs synthetic, and what each costs to clean
Burnaby homes are full of area rugs. In the towers at Metrotown, Brentwood and Lougheed, a rug is often the only soft surface over laminate or engineered wood. In the older houses on Burnaby Heights and Capitol Hill, a wool rug in the living room may have been there for twenty years. People often ask whether wool costs more to clean than synthetic. The short answer is no. The longer answer is that the two fibres behave very differently, and knowing which one you have changes how you look after it.
What each costs to clean
We price rugs by size, not by fibre. All prices are plus GST, and the current promo comes off jobs above our $210 minimum.
| Rug | Price |
|---|---|
| About 10×8 or bigger | $90 |
| Smaller than 10×8 | $65 |
An 8×10 counts as a large rug, and so does a 9×12. A 5×8 is the smaller price. So a wool 9×12 and a polypropylene 9×12 both cost $90. A Brentwood condo with an 8×10 under the coffee table and a 5×8 in the bedroom comes to $155, which is under the $210 minimum visit, so it’s worth adding the sofa or a room. A Burnaby Heights house with a 9×12 in the living room, a 5×8 in each of two bedrooms and a hallway runner comes to $285 before the promo.
What changes between fibres isn’t the price. It’s the method, the time it takes to dry, and what you can expect to come out.
Synthetic rugs: tough on stains, hungry for oil
Most rugs from big furniture stores are polypropylene (also sold as olefin), polyester or nylon. They’re popular in condos because they’re affordable and shrug off a lot of spills.
- Stains: polypropylene doesn’t take up water-based colour easily, so juice, coffee and wine often come out well.
- Soil: it attracts oily soil, from cooking, skin and the soles of shoes. That’s the grey path you see from the couch to the balcony door. It builds slowly, so most people don’t notice until they move the furniture.
- Wear: cheaper synthetics flatten in traffic lanes. Cleaning lifts the soil, and grooming helps the pile stand up, but a crushed pile won’t come back completely.
- Cleaning: synthetics handle heat and water well, so they get a pre-treatment on the paths and spots, then hot water extraction that rinses the soil out and leaves the rug only damp.
Wool rugs: forgiving on soil, careful with chemistry
Wool is the fibre in most hand-knotted and many good machine-made rugs.
- Soil: wool hides dirt well and releases it well, which is why a wool rug can look fine for years and then come up much brighter after a clean.
- Stains: wool absorbs liquid, so a spill sinks in faster than on polypropylene. Fresh spills usually come out if they’re blotted quickly.
- Wear: wool is springy and holds its shape for decades, as long as grit doesn’t grind it down from underneath.
- Cleaning: wool needs a wool-safe pH and the right temperature, or the colours can run and the fibres can felt. We test for colour bleed on any rug with strong reds, blues or dark borders before we start, then groom the pile so it dries standing up.
At home, treat spills on wool with cool water and a little clear dish soap, blot rather than rub, and skip ammonia and solvents.
Viscose: the one to watch
Viscose, sometimes sold as “art silk” or “bamboo silk”, is shiny and soft and looks like silk at a fraction of the price. It’s common in newer condos. It’s also the hardest fibre to clean: it loses strength when it’s wet, can yellow, and its pile can crush for good if it’s scrubbed. We look at viscose rugs closely before we start and tell you honestly what to expect.
Not sure what yours is?
Look for a label on the back, near a corner. Take a photo of it and a photo of the front of the rug. We ask for both when you book, because the tag tells us the fibre, and the fibre decides the method. If there’s no tag or the fibre is unknown, we’ll ask you to sign a waiver before we start, which is normal for rugs.
How it works in a Burnaby tower or house
We clean rugs where they lie, so there’s no pick-up and no week without a rug. In a house, the truck-mounted unit stays outside and only the hose comes in. In a tower that doesn’t allow hoses through the lobby, we bring a high-powered portable unit instead, and we can book around your elevator reservation.
Most rugs are dry the same day. Thin rugs and flat-weaves dry fastest, and thick wool piles take the longest. Keep the rug flat, run a fan or the heat, and keep furniture off it until it’s dry. Our solutions are plant-based and pet-safe once dry, and we walk through the result with you before we leave.
You can add rugs to carpet cleaning in Burnaby or a couch clean in the same booking. Book area rug cleaning in Burnaby and you’ll see your price as you add each rug.
Common questions
Is wool worth the extra cost when I buy a rug? For a busy living room, wool usually lasts longer and cleans up better. For a kids’ room or under a dining table, a synthetic is easier to live with. Either way, the cleaning price is the same.
Can you get the grey path out of a polypropylene rug? Usually, yes, because it’s oily soil sitting on the fibre. Where the pile itself has been crushed flat, the colour comes back but the texture may not fully.
Will cleaning hurt my hardwood or laminate? No. The rug is left only damp, not soaked. Wait until it’s dry before you put it back under furniture.
Ready to book? See area rug cleaning in Burnaby, or call (604) 802-8500.