Rug Cleaning London

Crystal Carpet Cleaners provides professional rug cleaning across London – at your home, on the same day where possible. Our NCCA-certified technicians deep clean wool, Persian, Oriental, silk, shaggy and synthetic rugs using pH-balanced solutions that lift out dirt, stains and odours while protecting delicate fibres and dyes.

A rug is often the centrepiece of a room – and the first thing to trap dust, allergens and spills. Regular professional cleaning extends its life and keeps colours vivid. Many customers combine rug cleaning with professional carpet cleaning or upholstery cleaning in the same visit.

Certified fully insured and trained technicians

Rug Cleaning Prices

Rug size	You pay only	Old price
Small rug (2x3)	£20	£40
Medium rug (3x4)	£30	£60
Large rug (5x6)	£35	£70

A minimum booking of £80 applies to all visits – most customers combine their rugs with carpets or a sofa. Parking and congestion charges are added to the invoice where applicable. See the full price list.

Prefer to see the process before you book? The short clip below shows a large wool rug being cleaned start to finish – inspection, dry soil removal, gentle extraction and grooming.

Take a look at real results from our rug cleaning jobs across London – the same careful process shown above, applied to wool, Persian and synthetic rugs alike.

Rugs we clean

• Wool rugs – deep cleaned with wool-safe, pH-neutral solutions
• Persian and Oriental rugs – dye-stability tested, gentle hand finishing
• Silk and viscose rugs – low-moisture methods for delicate fibres
• Shaggy and deep-pile rugs – full extraction of trapped dust and grit
• Synthetic rugs – fast-drying hot water extraction
• Antique and valuable rugs – assessed individually, cleaned by hand where needed

Wool rug cleaning

Wool is naturally resilient but sensitive to heat and alkaline chemicals. We use wool-safe, pH-neutral solutions and controlled water temperatures, so the lanolin and softness of the fibre are preserved and the pile does not shrink or felt.

Persian and Oriental rug cleaning

Hand-knotted Persian, Turkish and Chinese rugs are dye-tested before any cleaning starts. Fringes are cleaned separately by hand and natural dyes are protected with pH-balanced products in the optimum concentration for the fabric.

Silk and viscose rug cleaning

Silk and viscose lose strength when wet, so we clean them with specialised low-moisture methods and gentle agitation. This removes soil and restores sheen without distorting the delicate pile.

How your rug is made changes how it must be cleaned

Two rugs can look almost identical on the floor and need completely different treatment, because what matters is how they were built. A hand-knotted rug has its pile tied into a woven foundation, so it can take a full immersion wash and come out stronger for it. A hand-tufted rug looks similar from above but its tufts are held in place by a latex adhesive and a fabric backing glued on top. That latex breaks down with age, and when it gets wet it releases a distinct smell that owners often mistake for pet odour. We can clean hand-tufted rugs safely, but we do it with controlled moisture and we tell you beforehand if the backing is already failing, because no amount of cleaning reverses delamination.

Machine-made polypropylene rugs are the most forgiving and the cheapest to clean properly. Flatweaves and kilims have no pile at all, which sounds easier but actually means every bit of soil sits in the structure itself and any dye instability shows immediately. Shaggy and high-pile rugs hide an astonishing amount of grit at the base of the fibre and need the longest dusting stage. When you call us, telling us roughly what the rug is and where it came from saves a visit and gets you an accurate price first time.

Why a rug gets dirty differently from a fitted carpet

A fitted carpet sits on underlay and is soiled mainly from above. A rug has no underlay, two exposed faces, and a foundation that acts like a sieve. Dry soil works its way down through the pile and settles in the weave, where a domestic vacuum cannot reach it. This is why a rug can feel gritty when you run your hand against the pile even though it looks clean, and why the floor underneath is often dusty when the rug is lifted.

It also explains the single step that separates proper rug cleaning from a quick surface wash: dusting. Before any water touches the rug we agitate it mechanically to drive that dry soil back out of the foundation. A heavily used wool rug can release a surprising quantity of fine grit at this stage. Skipping it and going straight to wet cleaning turns that dry soil into mud and drives it deeper, which is the usual reason a rug looks worse a few weeks after a cheap clean than it did before.

Pet urine in rugs, honestly explained

Urine is the problem we are called about most and the one most often misdiagnosed. On a fitted carpet urine spreads sideways into the underlay. On a rug it passes straight through the foundation and onto the floor below, so there are effectively three contaminated surfaces: the face, the foundation, and whatever the rug was lying on. Treating only the visible stain removes the appearance and leaves the source, which is why the smell returns on the first humid day.

There is a second complication specific to rugs. Urine is alkaline and, on a wool or cotton foundation, it can cause cellulosic browning and permanent dye shift. If a rug has been repeatedly soiled in the same spot over months, the colour change is often chemical damage rather than staining, and cleaning will not bring the original shade back. We would rather show you that at the quote than have you discover it afterwards. Where the contamination is genuinely heavy we recommend taking the rug to our workshop, because a full flush and controlled dry is the only method that reaches the foundation.

Fringes, moths and the things worth knowing before you book

Fringes are cotton while the pile is usually wool, so they soil faster, grey differently and respond to different chemistry. They are also where most damage happens: fringes get caught in vacuum beater bars, tangled by rotary machines and worn thin by foot traffic at doorways. We clean and comb them by hand, and we will tell you when a fringe needs a repair rather than a clean.

Moths deserve a specific mention because London wool rugs get them more than most owners expect. Moth larvae eat the protein in wool, and they work in the dark and undisturbed parts of a rug: under furniture, along the edges, on the underside. If you find loose pile fibres, a thinning patch, or fine sandy debris under one area of the rug, that is usually moth activity rather than wear. Cleaning removes the larvae and eggs mechanically, which is genuinely effective, but it cannot regrow the pile they have already eaten.

Three things we will not promise before seeing a rug: dye bleed that has already migrated into neighbouring colours, sun fade along the edge that sat in a window, and pile crush from heavy furniture left in one place for years. All three are permanent changes to the fibre rather than soil. Cleaning will make the rug look considerably better and will not undo them.

Keeping the rug clean afterwards

A good rug pad is the cheapest thing you can do for a rug we have just cleaned. It stops the rug creeping, spreads foot load so the foundation flexes less, and lets air move underneath so the pile dries and breathes. Rotating a rug a half turn twice a year evens out both sun exposure and traffic wear. And vacuum in the direction of the pile with the beater bar off or raised, keeping the head away from the fringes entirely. Done consistently, that stretches the interval between professional cleans by a year or more, which is the advice we would want given to us.

Before and after results

How our rug cleaning works

1. Inspection – fibre, dye and stain assessment to choose the safest method
2. Dry soil removal – professional vacuuming lifts dust and grit from the pile
3. Pre-treatment – stains and high-traffic areas treated with targeted solutions
4. Deep cleaning – hot water extraction or dry cleaning, matched to the rug
5. Drying and finishing – pile grooming and fast drying, ready in 2–4 hours

Cleaning at your home – or collection and delivery

Most rugs are cleaned on the spot, at your home, in about an hour. For heavily soiled, delicate or antique rugs we also offer a collection service: we take the rug, deep clean and fully dry it at our facility, and deliver it back to you. Just tell us which option you prefer when booking.

Why choose Crystal Carpet Cleaners

• NCCA-certified technicians with 15+ years of experience
• Eco-friendly, child and pet safe cleaning products
• 4.6/5 rating from 285+ customer reviews
• 7 days a week, 09:00–20:00, same day slots available

What our customers say

“Me and my family moved to our new home in Holland Park and one of the carpets in the dining room was in a terrible condition – coffee spots, food marks everywhere. We called Crystal Carpet Cleaners immediately! After a while the carpet, our dining room and the whole house was shining brightly – every single corner was clean!”

Customer in Holland Park, W11

Rated 4.6/5 by more than 285 customers – read more reviews.

Frequently asked questions

We also provide combined carpet and rug cleaning across the capital – popular areas include Chelsea, Kensington, Richmond, Hammersmith and Croydon.

Ready to bring your rug back to life? Call us at 07557 914387 or request a free quote online. We cover every London area – from North London and East London to South London and West London.