Shredding is a common part of a rug. Whenever we walk over a rug, it causes friction. And this friction sometimes puts a high pressure on a rug’s bristles to pluck them.
However, when this happens frequently, it’s a sign that your rug is shedding. Also, it could be a sign of quality degrading of a rug.
Fortunately, there are several ways to prevent a rug from shedding its threads. If you’re familiar with the root cause of rug shedding problem, you’re likely to avoid those issues in the future.
Rugs usually shred a few bristles, but that’s not a thing to be worried about. However, when the amount of bristles is high on a regular basis, it’s a heads up regarding rug’s health.
Therefore, it’s important to follow these methods to prevent thing from happening in the future.
1. Regular Cleaning & Maintenance
Always start with a vacuum cleaner to take out the dust hidden between the rug piles. Just like a house needs regular cleaning, rugs also require a daily cleaning process.
If required, you must toss the rug on the floor a few times to take out the stubborn dust particles. Besides, you must avoid washing the rug on a regular basis. It can cause damage to the rug.
Washing the rug once in a month is enough, but vacuuming regularly is necessary. Keep the basic maintenance in mind, such as washing with a high-quality detergent and limited sunlight exposure.
2. Trim the Extra Piles of Rug
As you may be familiar with how rugs grow its piles, it’s crucial to cut down the extra piles with a scissor to prevent it from shredding.
The reason why you must do this because when a rug pile is longer than usual, the whole thread comes out during foot-traffic. Or sometimes pets or kids do it intentionally.
When this happens, the other piles starts rising, and consequently, the process of shredding begins. Therefore, it becomes an important part of a rug’s maintenance.
3. Using Rug Pads
Even though everybody chooses non-slip rugs, they still slip when the enough friction is applied. Indoor games, running kids, and perky pets always run around the corners of the house. So, it’s obvious that when they try to walk over a rug, it’ll slip.
The only way to prevent this from happening are the rug pads. You’ve to install the rug pads on such locations that it becomes impossible for the rug to slip.
Rug pads not only prevent the rug from slipping, but they also do a great job in preventing the shredding, and damages to person & the floor from slipping.
4. Cutting Pet Nails
It doesn’t matter whether a pet’s lousy or intelligent, they always end up scratching the things out of curiosity. It can do a severe damage to the rug when the nails are bigger.
The bigger they are, the more the damage to the rug piles. Once a pet starts finding it amusing, they will always scratch the part of a rug.
However, you can put an end to it by cutting the nails. Cutting the nails degrades the effectiveness of the scratching.
5. Don’t Drag Heavy Objects on the Rug
This problem occurs with the big-sized area rugs. When the whole space is covered with a rug, it forces you to drag the heavy objects on the rug in order to place them somewhere.
However, this is a wrong idea. Dragging heavy objects on a rug will damage its fabric. Moreover, this can tear the rug and cause it to shred into thousand pieces. Furthermore, if it can tear apart the rug, it can also scratch the floor.
Why Do Rugs Start Shedding?
The process of rug shedding begins when its fabric and bristles start weakening. Consequently, whenever you walk on a rug and clean or wash, it massively shreds. And this weakness can be caused by the following factors:
These five factors contribute a lot to damage the overall health of a rug. Let’s discuss these factors in details for further information.
Poor Maintenance
Most common issues related to rugs, like shredding, start from poor maintenance. It’s an initial, yet can be contagious which spreads from one location of a rug to another.
Examples of poor maintenance of rugs are neglecting to clean regularly, avoiding to wash rug, unnecessary foot-traffic, etc.
When you avoid cleaning the rug regularly, the dust starts settling in the rug piles. It invites the bugs and other bacterias which harm the rug fabric. This further leads to the lower quality of the fabric. As a result, rug starts shedding.
Moreover, not washing a rug at least once a month can also degrade the fabric, leading to shredding.
Harsh Chemicals for Washing
Harsh chemicals have the tendency to hurt the rugs surface for a long-run. If you’re someone who uses harsh chemicals to wash the rugs, then it’s time for you to put an end to this.
Such chemicals not only make a rug shredding, they also weak the fabric. This means your rug will slowly start loosing its quality over time. And in worst case, it’ll tear apart when the fabric becomes extremely poor.
Washing a rug with strong detergents damages a rug from its roots. And once the negative starts, it’s not possible to reverse them.
Rubbing with Hard Brush
During spot cleaning, it’s necessary to rub the area of a rug which is affected. However, when things don’t work out, you may start rubbing the rug with a brush with hard bristles.
This is a wrong idea. It can damage the threads of the rug which later results in shredding. Not only this, it can lead to a hole in the rug if this abuse is repeated during every cleaning process.
It happens mostly with rugs underneath the couch. Because that’s where guests sit to enjoy the perks of the hospitality. Moreover, the chances of spilling a drink or a morsel on the rug are very high.
Excessive Sunlight Exposure
This can be happened either accidentally or intentionally. But in both scenarios, it doesn’t matter, because it’ll eventually scathe the rug.
When you wash a rug, it’s obvious that sunlight is mandatory to dry the extra moisture. However, the problem begins when the sunlight also ends up taking the moisture required to appear a rug fresh.
The signs of sunlight damage can be seen when a rug’s surface becomes hard and fade. The soft bristles of a rug feels quite similar to needles. Eventually, rug may start shredding due to this situation.
Lousy Pets & Kids
Believe it or not, indoor pets contribute the majority of the part in shredding. Even if you take care of every slippery slope like using a good-quality detergent, soft rubbing, and decent sunlight, lousy pets make those efforts go in vain.
Why? Because they have the aptness to mess around. Hence, they will always end up tearing and scratching the rug with their mouth or paws. This causes a major shredding issue as the bristles are forcefully plucked out of a rug’s surface.
Besides, kids also play a handful role in destroying the rug. The indoor games or sometimes little squabbles can lead to things like dropping the beverages, chocolate, or any other candies.
This leads to the spot cleaning process. And if it happens frequently, the rug may loose its threads, leading to shredding.
Final Words
Rug shedding can be a serious issue if not diagnosed on time. However, with the right methods, this issue can be shut out. Ultimately, make sure that you’re following the proper rug care routine and avoiding the negligence towards any rug problems like shredding.
