Hand Work

Repairs That Disappear Into the Weave

Rug repair is not patching. A proper repair rebuilds the rug the way it was originally made — foundation first, then pile, matched to the original knot density and dye lot — so the repaired section moves, wears and ages at the same rate as everything around it. Done well, you have to be told where it was.

That is slow work. Reweaving is measured in square inches, not square feet, and a hand on a loom is the only tool that does it properly. The upside is that damage most people assume is terminal usually is not. Rugs arrive folded around a hole and go home flat and whole.

Every repair starts with a free assessment and a straight verdict. If the cost of the work is out of proportion to what the rug is worth, we say so instead of taking the job.

Matched wool being knotted back into an oriental rug at the repair bench — Hand reweaving: matched wool knotted back into an oriental rug foundation.

What We Fix

Repair & Restoration Services

From a short fringe tidy to rebuilding a foot of missing border.

Fringe Repair & Replacement

Fringe is the end of the rug’s foundation, not decoration, so when it shreds the rug is unravelling. We secure the ends, rebuild lost warps, and replace or re-knot fringe to match the original.

Edge Binding & Serging

Side cords take the abuse from vacuum beaters and furniture legs. Once they split, the pile beside them starts letting go. Edges are rewrapped by hand in matched wool.

Reweaving & Hole Repair

Burns, tears and worn-through areas are rebuilt knot by knot. The foundation goes back first, then the pile, matched in fibre, colour and density to the field around it.

Moth Damage

It is the larvae that eat wool, and they graze from underneath, so by the time bare foundation shows through the pile there is usually an active problem. We treat the infestation, then reweave the grazed areas. The classic find here is the strip of rug that lives under a bed or a heavy chest in a spare room of an old house — dark, still and undisturbed is the entire specification.

Pet Damage

Chewed corners, clawed edges and urine-burnt dye. The rug is decontaminated first, then the missing structure is rebuilt and colour corrected where the original dye was destroyed.

Colour & Dye Correction

Bleach spots, faded bands, and dye that migrated during a bad cleaning or a soaking. Colour is rebuilt by hand where the fibre underneath is still sound.

Resizing & Reshaping

Rugs cut down to fit a room, and rugs blocked back to square after years of lying on a floor that has slowly gone out of level. Cut edges are properly finished so the rug reads as intentional rather than amputated.

Backing & Foundation Repair

Latex that has gone brittle and powdery on a hand-tufted rug, dry cotton warps in antiques, and rugs that ripple because the foundation gave way. Structure gets fixed before anything cosmetic.

Rug Pads & Prevention

A great many of the repairs we do could have been avoided by a decent pad. We fit breathable, non-adhesive pads sized to the rug — which matters twice over here, because a solid rubber or vinyl pad holds summer moisture against the back of the rug and, on a modern factory-finished floor, softens into the finish and leaves a haze that is in the floor rather than on it.

Wet Rug Service

Storm Damage, Leaks & Water-Damaged Rug Restoration

A spring storm that opened a roof, an attic air handler that emptied its drain pan through a bedroom ceiling in July, a supply line behind a washing machine, or a crawlspace that has been wet since March. The rug on that floor is now on a clock.

Why speed matters more than anything else

Wool survives being wet surprisingly well. What it does not survive is staying wet. In a warm room mould establishes in a saturated foundation in roughly forty-eight hours, and once it is at the base of the pile you cannot vacuum, spray or air-dry it back out. Through a Montgomery summer the room is always warm enough. Meanwhile unstable dyes start migrating, cotton foundations begin to rot, and whatever the water picked up on the way is curing into the rug.

The slow version is the one that catches people out. A tarped roof waiting on a contractor, a ceiling that dripped for a fortnight before anybody looked in the attic, a rug that has been faintly damp since the last storm — none of that feels like an emergency, and all of it does more damage than a burst pipe caught the same evening, because the clock has been running for weeks. A fan pointed at a wet rug is not restoration: it dries the surface, locks the contamination into the foundation, and produces a rug that smells fine for three weeks and then does not.

What to do before we arrive

Get the rug off the wet floor and out from under furniture — wooden legs bleed stain into a damp pile within hours.
Do not roll it tightly in plastic. That is an incubator. Loose and airy beats sealed.
Photograph it wet, in place, before moving anything. Your insurer will want that.
Do not rinse it with a hose and leave it. Half-washing sets the contamination and complicates the real wash.
If the house is waiting on roof or ceiling repairs, get the rugs out of it now rather than at the end of the job.

The restoration sequence

Priority collection. Wet rugs are run ahead of routine cleaning where the schedule allows.
Category assessment. Clean supply water, grey water and storm or ground water are three different jobs, and which one you have decides the method.
Extraction and full flush. Contaminants are washed out of the foundation, not sealed in behind a dry surface.
Antimicrobial treatment. Applied to the whole rug, front and back, before drying starts.
Monitored flat drying. Forced filtered air with moisture readings taken to completion, so nothing goes home damp.
Dye-bleed correction. Colours that migrated while the rug was wet are pulled back where the fibre allows.
Structural repair. Rotted foundation and lost pile rewoven once the rug is stable and dry.
Claim documentation. Photographs and a written condition report for your insurance carrier.

Request an Estimate What damp does to a rug

A rug photographed flat after water-damage recovery, field colour brought back through the pile

How It Works

From First Message to Delivery

Photos or Collection

Send pictures of the damage, or we collect the rug at no charge anywhere across Montgomery, Autauga and Elmore counties.

Assessment & Quote

The damage is mapped, materials identified, and you get a written price with options. No work starts without your approval.

Clean First

Repairs go onto a clean rug. Working new wool into a dirty field leaves a visible patch a year later.

Materials Matched

Wool selected by fibre, weight and dye lot against the original, and tested against the field before it goes in.

Hand Repair

Foundation rebuilt, then pile knotted in at matching density, then sheared to the surrounding height.

Final Check & Return

Groomed, inspected against the intake photographs, and delivered back to your floor.

Questions

Repair & Restoration FAQ

Is my rug worth repairing?

You get a straight answer before any work starts. Repair makes sense when the rug has real value — sentimental or monetary — and the foundation is sound. When the cost of the work approaches what the rug is worth, we say so rather than quietly running up an invoice.

How long does rug repair take?

It depends entirely on the area involved, because reweaving is hand work measured in square inches. You get a timeline with the written quote, before you commit. Water damage is handled differently because it is time-critical, so those rugs go into the process as soon as they arrive rather than waiting their turn.

My rug has been damp for weeks under a leaking ceiling. Is it gone?

Not necessarily, and it is worth asking before anything goes in a skip. What decides it is the state of the foundation rather than how the surface looks: if the cotton warps and wefts still have their strength, the rug can be flushed, treated, dried flat and rewoven where the pile has gone. If the foundation has already rotted, we will tell you that plainly. Either way the answer comes after an inspection, not over the phone.

Will the repair be visible?

A good reweave is difficult to find once the pile is groomed. Wool is matched by fibre, dye lot and knot density, and the foundation is rebuilt before the pile so the repaired area wears at the same rate as the rest of the rug rather than sinking or standing proud over time.

Do you work with insurance claims?

Yes. Condition is photographed at intake and throughout, and you get written documentation of damage, treatment and value impact to submit to your carrier.

My rug ripples and will not lie flat. Can that be fixed?

Usually. Buckling comes from an uneven foundation, past improper drying, years on a pad that was too soft, or simply a floor that has moved — which happens here, because the clay these houses sit on swells and shrinks with the seasons. The rug is washed, blocked back to square under tension, and the foundation repaired where it has stretched or torn.

Send Us a Photo. We Will Tell You Straight.

Free assessment on every repair, and a real answer about whether it is worth doing.

Start a Free Estimate See Service Areas

Rug Cleaning

The six-stage hand wash every rug goes through, and why in-home wand cleaning fails here.

Cleaning process

River Region Care Notes

Dark clay, crawlspaces, condensate lines and a summer with no dry season — what rug owners here need to know.

Care notes

Book a Collection

Collection and delivery included across Montgomery, Autauga and Elmore counties.

Contact us

Rug Repair & Restoration in Montgomery