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 A proper repair rebuilds the rug the way it was originally made — foundation first, then pile, matched to the original knot density and dye lot — so the repaired section moves, wears and ages at the same rate as everything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.

Carpet Beetle & Moth Damage

Both eat wool from underneath, so by the time bare foundation shows there is usually something active. Which one you have matters: clothes moths want dark and undisturbed, while carpet beetle larvae will work away happily in an occupied room under a sideboard, and the adults fly in through screens in spring. We identify it, treat the infestation, then reweave the grazed areas.

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

Tannin staining left by creek water, dye that migrated during a soaking or a bad cleaning, and the yellowing that follows when somebody reaches for household bleach on a wet wool rug. Colour is rebuilt by hand wherever the fibre underneath is still sound enough to hold it.

Resizing & Reshaping

Rugs cut down to fit a room, or blocked back to square after years of buckling. Cut edges are properly finished so the rug reads as intentional rather than amputated.

Backing & Foundation Repair

Failed latex on hand-tufted rugs, brittle 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 began with a cheap pad. PVC and latex-foam pads come apart in heat and humidity, and the residue bonds to the back of the rug and the floor finish at the same time. We fit breathable, non-adhesive pads sized to the rug — which matters most in a climate where the back of the rug is the part that needs to dry.

Wet Rug Service

Storm, Flood & Water Damage Rug Restoration

A creek that came up over the yard, the tide backing out of a downtown storm drain, a roof that let go in a named storm, or a supply line behind a washing machine. The rug on that floor is now on a clock.

Why the number of days matters more than the depth

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. On this coast the room is always warm enough, and after a storm it usually has no power either. Meanwhile unstable dyes start migrating, cotton foundations begin to rot, and whatever the water carried in is curing into the fibre.

That is why the honest question after an island evacuation is never how bad it looked on the day — it is how many days it sat before anyone was allowed back across the bridge. And blackwater flooding adds a second clock of its own: the tannin and humic acid that make swamp water the colour of tea behave like a dye, and given warm wool and a few hours they set. Both problems need the same first move, which is immersion. A fan pointed at a wet rug is not restoration. It dries the surface, locks everything else 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.
Keep household bleach and fogging products away from it. Hypochlorite attacks wool protein directly and that damage cannot be undone.
If you cannot get back to the island yet, ask a neighbour or your property manager to lift it and photograph it. Days matter more than distance.

The restoration sequence

Priority collection. Wet rugs are run ahead of routine cleaning where the schedule allows.
Category assessment. Clean supply water, grey water, brackish tidal water and fresh blackwater flooding are four 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.
Tannin treatment and pH correction. Swamp-water staining is addressed as the dye chemistry it is, and the wool is brought back off acid afterwards.
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.
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 in New Hanover and Brunswick 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 sat wet for days after the storm. Is it gone?

Not necessarily, and this is the question we most want people to ask before they drag anything to the kerb. What decides it is whether the foundation is still sound, not how it smells or how it looks after a week in a shut house. Send photographs of the front, the back and the ends. If it can be flushed, decontaminated and dried properly it usually can be saved, and if it cannot we will tell you that instead of charging you to find out.

Someone put bleach on it. Can that be reversed?

The colour sometimes; the fibre no. Wool is a protein, and household bleach breaks the bonds that give it strength, so bleached wool goes yellow and then brittle. If the damage is localised the affected area can be rewoven with matched wool and the surrounding colour corrected. If a whole rug was fogged or soaked, what is left is weak everywhere, and there is nothing sound to anchor a repair to.

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, or years on a pad that was too soft or has started to break down underneath. 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 cleaning one in the room fails here.

Cleaning process

Cape Fear Care Notes

Coastal damp, rental changeovers, marsh mud and flood water — what rug owners here need to know.

Care notes

Book a Collection

Collection and delivery included across New Hanover and Brunswick counties.

Contact us

Rug Repair & Restoration in Wilmington