Contemporary Rugs
Modern production in wool, viscose, polypropylene or a blend, from high-quality hand-knotted pieces through to machine-woven retail rugs.
How to tell
Fibre matters more than pattern here. Viscose has a bright, almost metallic sheen and goes noticeably darker and stiffer when wet; wool does not. Machine construction shows a uniform back and a bound edge rather than a woven selvedge.
How we clean contemporary rugs
Viscose is the one to identify early, because it loses roughly half its strength when saturated and will pulp under normal agitation. Viscose and blends get low-moisture cleaning with controlled drying. Wool contemporaries wash conventionally.
What goes wrong
Water marks on viscose that appear as permanent dark rings from something as ordinary as a spilled glass, and shedding on machine-woven rugs that no cleaning process will stop.