Four different people asked me the same question this year before they asked me anything about price.
Ros had a two by three metre rug with a fringe on two sides. Vincent had a Moroccan rug and a three year old daughter, which is a combination that speaks for itself. Esme had four rugs, one of them a runner. Every one of them wanted to know the same thing first: do you collect it, or do you clean it here?
So I’ll answer that before anything else, because it’s clearly the question people actually have. I clean rugs in your home, on site, and for the vast majority of rugs that’s the better option anyway. No collection, no waiting a fortnight, no risk of your rug going missing in a warehouse somewhere.
Now, the money.
What rug cleaning costs
Rug cleaning with us starts from £15. That’s for a small rug – bath mat size up to roughly a metre by a metre and a half.
| Rug size | Typical price from |
| Small rug (2 x 3) | £15 |
| Medium rug (3 x 4) | £20 |
| Large rug (5 x 6) | £25 |
| Anything larger | Contact us for a quote |
| Runner | Contact us for a quote |
| Delicate, handmade or silk blend | Contact us for a quote |
Our minimum callout is £50. If a single rug is genuinely all you need doing, it’s worth adding your stairs, a bedroom, or an armchair to make the visit worthwhile – most people find they’ve been meaning to get something else done anyway.
Every price includes stain pre-treatment, the equipment and the Prochem solutions. Nothing appears on the bill afterwards that wasn’t discussed first.
Why the fibre matters more than the measurements
Here’s the thing most rug cleaning price lists won’t tell you, because it complicates the sales pitch.
A three by four metre polypropylene rug from a high street shop is a straightforward job. Robust fibre, synthetic backing, tolerates heat and moisture, cleans up beautifully with standard hot water extraction. Big rug, easy job.
A one metre by two metre hand knotted wool rug with natural dyes is a completely different proposition. Smaller, but it needs lower temperature, tighter moisture control, careful pH management, and a proper test in an inconspicuous corner before anything else happens. Get it wrong and you can shrink it, brown the fringes, or set the dyes running.
So a small rug can genuinely cost more to clean than a large one. That sounds like a scam until you understand what’s actually being paid for, which is care and risk rather than square metres.
What I look at before quoting on a rug
Fibre – wool, silk, cotton, viscose, jute, polypropylene, polyester or a blend. Viscose in particular is notoriously unforgiving and behaves nothing like it looks.
Construction – hand knotted, hand tufted, machine woven, flatweave or braided. Hand tufted rugs have a latex layer that degrades with over-wetting.
Dye stability – a quick colourfast test in a hidden corner. Natural and vegetable dyes on older rugs can bleed.
Backing – whether it’s cotton, latex, jute or a synthetic scrim, because that determines how much moisture is safe.
Condition – fringes, edge binding, any existing wear or repairs.
That inspection takes five minutes and it’s the difference between a rug that comes up beautifully and a rug that comes up ruined. It’s also why I won’t quote a firm price for a handmade rug over the phone without seeing it or at least a photograph.
In home cleaning versus collection: the honest comparison
Plenty of London rug cleaners operate on a collection model. They take your rug away to a plant, wash it in a facility, and return it a week or two later. It’s a legitimate approach and for certain rugs it’s genuinely the right one.
But it gets sold as universally superior, and it isn’t.
Where in home cleaning wins
Speed, mostly. Your rug is cleaned and back in use the same day rather than a fortnight later. There’s no gap where your living room has a bare patch of floorboard in the middle of it.
Then there’s the simple matter of trust. Handing over a rug that cost you several hundred pounds – or that you carried back from a trip and can’t replace – to a van driver you’ve never met, for an unspecified period, makes a lot of people uncomfortable. It should. I’d feel the same.
And practically: hot water extraction on site handles the great majority of domestic rugs extremely well. Synthetic rugs, machine woven wool, flatweaves, shaggy pile, most modern rugs of any kind. If the rug is generally soiled rather than catastrophically damaged, on site cleaning does the job properly.
Where a specialist plant genuinely wins
I’d rather tell you this than pretend I’m the answer to everything.
A full immersion wash – where the rug is submerged, agitated, rinsed and controlled dried in a facility – is better for antique hand knotted rugs, silk rugs, rugs with heavy pet contamination through the whole pile, and rugs that need genuine restoration rather than cleaning. Lily asked me about a shaggy rug she wanted cleaned and restored, and restoration is a different trade to mine.
If your rug is in that category, I’ll tell you so and point you towards someone who specialises in it. I’d rather send one job elsewhere than take money for something I can only do adequately.
The rugs people actually ring me about
Worth covering the specific cases, because rug enquiries are far more varied than carpet ones.
Handmade rugs bought abroad
Celia described hers as bought in India, supposedly handmade with a certificate, but she suspected it might be a tourist piece. That’s an extremely common situation and the honest answer is that it barely matters for cleaning purposes. What matters is the fibre and the dye stability, not the provenance. A colourfast test tells me more than any certificate.
Genuinely hand knotted wool rugs clean up wonderfully and last generations. The main risk is dye bleed on older vegetable dyed pieces, which is why the test happens first.
Flatweave and shaggy rugs
Jessica had a two and a half metre square cream flatweave that wasn’t especially dirty – as she put it, it was starting to fluff and catch dust in the material. That’s a very typical flatweave issue. They don’t hide soil the way a deep pile does, so they look tired long before they’re actually filthy. They clean up quickly and cheaply.
Shaggy rugs are the opposite. They hide everything. A shaggy rug that looks fine will often produce genuinely alarming extraction water, because the long fibres conceal soil that has settled right down at the base.
Rattan, jute and other natural fibres
Charlotte had a rattan rug with a few small ink stains over a fifty centimetre square area. Natural plant fibres like jute, sisal and seagrass need a low moisture approach – they’re prone to browning and can distort if over-wetted. Ink on natural fibre is also one of the harder combinations, and I’d be upfront that significant improvement is realistic where complete removal may not be.
Pet accidents on rugs
Pet accidents on rugs are more common than people admit, and entirely treatable. The complication with a rug rather than fitted carpet is that urine soaks straight through and often contaminates the floor beneath as well. That needs treating too, or the smell comes back up through the rug within a week.
There’s more detail on treating that properly in our post on whether professional cleaning removes dog and cat urine.
How long rug cleaning takes and when you can walk on it
A single rug takes twenty to forty minutes depending on size and condition. If I’m already at your property doing carpets, adding a rug or two barely extends the visit.
Drying is faster than fitted carpet because air can circulate underneath. In warmer months, two to four hours. In autumn and winter with the heating on, four to six. I’ll usually lift the rug slightly at one edge or fold a corner back to get airflow moving underneath, and I’ll show you how to do the same after I leave.
Don’t put furniture back on a damp rug. Wooden feet in particular can leach colour into wet fibres and leave marks that are far harder to remove than whatever I just cleaned off.
Frequently asked questions
How much does it cost to clean a rug in London?
Rug cleaning starts from £15 for a small rug, around £20–£25 for a medium rug and £30–£35 for a large two by three metre rug. Handmade, silk or delicate rugs are quoted after inspection because the fibre determines the method. Our minimum callout is £50.
Do you collect rugs for cleaning or clean them at my home?
I clean rugs on site at your home, which means no waiting and no risk of your rug going missing. Most domestic rugs clean up excellently this way. For antique hand knotted or silk rugs needing full immersion washing, I’ll tell you honestly and point you to a specialist.
Can you clean a handmade Persian or Moroccan rug?
Usually yes, with a colourfast test first and adjusted temperature and moisture. Hand knotted wool rugs respond very well to careful cleaning. The main risk is dye bleed on older vegetable dyed pieces, which the test identifies before any cleaning starts. Antique or silk pieces may be better suited to a specialist immersion wash.
How long does a rug take to dry?
Two to four hours in warmer months, four to six in winter. Rugs dry faster than fitted carpet because air circulates underneath. Lifting one edge or folding a corner back helps considerably. Avoid replacing furniture until it’s completely dry, as wooden feet can mark damp fibres.
Will cleaning shrink my wool rug?
Not if the temperature and moisture are controlled properly for the fibre. Shrinkage happens when wool is cleaned too hot or too wet, which is exactly why the fibre inspection comes first. Wool needs a different approach to synthetic, and treating them the same is how rugs get damaged.
My rug smells but doesn’t look dirty. Will cleaning help?
Almost certainly. Odour usually comes from soil, moisture or organic matter deep in the pile where you can’t see it – particularly in shaggy or deep pile rugs that hide soiling well. Hot water extraction removes the source rather than masking it, which is what air fresheners do.
Get a price without the guesswork
Rug pricing has a reputation for being murky, and I understand why. Plenty of companies won’t publish a figure, quote only after a visit, then add extras once they’ve got the rug in the van.
I’d rather just tell you. Small rug from £15, large rug from £30, delicate pieces quoted properly after I’ve looked at them. Cleaned in your home, usually the same day you call, back in use by the evening.
Seventeen years, one van, and I do every job myself. If you’re not happy with the result, I come back and do it again at no cost.
Send a photo and I’ll price it today. Text or email a photo with rough dimensions and I’ll come back with a straight number. Rugs, carpets, stairs, sofas – combine them and it usually works out better value than you expect.
➤ Call or text Velko on 07386 725 651 | perfect.carpetcleaning@yahoo.com | Our prices.