How to Flatten an Area Rug

Oct 11, 2021 | Area Rugs

How to Remove Area Rug Wrinkles

Rugs may wrinkle depending on the material and make. We use a variety of stretching techniques to eliminate the wrinkling that may occur to rugs.

This process involves securing the rug onto our service floor and applying a warm/hot water mixture. Doing this allows the fibers to open and stretch. Then, we apply pressure to the rug by stretching and smoothing out the wrinkles. This is repeated until wrinkling is minimized or solved.

In some cases, we need a more aggressive method to smooth and flatten ancient rugs that have been stored too long with a wrinkle or crease. In this video you can see how we flatten and smooth a wrinkled area rug using the Power Jacking method.

We demonstrate how we will power jack an Afghan hand knotted rug to remove the wrinkles. Afghan rugs are prone to wrinkle because the fact that the main structure of the rug (the warp and weft), are consisted of wool and cotton twisted together so this makes an inconsistent foundation especially when the rugs get wet.

Most rugs are actually sized or stretched by manually tacking each end out and stretching them with a knee kicker and then applying a solution. These rugs have too stiff of a backing in order to do that manually so we have to do a power jacking method.

How Power Jacking Can Flatten Area Rugs

Power jacking method is done by taking back strip carpet tack strip and actually nail the tack strip down on each end leaving enough loose material to be able to put a pole underneath the middle of the rug and then move them up until they become taunt and tight.

During this process we always use hot water to relax the materials we’re stretching it because we’re putting hundreds of pounds of pressure on the textile itself. Once we’ve stretched it to remove the wrinkles we apply a sizing compound material which is liquid and re-wet it very heavily. We allow those to dry typically overnight because the textile at this point is very wet.

During this drying process usually the the wrinkles are eliminated, in some cases if the wrinkles are only going vertically from one end to the other end of the rug we only have to do this once but in more difficult rugs we actually have to horizontally stretch the rod too as it’s shown in in this video.

 

DIY Reverse Rolling Your Rug

Is your area rug struggling to lay flat to the floor? Often this will happen with a new rug or a rug that has been in storage. The rug will curl upward toward the ceiling from being in a rolled position for a length of time. This problem can be solved by reverse rolling your rug.

To reverse roll your rug, find the end that is curling up and roll it the other direction-towards the floor. Roll the rug three to four times. For best results hold the rug in that position for a few minutes. You may  need to repeat this process several times. When you unroll the rug, it should lay flat to the floor. In severe cases you may need to place weights, heavy books, along the edge of the rug. Leave the weights on the rug for a day and then check the progress. The weights will help the rug lay flat.

Continued Rug Maintenance

Now that your area rug is wrinkle free and flat, make sure to take good care of it by providing a firm foundation with a custom rug pad. An area rug pad not only protects your floor, it protects the rug from extra wear and provides a comfortable feel to your feet. Using a rug pad will prolong the life of your rug and prevent wrinkles.

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