FAQs

Thank you for visiting our response page. We thank all of you for your various questions. Remember for any questions regarding rugs, services, products or our website, please visit or email us. Below are a few of the most frequently asked questions we have received.

1. How can I stop my pet from urinating on my carpets and rugs?
2. What type of underlays should I buy for my rugs?
3. I have purchased a new rug and now it has an odor like urine. My dog is never allowed in our bedroom so how can the rug take on the odor of urine without direct contact from the dog?
4. My fringe on an older Indian rug is coming apart. A rug dealer said I shouldn't replace the fringe because I will lower the value of the rug? However, it is a huge eyesore and the rug is falling apart around the damaged fringe. What should I do?
5. My daughter spilled a small amount of lemonade on my new wool rug around the fringes. I blotted the area dry with a towel and applied a little mixture of vinegar and water to the area around the wool and fringe. The wool now has a yellow area and the area on the fringe has brown streaks. What can I do to fix the problem?
6. How often should I clean my upholstery?
7. I purchased a custom made rug from a decorator a few years ago, and the pieced-in sections along with the outer edging are coming all apart. Is there anything that can be done to fix this problem? We spent a lot of money to have this rug made and feel it should be holding up better at this point.
8. I called a company to clean my carpeting in the home. They told me they could remove the black streaks running along the baseboards in the hall and living room. They are still there! I live in Macon, Georgia so I could not use your company. Can you give me some advice concerning these hideous black streaks?
9. Mr. Yeatts, I purchased a thick rug from ####### **** over two years ago for my kids' room. I recently took the rug to a place up here in Raleigh to be cleaned for the first time. It looked like nothing had been done to the rug when I picked it up. How does your company clean these thick rugs?
10. Does fabric protector really work?

Bill Yeatts - "If we had a product that would prevent cats or dogs from urinating on rugs and carpets, I would be retired by now. Really the best prevention is to train your puppies and kittens at an early age to use the litter box or to go to the front door if they need to be let out. If you have a room that contains a favorite rug or upholstery, you should keep these rooms off limits at all times. If the pets can’t enter the room, no damage can be done to your fine rug or upholstery. Keep rooms with any wool rugs off limits to your pets. Pets seem to be more prone to urinate on wool rugs than synthetic fiber. Once again, if I knew why, I’d be retired. However, I do know that removing the odor from wool is more difficult than removing odor from synthetic fibers. This makes sense. Urine is protein and wool is protein. Removing severe urine odor from less expensive rugs with latex and canvas backings is nearly impossible. Also repeated urine contamination may produce severe damage. The urea in urine is responsible for causing dye colors to run and can cause dark black spots on your wood floors. These black spots can not be sanded out."

Jason Yeatts - "For rugs that are to be placed over wood floors we recommend our underlays composed of rubber and felt. These underlays will increase the longevity of your fine rug. Without these underlays your rug is severely squeezed by the daily, constant traffic flow over your hard floors. Waffle underlays do prevent rugs from sliding. However, these underlays are too thin to provide adequate protection from the squeezing effect mentioned above. The only time we recommend these underlays is when a customer wishes to place a rug by a door. Thus, the customer can open the door freely without it catching onto the wool pile. Foam underlays offer little protection for rug longevity and may not hold the rug in place. Sticky paper thin underlays that stick onto carpeting or wood floors offer no protection and can damage your wood floors or carpeting. We never recommend these type of underlays."

Joe Yeatts - "If your rug is new, made in China or India, and it has a canvas backing, then you are smelling glue. The glue is manufactured by uneducated laborers who use filthy, archaic equipment. The canvas backing is glued onto the back of the wool rug to hide all the large, imperfect knots, and in general to hold the rug together. This glue can cause very allergic reactions including watery eyes and sneezing for some individuals. The odor will always persist in the rug because it is part of the composition of the rug. If you try to remove the canvas the rug will fall apart. In fact, when the glue wears off, the wool will separate from the canvas in clumps. My advice is to avoid rugs with canvas backings made in China or India, and purchase a custom-made rug by Yeatts Inc.”

Joe Yeatts - "First, you should know that very few rugs appreciate in value as they age. Second, most rug dealers would have you neglect your rugs completely so they will wear out quickly. Rug dealers do not recommend underlays, rotating rugs, or even professional cleanings! The unraveling of wool around the loose fringe areas will become much worse and clumps of wool will begin to detach from the foundation. The good news is that Yeatts Inc. technicians refringe rugs on a daily basis. Also we make the fringe more secure than when you purchased it new! If you are going to give your rugs to children and grandchildren, do not think twice about it. Go ahead and refringe the rug now before it becomes worse.”

Bill Yeatts - "It sounds like you have purchased a tea-washed wool rug from India, China, Turkey, or Pakistan. If you look closely the fringe is probably tan colored to begin with and the fringe that is discolored now has white streaks throughout the tan-colored fringe. These rugs are tea-washed so the rugs have a yellow hue on the surface pile to supposedly exhibit a 'fake antique' look. Another sign of a tea-washed rug is to look for a canvas backing. We are not big fans of mass produced tea-washed rugs. You see, a simple colorless liquid like water can cause the tea to run throughout the rug! Due to the unstable nature of tea-washed rugs, any liquid spill can produce the yellow hue and wash out the brown tea dye from the fringes. We can not remove the discolored yellow area on the pile but we can fix the fringe problem."

Bill Yeatts - "Most homeowners never clean their upholstery. With pet hair, nicotine, food crumbs, drink spills, and dust, upholstery is one item in your household that should be cleaned yearly! Individual Yeatts Inc. technicians will clean more upholstery this year than many of our competitors will clean in their lifetime."

Mike Yeatts - "We can fix the problems you are facing. It sounds as if the inlaid borders (the carpeting attached to the main pile of carpet) and binding or serging running along all four sides is coming apart. Yeatts Inc. can fix the other rug manufacturers' problems. Remember, Yeatts Inc. has our own custom-made rug division. You can save money by working directly with our company."

Jason Yeatts - "The black streaks running along the baseboards are permanent. Our company would have told you so from the start. These are called filtration stains and are caused by dust. This problem often occurs in modern, energy efficient homes. Yearly professional cleaning on all new carpeting will help prevent filtration stains from occurring."

Joe Yeatts - "The company you mentioned sells nothing but poorly-manufactured rugs. I bet question three on our FAQ page would best describe your rug. Also, the manufacturers in India and China are now replacing the cheap wool pile facing with even cheaper cotton pile facing. Check the label on the back of your rug and see what type of pile facing is attached to the canvas backing. I'd imagine your rug has a cotton pile facing. Although durable, cotton pile rugs stain very easily and cotton is not the type of fabric a consumer should select if appearance is a major concern. Even hard, fibrous jute and sisal rugs (Yeatts Inc. does not recommend purchasing jute or sisal rugs) clean up as well as cotton pile rugs. If you spill juice, wine, or other products containing dyes on a cotton pile rug and you fail to treat the spills immediately with Y.E.S. Spotters, then you have just created a permanent stain. It is best to buy synthetic rugs for children's rooms; however, you now have the information available to avoid making the same mistake again."

Joe Yeatts - "It is a very effective tool in preventing stains and spills from becoming permanent. The protectant bonds to the fiber and forms a guard against dyes (beverages) or strong acids (urine) that would seep into the dye sites in each fiber. The fabric protector applied on new wall to wall carpeting or new upholstery will last a few years. After a few years of use, the invisible fabric protector is chipped off and removed by your hand held vacuum (upholstery) or household vacuum. Some wall to wall carpeting is protected by the manufacturers prior to distribution. Less often, upholstery fabric is protected by manufacturers. Almost no hand knotted rugs (Persian or Oriental) are ever protected. I recommend protecting all fabrics from hand knotted rugs to cushions after each cleaning. For the fact it isn't very expensive and provides additional safety; fabric protector really works."