A well-made rug is built to be repaired. That is not sentiment, it is construction: a hand-knotted rug is wool tied onto a foundation, and both can be rebuilt. Here is what comes through the door and what happens to it.
Frayed or missing fringe
- The most common repair, and one of the least expensive. Because the fringe is the foundation itself, letting it unravel is not cosmetic — the rug loses knots from the end.
- The fix is to stop the end and hand-fringe it. Caught early it is straightforward; caught late it means reweaving first.
Worn or curled edges
Sides wear through where the rug meets traffic or furniture. Rebinding the selvedge by hand stops it spreading. Curling usually points to a missing or wrong pad underneath.
Holes, tears and worn patches
Rewoven by hand with wool matched to the original colour and knot count. Done properly, the repair reads as part of the rug rather than a patch. Larger areas take time, but very little is genuinely beyond it.
Moth damage
- Moths eat wool, usually where a rug is dark, still and under furniture. The damage looks catastrophic and often is not — the pile goes but the foundation frequently survives, and it can be rewoven.
- If you find it, act. Moths do not stop on their own.
Pet damage
Chewed corners can be rebuilt. Urine is the harder problem, because it moves dye and weakens the foundation. Sooner is dramatically better than later.
Water and flood damage
Depends entirely on how long the rug stayed wet and what was in the water. Dry rot in the foundation is the thing we look for, and it is the one form of damage that can end a rug.
When we will tell you not to bother
Sometimes the repair costs more than the rug is worth, and we will say so. An honest assessment is worth more to us than one job.