Posted on January 26, 2022 by Behnam Rugs

What Happens When You Clean an Overdyed Rug?

Before we can tell you what happens when you wash an overdyed rug, first we must define the different types of overdyed rug. Each type reacts differently to water and professional rug cleaning.

Four types of Overdyed rugs:

1. Overdyed Overseas

Typically overdyed handmade rugs are overdyed overseas in their country of origin. They are heavily saturated in a rich primary color such as burgundy, emerald green, blue, yellow, black, or purple. The rug is submerged for days and it is not a very costly process. However, the dyes are not stable in some rugs due to a lack of regulations. The absence of standardization in the overdye process means that different chemicals, ratios, and dyes get used.

Rugs overdyed overseas react to washing on a case-by-case basis. The cleaning professionals don’t know what will happen until they do a colorfast test. What is a colorfast test? A colorfast test is performed by professional rug cleaners before cleaning a rug if they think the rug may have unstable dyes. They wet a small area of the rug and then rub it with a soft white cloth to see if dye transfers. A rug is colorfast if the dyes don’t run or bleed after meeting water. Learn more about color bleeding by reading this blog.

2. Tampered Overdye

When the colors don’t turn out perfectly after construction, the manufacturer in the country of origin overdyes specific sections of the rug to color match and disguise imperfections such as abrash. Rugs with abrash are often tampered with to disguise the lack of color uniformity. It is possible that the entire rug may be overdyed to color correct as well. This is different from Type 1 because it is not done to give the overdyed look, but to hide imperfections from the buyer.

This method occurs more often in the countries of Morocco, Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan. When overdye is used to tamper with a rug, the color is not set and sits on top of the fibers. Tampered overdyed rugs are the most likely to lose color and bleed with professional cleaning. We call this method of overdyeing tampering because it uses unstable dye to camouflage aesthetic issues, and these issues are not shared with whomever purchases the rug. Only the rug maker knows what they did.

In fact, the buyer AND seller won’t know it’s been tampered with until the overdyed sections meet water. These rugs are a headache to clean, both for the owner of the rug and the cleaning professionals, because neither know the colors will bleed until it gets washed. A colorfast test before cleaning isn’t accurate on tampered overdyed rugs unless an overdyed section happens to be selected for testing. It can be upsetting for both the rug owner and the cleaning professionals when a rug bleeds even after being tested for colorfastness ahead of washing.

We recently washed a tampered overdye rug from Morocco. Watch the video to see what happens when the rug meets water.

3. DIY Overdye

(Note that your rug should be professionally cleaned before any dye is applied.) To overdye a rug, buy dye, follow instructions of the dye manufacturer, spray or rub the color in according to the instructions, and wash the rug yourself after the dye has set to remove any excess. The water should run clear by the end of the wash. If the dye is not properly set it will spread to everything it touches. This is a serious safety issue, as only set color is considered safe for pets, children, and you.

Because of the lack of regulations around dyes in the U.S., we know very little of the chemicals involved or their long-term health effects. Some dyes that are banned as carcinogens in Europe are perfectly legal in the U.S. If you are not able to get the color of your overdyed rug to set, it should not be used for your own health and safety. In addition, the fibers will be weakened when you overdye a rug yourself.

In fact, synthetic rugs won’t survive the overdye process at all. DIY overdye can only be done to wool, silk, or other natural materials. Do not overdye a rug that you are not okay with ruining or shortening the life of. Remember there is no guarantee as to the finished product in terms of color. Be aware that many professional rug cleaners won’t touch a rug that has received a DIY dye job.

4. Overdyed Look by Manufacturer

Machine-made rug manufacturers use stable and permanent dyes to make their products. They have perfected a process that gives the overdyed look, without actually overdyeing the rug. The overdyed look is achieved using synthetic polypropylene as the construction material. These rugs will not bleed when washed or met with water. We recommend that anyone interested in overdyed rugs purchase this type as they are safe for use and easy to clean.

Our Thoughts About Overdyed Rugs

Unless the rug has been washed and proven the dye is stable, we don’t recommend any truly overdyed rugs (Types 1-3). We won’t know until we wash what will happen because it is very difficult to know what kind of overdye the rug has been treated with. At home spills and pet accidents are likely to affect the color of overdyed rugs.

European countries that import rugs perform rigorous safety testing at customs and check fiber samples for dye content. Rugs with dyes that do not pass these safety tests do not make it past customs. The U.S. does not have dye regulations in place, and at-home dye kits are not required to list all ingredients. Dyes considered to be cancer-causing abroad are not banned here.

Rugs that have been overdyed or chemically treated generally have shortened lifespans compared to rugs that have not been overdyed. Regular professional rug cleaning keeps both your rugs and your home healthy. Overdyed rugs can be quite beautiful and trendy, but hard to clean. Take the information here into consideration before buying an overdyed rug, or doing it yourself.

We at Behnam Rugs highly recommend all rugs, including new rugs and antiques, be professionally cleaned before placing them in your home. Rugs are different than carpet and must be cleaned by rug cleaning specialists.