Iranian Carpets

Iranian carpets in Germany are not one trade but two with a customer in common: selling, and cleaning and repair. The person furnishing a new flat and the person with a family rug in the boot of the car both land on this page, and the two businesses have almost nothing in common beyond the object itself. One is a shop, a warehouse and a negotiation. The other is a workshop, water and a needle.

What the Verified badge does and does not say

Verified says one thing only: a real person stands behind this profile and manages it themselves. YabInfy does not check anyone's certificates, licences, experience or competence, and the badge is not for sale.

The two branches of this list

Carpet shops are where you buy, sell, or leave a rug on commission. Carpet cleaning covers the workshops that wash, reweave, rebind edges and often collect the rug and bring it back. Some businesses do both even though they sit under one heading, so if the nearest option to you is a shop, ask about washing anyway.

Hand-knotted or machine-made, the one question that really moves the price

Two rugs of the same size in the same design can differ in price several times over, and this is almost always why.

• Turn it over. On a hand-knotted rug the design is legible from the back and the knots are small and slightly irregular. A machine-made back is uniform, usually with a layer of latex or visible carrier threads.
• Look at the fringe. On a hand-knotted rug it is the warp of the rug itself. On most machine-made rugs it is a separate strip, sewn or glued on.
• Small irregularities are not faults. A shift of shade within one colour, called abrash, a slight wander in the pattern, two sides that are not exactly equal: those are the hand at work.
• There is a third category. A hand-tufted rug is handwork without knots: the pile is punched in with a gun and the back sealed with glue and cloth. Shorter life, and water is a problem for it.
• Ask what the pile is made of, not what it looks like. Viscose, also sold as art silk, is vulnerable to water and staining, and many workshops either treat it separately or will not take it.

Tabriz, Kashan, Nain and Isfahan on a label prove nothing on their own

Those names carry two meanings in the trade and honest dealers use both: the rug was woven in that town, or it was woven to that town's design somewhere else, possibly in another country. The name settles neither and does not justify a price on its own. A written invoice does. Ask for it to state:

• Construction: hand-knotted, hand-tufted or machine-made, in those words
• Materials: pile and foundation, separately
• Size: in centimetres, as measured
• Origin: the region or workshop, and whether it was made there or only follows the style
• Age and condition: new or used, and where any repair has already been done
• Price and seller: the amount, the date, the full name and address

That single sheet is what an insurer will want later, and what a buyer will want if you ever sell. Note too that there is no fourteen-day right of return on a rug bought in a shop, that being a distance-selling right, so get any returns policy onto the same piece of paper.

Reweaving is a trade that exists here

Plenty of people put a torn or moth-eaten rug aside for the next trip to Iran. There is no need. Most washing workshops either have a reweaver in house or send the work to one. The usual jobs: rebinding a selvedge before it eats into the pattern, renewing worn fringes, reweaving moth holes and burns knot by knot in the original colours, flattening a rug that has buckled, and cutting a large rug down for a smaller room, which cannot be undone afterwards. Repair is priced by the handwork and the size of the damaged area, not by the whole rug, and nobody can quote it without seeing it: a photograph of the whole rug plus a close-up of the damage is the first thing they will ask for.

What a proper wash does that your bathroom cannot

The most important part of the job happens before the rug gets wet.

• Dust extraction: a hand-knotted rug holds a great deal of fine grit at the base of the pile, below where a vacuum reaches. If it does not come out before the water goes in, it turns to mud and stays in the weave. A workshop uses a duster or a mechanical beater, and this is the step that cannot be done at home.
• A colour-fastness test on a hidden corner first. Old vegetable dyes and some dark colours run, and a colour that has run into a pale ground does not come back out.
• Washing with plenty of water and mild agents: wool does not tolerate alkaline products or very hot water.
• Moth treatment, especially for a rug that has spent time under furniture, in storage or in a cellar, because moths work in the dark and in stillness.
• Controlled, flat drying in moving warm air, never over a radiator and never in direct sun. Moisture left in the foundation smells, and in time rots the weave.

Which is why a steam cleaner or a supermarket carpet shampoo is a poor idea on a hand-knotted wool rug. If something has just been spilled, blot it with a dry white cloth and do not rub.

Get the value in writing before the claim, not after

If you own a rug that would be hard to replace, now is the moment for a written valuation (Wertgutachten), not the week after a fire, a burst pipe or a burglary. Under a Hausratversicherung it is you who has to say what you owned and what it was worth, and at that point only paper counts: the purchase invoice, clear photographs of front and back, and a valuation from someone qualified to give one. Keep it outside the flat, because the fire that takes the rug takes the folder in the cupboard too. Two things only your own insurer can answer: many policies cap valuables separately and may want anything above a threshold declared, and a rug sitting in a workshop is not necessarily covered by your household policy.

What to ask before you hand a rug over

• A written receipt describing that rug: size, materials, and the damage that is already on it. Take your own photographs before it leaves.
• The insured value while it is in their care, and what happens if it is damaged or goes missing.
• A turnaround date, not "about two weeks".
• Where the work is done: on their own premises or somewhere else, and where it goes if it travels.
• The price: fixed or by the square metre, and a commitment to call before doing any extra work they find once the rug is open.
• YabInfy checks none of this, so ask for it yourself, and ask to see the document where it matters.

Choosing someone from here

A rug has to be seen in daylight before you buy it, walked on and turned over, and no photograph substitutes for that. For washing and repair the map matters much less, because many workshops collect and deliver: ask about the radius, the transport charge and cover while the rug is in transit, and use the city list at the foot of this page if you would rather carry it in yourself. Read the reviews for what a customer can judge: whether the quoted price was the final price, whether the date held, whether the rug came back the same size and the same colours, and whether damage found during the work was raised before it was dealt with or after. Taste in pattern and colour is another matter entirely. Privacy runs in both directions here: nothing on this site reveals who opened a profile or who asked for a number, while a review you leave is public under a name of your choosing. Phone numbers and addresses sit behind "Show contact details", and pressing it puts you through to the shop or the workshop itself.

If you already know which of the two you need, go straight to carpet shops or carpet cleaning. If you do not, start with a washing workshop: someone who unrolls rugs every day will tell you in one look what you have. How this directory works is set out in the FAQ, and if you sell or clean carpets yourself, add your business.