The sides and the ends of Oriental rugs and carpets can be the first area to show signs of wear and tear. The wools or silks on a handmade carpet or rug are finished on each side with the warp and weft (foundations) being held in place and finished with the cord or cording.

This is completed by looping new wool or silk around the final piece of thicker side warp, creating a tube -like finish to the side, which is extremely hard wearing and designed to take the most of footfall.

The first sign of wear is by either wools coming off the side, or small pieces of the cord material sticking out where the wool or silk had split. In order to repair the sides of a rug, we match wools to the piece. Antique wools or specialist silks can often be difficult to exactly replicate, however getting it right is vital to the finished product once repaired. We can dye wools in our workshops to get an exact match, however more often than not, we have a match in stock – sourced from either Iran, Afghanistan or Turkey.

Cord repair is a simple and straightforward operation and is something we do almost everyday for our clients.