I have a brand new rug that is less than a week old. Every time I lift it up and sweep I have piles of white fine powder. That,s at least 3 times a day. Does anyone know what this is. I 'm thinking of taking it back.
This exact same thing happened to me but it was from a rug I owned for about 7 years when the white powder began to collect under that rug. I shop at many stores, so I do not recall where I purchased the rug. So, I called a local rug store and they told me that the bottom of the rug was dry rotting and disintegrating, causing the powdery substance to shed from the bottom of the rug. If I were you, I would positively return the rug because if you are anything like me, it will drive you nuts until you finally toss the rug.
Sounds like same problem we had either the backing of the rug or small particles of fibre from the ends of the material that makes up the rug
The 'powder' comes from the packing process as well as the glue that holds the pile to the rug base. This is very typical when dealing with tufted synthetic rugs. It can also indicate dry rot or moth infestation but since it is new, it is likely the glue as I mentioned before.
The powder is probably dried soap from all the shampooing. If you use 'extra' detergent in an effort to get it 'extra' clean, you leave a lot of residue in the carpet. You said you'd shampooed 'several' times, so that certainly leads me to think you've got residue build up. To check -- take a scrub brush. Dampen a section of carpet with a spray bottle and scrub it for a minute. Do you get suds out of the rug? Definitely soap residue. If you used an extraction shampooer (really uses a lot of suction to pull soap and water out) with NO MORE SOAP, you should be able to get a great deal of the leftover residue out of the fibers. In the future, reduce the amount of detergent, and spend extra time using the vacuum attachment to pull more liquid from the rug.
I work in a carpet workroom and if the rug is new it probably is the backing which is drying out. The backings in synthetic rugs are attached with a water base latexed glue for the most part. If you like your rug what I can recommend is that you have a secondary backing put on instead of using a pad. If the rug is going on a hard surface I would have a nonskid backing put on it but make sure the latex it on and not use aerosol. That will give your rug a lot of stability, keep the corners from curling, protect your floor, and also keep the carpet from continuing to powder. The backing should run you about $60 dollars. I dont know what the return policy is on the rug but just to make sure it can be done I would take it to a local carpet workroom have them look at it and make sure they can do it, not all workrooms are experienced as others. That way if they dont think tey can do it you might return it for another rug before your time expires to return your rug.
