Frequently Asked Questions about handmade carpets

1. What's the difference between "rug" and "carpet"?
2. In hand-knotted carpets, what do you mean by "density of a carpet"?
   what do you mean by "lines"? how to determine the quality of a carpet?
3. What types of material are available in carpets?
4. Which is better silk, wool, or silk & wool mixed carpets?
5. What is the difference between Acylic, Polypropylene, and heat-set Polypropylene carpets?
6. What is "nap" of carpets? Why is there a light side and a dark side to a capet?
7. What is "art." silk?
8. What is the difference between Hand-knotted and Hand-Tufted?
9. Why are the better quality carpets thinner than the lower quality carpets?
10. What's best type of wool for woolen carpets?
11. Why are the hand-knotted carpets so much more expensive than the machine-made carpets?
12. What is hand-carving of a carpet?
13. I want to order make a specific pattern in specific material, is it possible?
14. Where are the carpets made?
15. What sizes are available?
16. Are there child-labour used in carpet making?
17. Any tips on chosing a design or color?
18. Why does your email photographs not as clear as the real thing?
19. Do you ship across the world? How much? How long?
20. How do we pay for our purchases?
21. Do you do wholesale ?
22. Can samples be made?
23. Any cleaning tips?
24. Do carpet protection work?
25. Does carpet require anti-slipping backing?
26. What are sheepskins?
27. I have a complaint, what do I do?

1. What's the difference between "rug" and "carpet"?
   
   Answer: Usually "rug" refers to a piece of pre-determined size floor covering, and "carpet" refers to a wall-to-wall floor covering. For our webpage and our company, both "rug" and "carpet" refers to a piece of pre-determined size floor covering.
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2. In hand-knotted carpets, what do you mean by "density of a carpet"?
   what do you mean by "lines"? how to determine the quality of a carpet?
   
   Answer: In Chinese carpets, a quality of a carpet is determined by its density (similar to counting pixels on a LCD monitor), and the method of counting is by "lines". By counting how many "Lines" there are in one linear foot, we can determine how many knots can be tied in a carpet (area calculation)! So if we have a 120 Lines carpet, we can calculate: 120 x 120 = 14,400 knots in one square foot (which is roughly equal to 100 knots per square inch or 155,000 knots per square meter). Of course the more knots in a carpet, the more workmanship, and the higher the cost of the carpet! Also, note that "lines" are caculated in linear, but the density goes up exponentally. Eg:
   
   90 Lines = 88,000 knots per M2
   120 Lines = 155,000 knots per M2
   260 Lines = 727,620 knots per M2
   300 Lines = 968,000 knots per M2
   500 Lines = 2,690,900 knots per M2 !!!!
   Note that the Indians determines their rugs' quality a bit differently!
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3. What types of material are available in carpets?
   
   Answer: There are many different types of material. In natural material, we carry silk carpets, wool carpets, and some silk & wool mixed carpets. In synethic material, we carry acrylic and heat-set polypropylene.
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4. Which is better silk, wool, or silk & wool mixed carpets?
   
   Answer: Depending on what you like. There are advantages and disadvantages to both materials. For silk carpets, silk tends to have brighter colors, a shin to the carpet, it is also silkier to the touch, cooler in the summer. Silk also tends to be stronger than wool, but since it is softer, its pile height (thickness) can not be as thick as wool. Wool carpets tend to be warmer, thicker, but wool strands tend to break easier. When it comes down to workmanship, wool is coarser, therefore, can not be made into higher density/quality than silk! And when it comes down to cleaning, silk must be dry-cleaned!!!
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5. What is the difference between Acylic, Polypropylene, and heat-set Polypropylene carpets?
   
   Answer: Acrylic is a more expensive material, because when it comes to carpets, acrylic can be dyed into brighter colors (as well as darker colors). Polypropylene (PP) is very plastic looking material, therefore, PP rugs tend to look very artificial. But when PP is treated proper (using heat-set technology), it can look/feel much like wool, also much easier to clean than the original untreated PP. Both Acrylic and heat-set PP are fairly strong in daily usaged department.
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6. What is "nap" of carpets?
   Why is there a light side and a dark side to a capet?
   
   Answer: In all carpets, there is a tendancy for the individual strands of the material to lean one direction (much like velevet or suede). Therefore, if you look at one-end of the carpet, it will look bright, and if you look at the other-end, it will look darker. It is more noticeable in silk carpets, because silk material is brighter, and it reflects light more, therefore, the nap is more noticeable. (hey, think of it as buying 2 carpets for the price of one - at least, you get the feel of 2 carpets in one room)
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7. What is "art." silk?
   
   Answer: "Art." silk is basically a sales pitch talk that trys to hide the fact that "Art." means artificial!!! Yes, that means the carpet is not really silk. It could be synethic material, or cotton and silk mixed material. Of course, unscrupulous dealer might not even tell you it's "art." silk. Buyers beware!!!
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8. What is the difference between Hand-knotted and Hand-Tufted?
   
   Answer: In hand-knotted rug, each individual strand of fiber is tied in a knot by hand (yes, it means a lot of work!!!). For hand-tufted rug, each individual strand of fiber is "pushed" (by hand or by a device) into a cotton net, then after completion of the design, a glue is applied to the back layer to seal the fiber into place. Finally either the backing is applied another layer of fabric to cover the glue or just left as it is. Since, tufted rugs' fiber are held in place by glue (rather than knotted into the backing), the strands of fiber tends to "pull out" a lot easier, therefore, will have a shedding problem.
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9. Why are the better quality carpets thinner than the lower quality carpets?
   
   Answer: When the carpets' knotting is very dense, the carpets must be shaved down more to maintain a balance of clear design and usabilty. So, the higher the density/quality the thinner the carpet will be. At 600-700 Lines, the carpet can be nearly paper thin!!!
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10. What's best type of wool for woolen carpets?
    
    Answer: For making clothing and sheepskins rugs, Australian wool is softer and more comfortable. But when it comes to making woolen rugs, the opposite is required, we need stronger fiber, harder wool. Therefore, wool such as goat wool or New-Zealand wool (which are more harder) are better as material for woolen rugs. In our case, most of our woolen rugs are New-Zealand wool.
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11. Why are the hand-knotted carpets so much more expensive than the machine-made carpets?
    
    Answer: As with hand-knotted carpets, each carpet with each design and each size, a hand-drawn plan picture is used for each carpet to be made. Then, each strand of knots is tied by hand into the backing of the carpets, therefore, taking huge amounts of time. In general, a 90 Lines rug of 8 x 10' size will take 2 to 3 workers working 5 month time to finish, then another month to hand-carve the designs and do final washes. In machine-made carpets, computer will re-produce the plans and a machine will wilt a rug in less than an hour, less time, less work.
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12. What is hand-carving of a carpet?
    
    Answer: This procedure is mostly done with hand-knotted or hand-tufted carpets. When the carpet is finish, a worker will use a cutter to "hand-carve" out-lines on the designs. It takes an expert cutter to "carve" out the designs in a carpet into a work-of-art. The final carpet will give the user a 3-dimensional sculptured feel to the carpet!
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13. I want to order make a specific pattern in specific material, is it possible?
    
    Answer: Yes and no. When it comes to specific order, it really depends on what you are ordering. On machine-made products, each size, each pattern, each color, a minor of 1,000 piece must be ordered, in order for production set-up!!!! Therefore, ordering by single piece is not possible. Whereas, if you order hand-knotted carpet, you can specify color, design, and size and it is possible to order make, but hand-knotted carpets takes roughly 6 month (for lower quality, and much longer for higher quality) for finish production, so patience is a must. Hand-tufted can be order made and finished within one month. There is a extra charge for order make, as production workers must be pull-off the production lines to make the specific carpets for you!
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14. Where are the carpets made?
    
    Answer: All over China!!! Hand-knotted silk carpets, Persian styles are produced in my hometown (Henan).
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15. What sizes are available?
    
    Answer:
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16. Are there child-labour used in carpet making?
    
    Answer: Absolutely not!!!
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17. Any tips on chosing a design or color?
    
    Answer: Really, it is very personally thing. But in general, going contrast is the best way. If your floor is light color, choose a darker color carpet, or a carpet with a dark border, and the opposite is true for dark floor. When it comes to design, the same applies. If your home design is very busy, you can choose a simpler design carpet to tone it down, and vice versa. Be creative, put a Persian design rug into a modern cyber looking home, and you might be surprised that it turns out looking very nice!
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18. Why does your email photographs not as clear as the real thing?
    
    Answer: In general, we shrink the pictures before sending by email (unless customers specify that their email box is big enough to fit unshrunk pictures). Also a picture can not show the nap (dark and light side) of carpets. The real carpet is always better looking than the pictures!!!
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19. Do you ship across the world? How much? How long?
    
    Answer: Yes, we ship across the entire globe. You can ship by air cargo (air freight), sea freight, parcel post, and courier. The cheapest is by parcel post (air/sea), but parcel post is limited by weight, therefore, only smaller rugs, such as 4 x 6' or lower in size, or thin Persian style silk rugs. Courier is door-to-door service by air, the fastest way (less than a week to any destination), but it's very expensive (price calculate by weight and destination). Sea freight is the cheapest, but there is a minimum weight involved (need to send a lot of carpets), and it will take roughly a month to get anywhere! Air cargo can be the best way, individual rugs can be sent, it calculates by weight. It can reach most big international airport within one week. The only limitation is that the buyer must pick up the carpet from the airport.
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20. How do we pay for our purchases?
    
    Answer: The easiest way, of course, is to pay in our showroom in Hong Kong. We accept all kinds of credit card and cash (please do not use traveler cheques, as the bank charges are very high for traveler cheques in Hong Kong). If can not come to our showroom, then the only way to pay us is by direct bank telegraphic transfer (T.T./wired money). We use to accept credit cards, but do to fraudulent credit card purchases, Hong Kong banks have refuse most credit card purchase overseas. So, when you need to pay for a purchase (as we receive money before we send any products), please contact us, we'll give you the banking information, you T.T. us the money (and fax us the bank receipt, if possible).
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21. Do you do wholesale?
    
    Answer: Of course!!! We are the largest wholesaler of rugs in Hong Kong, we also carry the widest varities/range of color, design and sizes in stock. For first time wholesale, we require a deposit (amount depending the product) if it is factory order. When the product is ready for sending, the balance must be T.T. and received before we send the product. In future cases, L/C is generally the way to go.
    
    
22. Can samples be made?
    
    Answer: Yes, of course. But full price must be paid (as of order-made) for the sample piece. If you are a wholesaler and wanting samples, you must also pay for the samples, but when you place an order, the difference between retail price and wholesale price of the samples will be deducted on the final invoice/payment.
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23. Any cleaning tips?
    
    Answer: Regularly, people just vacuum carpets. The best way to vacuum carpets is from the light side to the dark side (remember the nap of the carpet?), the easy way. Do not push against the nap. This method of vacuuming can be used on any type of carpets (from hand-knotted to machine-made to wall-to-wall). When it comes to washing carpets, for silk carpet and tufted rug, one must get a professional dry-cleaner to clean the carpet. For wool carpet, small stains can be removed by soda water or just plain water. To wash the entire woolen carpet, water can be used (rather than dry-cleaning), but carpet cleaning service is advised, as wet rugs are heavy to move and to dry!!! To remove small stains on silk rugs, canned 3M Scotchgard rug cleaners can be used to remove stains.
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24. Do carpet protection work?
    
    Answer: Depending on the carpet material, Scotchgard, Dupont Carpet Protection, etc. works well on wool carpets, but works even better on silk carpets. They are there not just to prevent stains, but also when it comes to washing, it is a lot easier to remove protected carpets' stains. We also provide such service prior to sending rugs with a little extra service fee (upon request).
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25. Does carpet require anti-slipping backing?
    
    Answer: Depending on the rug's size and weight, and the floor. If the rug is wool and is big or it is under a heavy table, usally no anti-slipping backing/net is needed. If the carpet is thin, like the Persian style high quality or it is on marble/tile floor, a backing is necessary. We also provide such backing for extra fee. This backing does not require you to glue it on the carpet or floor, so no worries of removing the backing when it comes to moving!
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26. What are sheepskins?
    
    Answer: We also carry the soft plushy Australian sheepskins. Made in Australia with the finest winter wool. Bigger sizes are available with multiple sheepskins sewed together to create a bigger rug! It's natural and it's warm and it's safe with kids!!!
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27. I have a complaint, what do I do?
    
    Answer: We have been in business for over thirty years, when it comes to service, nobody, nobody beats us!!! If you have a complaint, contat us!!! If you have a problem, we'll try to solve it!!! Quality is our assurance!!!
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