Since wool comes from sheep fibers, sometimes wool rugs can take on an unpleasant smell when exposed to water or moisture. The odor is reminiscent of wet dog or barnyard animals, and when you’ve invested a bit of money into your wool rug, a smell like that can be alarming!

But not to worry. There are simple methods you can use to get the wet animal smell out of your wool rugs.

The most important thing to do is make sure the rug is completely dry. To avoid a permanent odor problem, you’ll want to act as soon as you notice the smell.

Hanging the rug outside on a clothesline in direct sunlight should do the trick. It can take several days for a rug that has gotten very wet to dry out completely. Be sure to bring it in at night to prevent it from collecting dew and compounding the problem. Alternate the side that faces out in order to give both sides of the rug a chance to dry.

If you live in a region with a very wet or humid climate, hanging your rug outside might not be possible. Instead, you can try hanging it up indoors and setting a fan up to blow in the direction of the rug until all the moisture is gone.

Whether you dry the wool rug outdoors or indoors, when it’s done drying sprinkle a liberal amount of baking soda on it. Let the baking soda sit for at least an hour and then vacuum it up. Repeat this process on the other side of the rug.

If the unpleasant odor persists, there is still hope! Call a professional rug cleaning service to take care of the problem. Customers in the Asheville, NC area will find Five Step Carpet Care’s rug cleaning service to be affordable and effective. We offer convenient pick-up and delivery, or you can drop your rug off at our facility for cleaning. Your wool rug will come back to you looking and smelling like new.

You can also check out some of our before-and-after photos.

Give Five Step a call at 828.237.3237 or drop us a line for more info.