Cleaning and Stain Removal - Wool Rug Stinks like Pet Odor. What to do??

My mother gave me this rug when I moved out. Its an 8X10 wool rug, and I swear it was made for my house. The colors and design are perfect for the room. Couldn’t ask for anything more. She paid over $800 for the rug. She had it for a couple years, and in that time, we had an old dog on his way out, that had accidents from time to time as you would expect.

Anyway, the rug has been cleaned, and then steam cleaned. Tons of hair and dirt came out of it, and its all dry now. However, it still stinks like heck. I mean, my living room is huge (15X40) and it stinks up the whole thing. What can I do?? What can I use?? Anything I can load into the steam cleaner?? Ive looked at Capture, but as far as I know, it’s a dry cleaner, and will soak up anything moist. But, the carpets dry… Will Capture do anything for me.

Lastly, I heard your not even supposed to steam clean wool… Is this true, and if so, have we done damage??

Any suggestions for this topic would be extremely appreciated, as I would hate to throw this rug away for this reason…..

Thanks in advance.

Some older wool carpets really cant be "steam cleaned" But if you used a DIY carpet machine...you didnt steam clean it anyways. Most carpet machines wont even get the water above bath temp. water if there is a onboard heater. You are safe cleaning wool up to 140 or so. I have no idea what you have used in the past. But wool can bled dyes, shrink, stink and also be easily distorted by agitation or destroyed by high pH cleaning agents.

In this case i would suggest contacting a carpet/rug cleaning professional.

Wool will stink or have a low odor when cleaned thou.

Discuss urine odor problem with professional who specializes in cleaning wool rugs. Urine is one of the most severe cleaning problems, especially in wool rugs. Most urine cleaners/deodorizers contain enzymes that digest odor causing bacteria. They can not, however, be used on wool because wool is organic.