Can you wash a carpet when it's not fitted?

Question

Hi. I've got a VAX carpet washer and am currently doing some decorating, so I've take up the carpets. My question is this: If I wash my stair carpet as it is right now (i.e. no longer fitted to the stairs), will it be okay or will it stretch/shrink if I wash it when it's not fitted?

Answer 1

It should be fine as long as it is a synthetic carpet. 99% of carpet is synthetic.

Certain natural fibers sometimes can shrink from cleaning with water.

Also if the synthetic carpet is backed with a natural fiber do not clean it. It is extremely rare that synthetic fibers are backed with jute or other natural fibers. I have only seen 1 out of tens of thousands.

You should be fine cleaning it

UPDATE: Since it is wool why are you cleaning it yourself? Is vax carpet washer cleaning product wool safe? Wool is extremely sensitive to high and low ph as well as many other things. It also is extremely senstive to water.

I would not use a home machine to clean it (period) unless the cleaning product is wool safe (i highly doubt it is). The wool safe product would have to be thoroughly rinsed from the carpet using water only and the water extracted very thoroughly. It really needs to be dried fast too. Also if the machine has brushes it can be very harsh on the fibers.

The choice is yours. Just be aware of those things.

Hessian is form of Jute and will shrink if it gets wet.