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  • Writer's pictureBal Arisi

The Enemies of all Great Looking Rugs—Traffic Lanes, Wear Patterns, and Pile Distortion


area rug, traffic pattern
traffic lane

The rug you purchased and laid in your home is not the rug you own now. How did this happen? Bal Arisi receives many calls from rug owners wondering how to get that amazing looking rug back again? Here are some tips regarding what you may be seeing on your rug, what to do to improve your rug’s appearance, and how to avoid these things from happening too quickly.


The most common complaint from area rug owners is that the area of rug that they see is dull, dirty, matted down. Most often this is what is called a traffic lane.

1. Traffic Lanes Traffic lanes are caused by soils deposited on the pathways we walk on around our furniture, or on our way through a room to the next room, and by low performing rug fibers, such as faux silk, that don’t hold up to normal