Rug cleaning
in Fairfax.

Fairfax sits in the valleys of San Anselmo Creek and its tributary Fairfax Creek and climbs the hills from there, with the Mount Tamalpais protected watershed closing the southern edge. That geography sets the problem. Houses in Cascade Canyon and along the Deer Park reach stand under bay laurel and redwood, and a room that never takes direct sun holds moisture in a wool pile for weeks. We see what follows: a musty back note that survives surface cleaning, foundation yarns that feel cool and heavy in the hand, and moth activity in the quiet ground under furniture. A rug in that condition cannot be dried on the floor it lives on. Ours dries flat in a controlled room at the workshop after a full cold-water immersion, which is the only way to move water right through the pile and back out. Wildfire is the other constant. The town lists nine Firewise USA neighborhoods, from Manor Hill to Marinda Oaks and the Monte Cristo Tract, each with its own boundary and contact. Smoke does not lift with a spot treatment; it binds to the lanolin and needs the wool opened up. Rugs here run small and layered — kilims and tribal pieces over plank floors — so we number and photograph each one at pickup and put them back in the order we found them.

Fairfax pickups are booked one at a time. Tell us a rough day and we come back with a window, confirmed by phone or text well before the van leaves the workshop. Some canyon addresses need a short carry from the road, so it helps to say whether there is a footbridge, a stair run or a gate code. Our own crew handles the lift, the wash and the return. The line is staffed 8am to 8pm every day.