Why Does One 8x10 Rug Cost $900 and Another $9,000?

Put two 8x10 rugs next to each other and one might cost a few hundred dollars and the other more than a used car. Same size, similar colors, both called "wool". People assume the difference is a brand name or a shop's markup. Sometimes it is. Usually it is five things you can learn to see.

1. How it was made

This is the biggest single factor. A machine-made rug takes minutes. A hand-tufted rug takes a day or two. A hand-knotted rug takes months — a skilled weaver ties somewhere between six and ten thousand knots in a working day, and an 8x10 at a medium density holds well over a million. Time is the cost, and there is no shortcut to it. If you are not sure which kind you are looking at, turn the corner over.

2. How fine the knotting is

Among hand-knotted rugs, density is what separates a good rug from a great one. Knots are counted per square inch. A sturdy village-style rug might have 80 to 120; a fine piece can run 300, 400 or more. Doubling the density does not double the price — it more than doubles it, because finer knots need finer wool, a finer foundation, and a weaver with years more skill. Turn the rug over: the smaller and more even the squares on the back, the finer the rug.

Curves this smooth and outlines this crisp only happen at high knot density.

3. What it is made of

Wool is not one thing. Good rug wool comes from high-altitude sheep, is hand-carded and hand-spun, and is heavy with natural lanolin — which is why it resists dirt and springs back underfoot. Cheaper wool is short, dry and chemically washed, and it mats. Silk, whether real or a fine bamboo silk, is costlier still and shows every detail. At the other end, viscose and polyester look soft on the shelf and cost a fraction, but they crush, they shine, and a single spill can mark them for good.

Hand-spun wool poms, dyed to order. The yarn is chosen before the first knot is tied.

4. How it was dyed and finished

Small-batch dyeing, whether vegetable or good-quality synthetic, gives a rug the slight variation in tone that makes it look alive — and it costs more than dyeing a thousand kilos at once. After weaving, a hand-knotted rug is washed, stretched, sheared and finished by hand. Each of those steps is a person's day. Skip them and the rug is cheaper and looks it.

5. How many hands it passed through

Here is the part that has nothing to do with the rug. A rug sold through a chain has usually been bought and resold three or four times before it reaches the floor — weaver to exporter to importer to distributor to retailer — and every one of those steps adds a margin. Two rugs of identical quality can carry very different prices purely because of the route they took to you. Buying from a direct manufacturer removes most of that route.

From our floor to this living room — no importer, no distributor in between.

So which should you buy?

Think in years, not dollars. A well-made hand-knotted wool rug in a living room lasts thirty years and more, and can be cleaned and repaired along the way. Divide the price by thirty and it is often the cheapest floor covering in the house. A tufted rug lasts as long as its glue — usually eight to fifteen years — and a viscose rug as long as it takes for the first spill. For a room you will live in for a long time, the expensive rug is very often the cheap one.

And if the numbers on a tag do not make sense to you, ask. A good dealer can tell you the knot count, the wool, and where the price comes from. If they cannot, that tells you something too.

Come and compare

We are happy to put rugs of different grades side by side in the showroom and show you where the money goes. 239 Ogden Ave, Downers Grove, Mon–Sat 10–6 and Sun 12–5, or call (630) 324-6567. Start with the rugs we weave ourselves or read about having one made to your size and color.