Do Washable Rugs Shrink?
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Washed correctly, no. Washed hot or tumble dried, yes — and permanently.
Which part shrinks
Not the pile. Polyester is dimensionally stable and does not shrink at domestic temperatures. It is the cotton backing that moves, and cotton shrinks with heat, not with water.
The rules that prevent it
- Wash at 30°C. Not 40, not 60.
- Never tumble dry, on any setting.
- Dry flat or hung, away from a direct heat source.
- Do not iron it.
If it has gone slightly out of shape
A rug that has been dried scrunched up rather than flat can usually be recovered: dampen it evenly, lay it flat, square the corners by hand, and weight the edges with books until dry. Genuine heat shrinkage, where the backing has contracted against the face, cannot be reversed.
A note on the first wash
Expect a millimetre or two of movement in the first cycle as the weave settles. That is normal in any woven textile and is not shrinkage in the damaging sense.