Irving’s first water supply was a single well dug in the middle of a dirt intersection in 1903 — today the same city holds a master-planned urban skyline built around a 125-acre man-made lake.
Irving sits in western Dallas County, wrapped partly around DFW International Airport, and it grew in two very different bursts almost seventy years apart. Otto Schulze and Otis Brown founded the town in 1903 and named it for the writer Washington Irving; it incorporated on April 14, 1914. For most of the 20th century it grew like any other Dallas County suburb. Then in 1973, developer Ben Carpenter unveiled Las Colinas — a 12,000-acre master-planned urban center built around a man-made lake — and gave Irving a second identity almost entirely separate from its original downtown core.
Quick answer: Irving is home to an estimated 257,000+ residents (2020 census: 256,684), spread across an older, traditional-suburb core and the newer Las Colinas urban district of high-rise offices, condos, and luxury apartments. Most of the city’s water is pumped from Lake Chapman into Lewisville Lake and treated by the City of Dallas, supplemented by water purchased directly from Dallas. We offer free pickup and delivery throughout Irving, including Las Colinas high-rises, with rugs cleaned off-site and returned in about 10 business days.
A well in the road, then a city
Soon after Irving was founded in December 1903, residents dug a water well in the middle of the Main Street and First Street intersection — today’s Irving Boulevard. By 1911 the town had added an elevated wooden tank, an electric pump, and a pump house over that well, and it served nearby businesses until the tower came down sometime before 1920. It’s a small detail, but it captures how modest Irving’s beginnings were compared to what the city became: a farming-town water well serving a handful of storefronts, in a place that’s now Dallas County’s third-largest city.
Two Irvings, two very different rug households
What makes Irving unusual among the DFW suburbs we serve is that it isn’t one uniform housing pattern. The older in-town core, dating back to the years before Las Colinas existed, is made up mostly of traditional single-family neighborhoods — the kind of houses that have collected family rugs over decades. Las Colinas, by contrast, is a 1973-and-later master-planned district of high-rise condos, corporate apartment communities, and luxury rentals built around Lake Carolyn and the Mandalay Canal. A large share of the rugs we pick up from Las Colinas addresses are in leased units or corporate housing tied to the office towers nearby, which means faster turnover, more viscose and synthetic area rugs bought for a specific unit, and less patience for a slow turnaround. Compare that to a decades-old wool rug in an older Irving home, and you’ve got two genuinely different cleaning jobs under one city name. Our guide to viscose and art-silk rug cleaning is worth a read if your rug came from a Las Colinas high-rise, since those fibers need much gentler handling than wool.
Water pumped in from two lakes, treated by Dallas
Irving doesn’t run an independent water-treatment system the way some DFW suburbs do. Most of the city’s water is pumped from Lake Chapman to Lewisville Lake and then treated for Irving by the City of Dallas, with additional water purchased directly from Dallas to supplement that supply. That’s a fairly unusual two-lake, two-city arrangement, and like most of the treated surface water in this region, it carries enough dissolved minerals that a garden-hose rinse at home will leave a rug looking duller than when you started, not cleaner. We don’t rely on that at all — every rug is washed and fully rinsed at our own facility.
An airport city with year-round dust and jet exhaust grit
Irving contains part of DFW International Airport within its city limits, and homes and apartments closest to the airport corridor deal with a mix of jet exhaust particulate and constant air traffic that regular DFW clay dust doesn’t fully explain on its own. It’s a small but real difference from the other suburbs we cover, and it shows up as a slightly grayer buildup in rug pile for households closest to the flight paths, even when vacuuming happens regularly.
- Spring: Rain turns yard soil to clay-heavy mud that tracks onto entryway rugs in the older residential core.
- Summer: Long dry stretches bake dust and airport-corridor grit deep into rug pile across the city.
- Fall: Mature-tree leaf litter in established neighborhoods gets walked in with every trip outside.
- Winter: Corporate holiday entertaining in Las Colinas high-rises and family gatherings in older Irving homes both put heavier-than-usual traffic on living and dining room rugs.
Tip: If you’re renting a furnished Las Colinas unit and the rug came with the lease, check your lease terms before having it professionally cleaned — some furnished units include the rug in the property’s own maintenance contract.
Pickup and delivery across Irving
From the older residential streets near downtown Irving to the high-rise towers and canal-front condos of Las Colinas, our free pickup and delivery service covers the entire city. High-rise pickups are scheduled around building access and loading-dock hours, and every rug is washed fully off-site at our dedicated facility, not spot-cleaned in place.
How often Irving households should schedule a cleaning
For most Irving homes, every 12 to 18 months keeps a rug looking and smelling its best. Households near the airport corridor or with pets should lean toward the shorter end of that range, and entry rugs in ground-floor units should be checked more often than that. Corporate and short-term rental units in Las Colinas often benefit from a cleaning between tenants rather than waiting for a fixed schedule.
Frequently asked questions
Do you offer free pickup and delivery in Irving, including Las Colinas high-rises?
Yes. We serve all of Irving, and we’re set up to coordinate pickup and delivery around building access and loading-dock schedules for high-rise and corporate housing addresses.
Where does Irving’s tap water come from, and does it affect rug cleaning?
Most of Irving’s water is pumped from Lake Chapman into Lewisville Lake and treated by the City of Dallas, with additional water purchased directly from Dallas. Like most treated surface water in the region, it carries dissolved minerals, which is one reason we wash and fully rinse every rug at our facility rather than relying on tap water in your home.
I rent a furnished apartment in Las Colinas — can you still clean the rug?
Yes, as long as you have authorization to have it cleaned. We recommend checking your lease first, since some furnished units include rug maintenance in the property’s own service contract.
Does living near DFW Airport affect how dirty a rug gets?
It can. Homes and units closest to the airport corridor tend to see a bit more fine particulate buildup in rug pile than typical DFW dust alone would explain, so more frequent cleaning is often worthwhile there.
What kind of rugs do you typically see from Las Colinas versus older Irving neighborhoods?
Las Colinas units more often have newer viscose, synthetic, or lower-pile area rugs bought for a specific space. Older Irving neighborhoods more often have long-owned wool or hand-knotted rugs. We identify the fiber before cleaning either type.
How long will my rug be gone?
Most rugs are picked up, cleaned off-site, fully dried, and delivered back within about 10 business days.
Will I know the price before you start?
Yes. Pricing is confirmed upfront based on your rug’s size, fiber, and condition, and we call before doing any additional work beyond the original quote.
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