Simplify Your Upholstery Cleaning System – [Part #1]

One of the primary reasons carpet cleaners shy away from upholstery cleaning (despite the fact that they usually call themselves “__________ Carpet and Upholstery Cleaners” is that upholstery cleaning has many more variables than carpet cleaning, and therefore making it a bit more difficult to create a simple, easy to follow cleaning system for  upholstery than it is for cleaning carpet.

And, while that is true, there are some things you can do…

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“Suede? UltraSuede? Nubuck?”

Consumers are in love with soft textures today. Upscale consumers purchase chenille to such a large extent that some designers recommend some type of it exclusively.

However, for many people there are other alternatives in upholstery fabric to give the “soft texture” that is so much in demand today.

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Removing Spots Can Cost You Big Money!

Cleaners who become respected as Fine Fabric Specialists will invariably be asked by furniture stores, designers, fabric protection companies, and of course by their customers to “just take the spot out”.

Emergency spot removal services are the cornerstone of many cleaning companies, and when it comes to CARPET cleaning, removing only the spot from a carpet is usually easy to do, and it makes for happy customers and grateful third parties who refer you.

DO NOT take the same approach with spots on upholstery fabrics!

Unlike carpet, upholstery fabrics are often constructed with a variety of somewhat fragile designs, also delicate fibers, and sometimes unstable dyes.

Attempting to just remove a spot from a delicate fabric can result in the following problems, most of which may not be correctable!

1. Water Stains. (Also known as rings or water marks).
   The nature of woven fabrics is such that any soil, spotting material, sizing, and/or cleaning agent that is not removed evenly will form a circle or ring when the treated area dries.If the ring is merely soil or residual material from the spot that was removed, a recleaning of the fabric may remove the ring. However, in some cases, this ring contains migrated dye or sizing, and this type of ring is sometimes permanent!
2. Texture distortion.
   Delicate pile weaves, such as velvet and chenille, as well as fragile constructions, such as satin, may become permanently distorted or damaged by spotting efforts. The flattened or distorted area might even look worse than the spot, but either way, this brings to mind the old adage from the dry cleaning industry:”The spot belongs to the customer, the hole belongs to YOU!”
3. Color changes:
   Many fabric dyes fade easily, but such fading is not noticed when the entire article of furniture is cleaned.If you just remove one spot, such faded areas become readily noticable, and even if the entire piece is cleaned later to “even it out”, the customer is now aware that color loss has occured. 

   Another color change is when off white fabrics become “pure white” after spotting. Many off white fabrics have this appearance because of impurities, that might include vegetable matter or other soil, within the fibers.

   Spotting procedures will often remove these materials, and sometimes (depending on the type of spotter) bleach the spot as well.

   A bright white spot in place of a dark spot is often not acceptable to the customer.

You can prevent these problems by:

1. Always have a firm (written) pre-understanding with the owner of the furniture that spotting efforts can cause texture and color changes, and that cleaning the entire fabric lessens the possibility of this occurrence. Never guarantee that extensive spotting procedures, especially procedures that require the use of bleaching or reducing agents, won’t leave some contrast in the area that was treated.
2. Always clean the entire fabric when spot removal is requested. Some cleaners will clean the cushion face, at a minimum, but remember that even a contrast in one cushion from the rest may very well be unacceptable to your customer.

Guidelines for communicating such issues with your customer or those who refer people to you for fine fabric care, can be found on the reverse side of our Upholstery Inspection Guide.

“Real World” Microfiber Upholstery Cleaning Tips for Upholstery Cleaners

Today I am going to share a “shocking real world soiling story”of mine with you!

Its always a challenge to have cushions that have “real world” soiling available for my Fine Fabric Care Upholstery Cleaning Workshop.

I usually can find some dirty cushions by asking friends and employees for contributions and by the ocassional “dumpster diving” exercise, but rarely do these cushions relate exactly to the problem fabrics I want my students to learn how to clean.

On an impulse, I made up and “lent” three problem fabric cushions to a family I know. I asked them to replace the three cushions on their family room couch with one each of the following three cushion types:

White Polyester Microfiber

Natural White Cotton Damask (jacquard weave)

Rayon Chenille

I asked the family simply to use their furniture normally. Since the family has three active children, I felt I’d get the “soil I wanted”.

What surprised me most was that of the three, the most heavily soiled and spotted cushion was the polyester microfiber! All three cushions have some soil and small spots, but the microfiber cushion looks terrible.

It then occurred to me that the reason why this was true was because microfiber upholstery fabric acts very much like microfiber cleaning cloths: It attracts soil and spills! (and holds them!)

The other issue that makes microfibers so challenging to clean is that most (though not all) are made from polyester fiber, which is very oil loving by nature. This oil loving characteristic causes microfiber furniture to rapidly absorb hair and body oil from people and pets, with the resulting “shiny/oily” soiling that coats the arms, upper inside back, and often the cushions.

While polyester is fairly resistant to chemical damage, microfiber fabrics may be made from laminated material that is sensitive to solvent based spotters and cleaners, and should be inspected for pre-existing delamination in heavy usage areas.

You should also be very careful in your cleaning tool selection, as some tools can cause permanent distortion in microfiber fabrics.

The best preconditioning agents to use on microfibers are moderately alkaline products designed for upholstery cleaning. Products that contain ammonia are especially useful, as the ammonia has a strong grease cutting characteristic without the harsh, highly buffered alkaline nature of traffic lane cleaners.

While an acidic rinse agent is not necessary for microfiber fabrics to protect against color bleeding or browning, its often better to use such a rinse agent so that the microfiber can dry soft, rather than with the harsh feel an alkaline extraction detergent would leave.

You must always advise your customer that while microfiber furniture is often inexpensive to purchase and appears to be easy to clean, it IS made from something very similar to the microfiber cleaning cloths that they see advertised on TV, and that waiting too long to have their “upholstery made from a cleaning cloth” serviced can result in higher cost restoration processes.

Remarkable Class at Pembertons on May 29th

We had the opportunity to have a leading expert on water damage restoration, Chuck Dewald, speak to our customers on May 29th.

I had heard that he was an outspoken, somewhat controversial character, and that in some cases suppliers and other industry leaders found his comments and approach to be negative.

We did not find any of those concerns to be valid!

Instead, our customers had the opportunity to hear one of our industry’s most innovative minds share his insights about both the technical and business aspects of the water damage restoration industry.

While the technical information that he shared was very useful, perhaps the best parts of his presentation was his passionate belief that water restorers need to have a better understanding of what they are doing. He also spoke from his heart about the deep regard that he has for those restorers both in the audience and throughout our country.

His passion, his mission, is quite obviously to bring up the level of professionalism and education of the restorers, and for them to best serve the public/the insured, and to help those restorers stand up to insurance companies that truly do not have their interests at heart.

We at Pembertons highly recommend that any restorer who wants to “be their best” take the time to attend a class taught by Chuck’s team at their home base in Morristown, Tennessee.

https://www.americandryinginstitute.com/

American Drying Institute
5740 West Andrew Johnson Highway
Morristown, TN 37814

Chuck Dewald III
Phone: (423) 312-6777
Fax: (423) 318-0672

Testing The Cleaning Industry Needs

The past year and a half has been filled with controversy and debate regarding the failings of the CRI Seal of Approval Program. While it was understood that the purpose of this program was to create a useful way to measure the performance of cleaning equipment, chemicals, and systems, the results of these tests have been questioned, if not completely rejected by, most independant industry observers.

Some findings of the study may yet have merit: As an example, it was found that the way airflow was either enhanced or restricted by extraction wand designs had more influence in the final test results than the water pressure, heat, and vacuum power that the extractor produced.

It has been proposed that wands themselves be tested, and as long as the test protocols are sensible, such tests would be welcomed.

Other needed tests include:

What products and processes work best on such oil loving fibers as polyester and olefin.

What differences in resoiling exist when extraction solutions contain alkaline detergents, acid rinses, or pure water alone.

How well fluorochemical treatments bond when applied after the use of either of the above extraction/rinsing methods.

I’m very interested in some “real world” tests that will be conducted later this month at an informal meeting of carpet cleaners, including recognized industry leaders, known by its participants as “Mikefest”. While these tests are not being conducted in a test laboratory, the amount of care being shown in setting up the test variables and procedures is impressive.

I’ll share the results of these tests here once they are made public.