Upholstery cleaning

Help! A Stain on Your Upholstery – Where Do You Start?

Especially in homes where children and pets spend their days, marks and stains on upholstery are an everyday occurrence.

Is buying a new sofa really the only option once the kids have grown, or are there ways to keep even hard-to-remove stains from leaving permanent damage on your upholstery?

Which fabric should you choose?

If you want your sofa fabric to last as long as possible, choose one with a higher abrasion rating. Fabric strength and durability is measured using the Martindale unit, which shows how resistant the fabric is to rubbing.

Testing uses a special machine that rubs the fabric in circular movements until the fibres break down. For household use, look for a Martindale rating of at least 25,000. It’s also worth considering your home situation – if you have pets or young children, it’s best to avoid light-coloured upholstery, as it shows every little mark.

Retail chemical products should be treated with caution, even if the label says they’re suitable for the surface you’re cleaning.

It’s also worth remembering that washing-up liquid is designed for dishes and glass cleaner for windows. Universal cleaning products often aren’t suitable for cleaning much of anything properly.

Using the wrong product often shows up as marks once the fabric has dried. These marks then attract even more dirt and dust, making that area of the furniture soil faster in future.

To remove a stain, use a proper stain-removal product or mild soapy water – never bleach, which leaves marks that can no longer be removed. Don’t over-wet the stained area or rub it too hard. It’s also common for people to attack stains with an abrasive sponge, which can damage the upholstery covering.

What do the professionals do differently?

The advantages of a professional cleaner are probably fairly predictable – experience, training, and the specific cleaning products and tools the job requires.

A specialist textile-care machine can lift dirt from deeper within the fabric fibres, and for the fabric to stay clean afterwards it’s important to extract as much dirt and cleaning solution from the upholstery as possible. This can only be done with specialist equipment that has a fabric rinse function.

One important advantage of professional equipment is its ability to remove dust mites from upholstery. They’re found in virtually every home and feed on our dead skin cells. Dust mites are most commonly found in upholstery, carpets and mattresses.

The surest way to avoid allergies caused by dust mite waste is to get rid of them altogether. Special techniques can remove dirt and dust mites even deep within textile fibres.

When treating a stain, it’s important to follow a few key rules: *Gently dab the stain, turning the cloth slightly as you go. *For larger stains, always work from the cleaner area towards the dirtier one, never the other way round, or you’ll spread the mark further. *Finally, always dry the treated area with a clean, dry fibre cloth or lint-free paper.

How often should you clean your upholstery?

Careful, regular cleaning will definitely extend the life of your sofa fabric; how often you need to clean mainly depends on the factors already mentioned regarding how intensively the furniture is used.

It’s important to deal with stains as quickly as possible. Even if you plan to have a professional remove the stain later, you should act straight away.

It already helps a great deal to gently blot the stain with a damp and then a dry cloth, so it doesn’t have time to set into the fabric. If a professional finishes removing the stain, the rest of the upholstery fabric gets cared for too.

During cleaning, both the dirt and the cleaning solution are rinsed out of the fabric, which means the furniture stays damp afterwards. It should be left to dry thoroughly before use, and drying time is around 12-24 hours depending on the room’s ventilation.

During this time the furniture shouldn’t be used as normal – for now, simply admire your much cleaner sofa from a distance.

If a stain simply won’t budge, our upholstery chemical cleaning service.

Клининговые услуги в Таллинне

Cleaning Services in Tallinn

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