[Luc]

hi guys,

A neighbour of one of my customers, a lovely Old girl in her 80's,  had her suite cleaned two weeks ago, and this is how its dried out. its a g plan suite, a pale green colour and its dried out with pink lines in lots of the creases and a severe pinkish tinge on all the side panels, back and front of the base.

Can i rectify this for the lady, as she is an old girl who is lovely and tbh is quite distraught as the company she used is not returning no calls or her money?

If so what would be the best way of going about cleaning this?
the reason i ask is i have never seen this in 15 years of cleaning myself.
many thanks
Luc

[Luc]

sorry tried to upload some photos but they have not worked 

[Richard Meads]

Do you know what the fabric is Luc?

[fenman]

It sounds like a colour change that can be rectified by applying a weak solution of bicarbonate of soda.
Not had one for a long time but it certainly works.
David

[Hilton]

Is it a Draylon ?

[Johnny Czarnota]

did u check what is inside the cushions? - maybe some fibres on the backing have loose dyes

[John Kelly]

PH indicator dye problem as mentioned spray with sodium bicarbonate solution and should rectify it.

[Mike Halliday]

It's an acid sensitive indicator dye, test it by wiping it with an high ph solution, it will disappear before your eyes.

The solution has already been mentioned, bicarb' I treated one with an ammonia solution but it stunk to high heaven

Edit... John posted as I typed

[Luc]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I have just returned from spraying the suite down with a mixture of bicarb and water. I literally lightly misted the whole suite and right away the pinkness all vanished.  The old girl was over the moon and ive left with a new customer and a job for next week as im cleaning all the carpets in her bungalow.
The company she used had not even given her the decency to call her back.
Many thanks for advice and it goes to show you learn a new thing everyday.

Luc

[peter maybury]

ask to put  a reveiw on google places about the other firm on her behalf if they are on there.

Peter

[Buckland]

peter - thats a good idea telling it like it is and its what they deserve but dodgy in terms of having your IP traced back to a competitor - I suppose you could get someone in her family to do it for her or jot down what she says and do it at a libarary pc

[james roffey]

I thought that Acids generally stabilised dyes that why we acid rinse especially on those dye sensitive  rugs etc, an acid rinse on this suite probably caused the problem Bi carb is on the Alkaline side have heard of this before and how to rectify, but still odd.

[John Kelly]

James you are right but these dyes aren't loose which is what an acid rinse is designed to deal with ie to stop the colours bleeding.
These dyes for some reason are acting like litmus paper and changing colour depending on the acidity or alkalinity of the cleaning product.

[james roffey]

John

Am i right in thinking that pre testing an area with whatever pre spray you intend to use would not help as this occures during the drying process and may take several hours to appear.

[Dave_Lee]

This happened to a green suite that I cleaned some years ago when this hazard was little known. Fortunatley I spoke to one of the leaders in our field and he knew what it was straight away. Mike H. had the same happen to an identical suite.
The pink discolouration took a few months to fully appear after I cleaned it with a self neutralising Alkaline detergent.
I tested it with an acidic rinse before applying the Bicarb, and the small area turned a deep red straight away.
The Bicard returned it to its original colour.
https://picasaweb.google.com/101559091367211262061/IndDyeProblemSuite
Dave.