[fenman]

Had an email enquiry to clean 2 " silk covered armchairs "
My initial reaction is to politely decline but does anyone have any ideas about whether they can be cleaned by any method.
Cheers
David

[Peter Sweeney]

Yep,

HWE (not too hot though) and reset pile afterwards.

You could dry clean but it won't do a very good job.

Pete

[fenman]

I have shrunk silk curtains in the past because I did not realise they were silk.
Water will mark silk even if it does not shrink so a bit reluctant to use water or water based products.

[derek west]

"RUN FENMAN RUN, RUN LIKE THE WIND AND DON'T LOOK BACK"

i like a challenge but is this one job really worth doing just to say you can clean silk, which lets face it, only comes round once in a blue moon. i would turn it down politely.
reason!
if it goes great, will you get a wow factor from custy, probably not.
if it goes boobs up, you will get slated for all your cleaning, not just silk.

is it worth the risk for a couple of hundred quid.

buy some silk and get an old chair covered, practice on that and see what happens.
i won't clean anything until i'm positive i will get a good result with a safe clean.

just my views but i am reasonably new to this game, not sure how long you've been going.

derek

[Peter Sweeney]

Silk is alot easier to clean than people realise, particlularly fitted.

Pete

[Buster Ingram]

You been drinking Pete?

In all my 30 yrs I have never seen a pile on Silk!

[clinton]

I would be carefull mate and there is no shame in turning it down as i would

[Mark Lawrence]

Hi

I have only been going for a couple of years and i havent seen any silk chairs yet, are they defo silk

Mark

[fenman]

As it was a email enquiry I have not seen them so they may not be silk but I have assumed the customer knows what she is talking about.
I have declined the job but I probably should have gone and looked which may have been more professional than turning potential work away.

[Peter Sweeney]

Dave has a very good point there as I was actually thinking about silk velvet. Sorry Fenman but I've seen that question asked alot and you get the usual "don't touch it" when in reality its really quite easy so I resonded to what I thought and what what I actually read. For straight cut sheet silk the responses are quite accurate.

If you own a compressor you could airbrush clean it. I believe this is how fitted silk carpets are cleaned.

Pete Doh!

[Nigel_W]

I clean alot of silk fabrics and carpets. My advice is to be very wary about rushing into cleaning silk velvets as it is not for the faint hearted. They can be fully wet cleaned but there is often alot of effort required to perfect the dressing of the pile after the cleaning. It can often involve a 2nd visit with a steamer. Most other silk flat weave fabrics can be successfully wet cleaned with care. You need to watch out for special finishes and effects which can be sensitive to water eg moire (watermarking). Unless you are going to get a regular demand for this type of cleaning it is sensible to turn it down. The risks outweigh the benefits. On the other hand if you persevere with developing your experience in cleaning fine fabrics it can be very lucrative

Nigel

[Ricky M]

Nigel, Very Very Lucrative
but as you say not for the faint hearted

[Doctor Carpet (Ret'd)]

Cleaned a couple of silk chairs in a casino.

Dry cleaned them and qualified results. Client happy.

Re other fabrics I in my early days cleaned a glazed cotton couple of chairs. Never come across it before or since. Did all my tests as per my training. No problems there and they came up beautifully.

The only trouble was they now had a matt finish as opposed to a gloss.

Cost me a few hundred quid to put that one right.

[Amethyst]

Did a very old silk brocade settee sometime back, been in a barn so covered with gunge and deep in grease particularly in the hand contact areas. Dry cleaned and hey presto you could see the pattern in the brocade again! Customer happy, me happy!