[andrew christopher]

A friend of mine wants me to clean his sofa, its from John Lewis but i cant find the fabric label. The care label says call Chem dry and do not wet clean. The sofa is not too dirty, mainly dirt on arm rests. Would i be ok with light misting of prochem fabric resore and terry towling to remove this and then some fabric fibre rinse misted on, iv not done this before. How would you clean it? It is not patterened and i would test back with solution to check for fabric change.Would this method be enough to clean it? I read somewhere that most modern fabrics can be HWE cleaned even if care label says dry clean only. Bit confused!

Or should i just leave it alone?

Thanks Andy

[Jim_77]

Hi Andy.  You're right to be cautious!

Lots of very experienced guys would probably walk straight up to that sofa and start wet cleaning it without much of a thought, because as you rightly say the labels sometimes aren't telling the whole truth.  I can't remember the last time I chickened out of wetting a suite :

BUT

iv not done this before

I'm not sure if that means experience in upholstery cleaning full stop, or just that method you describe, but seems as you're asking the question I'd guess you haven't been at it long, apologies if I've got the wrong end of the stick

If you have little or no experience, it would be foolhardy to wade straight in hoping for the best.  I'd be very careful if you take this on.  You'll need to test your products and methods on a hidden area first, fully dry it off and compare to a piece of uncleaned fabric.  Normally if you take the cushions off, you have a bit of fabric stretched up onto the front of the bench, this is a good test area although if it's a pile fabric it'll be flattened, so bear that in mind for visual comparisons.

Sorry to sound like a broken record but you really would get a huge benefit from completing some training, either with the NCCA or one or two of the bigger manufacturers/suppliers.  Not only will you get loads of knowledge but you'll also get oodles more confidence, allowing you to feel relaxed instead of scared when faced with several grands' worth of upholstery to clean!

Good luck

P.S. If you put your location in your forum profile, someone local to you might be willing to take on the job and let you come along for the experience - hands-on training is a great accompaniment to the theoretical stuff learned on courses.

[andrew christopher]

Thanks Neil,

Iv done mainly carpet cleaning and been on the prochem course for that, im booked into a prochem upholstery course. The sofas iv cleaned are for my brother on rented properties where there was not really anything to loose or any come back. Those i used fabric restore and fab clean,HWE out, one was not wet cleanable but came out fine, as i say if it had gone wrong it wouldn't have mattered.

I will prob leave this one but was intersted when you say "I can't remember the last time I chickened out of wetting a suite" are manufacturers being over cautious when they state dont wet clean with some fabrics? Iv read others who say that they wet clean when the label says dry clean only.

Andy

[markpowell]

Where do you live, you may get someone on the forum to take a look and advise or maybe even clean it for you.
Mark

[carlton care]

Pssssst Andrew.........................it's Jim, not Neil

[clinton]

 

[andrew christopher]

Sorry Jim! Too much beer last night.

[Mike Halliday]

as its a friend I'd clean the back of the chair or sofa ( whichever sits against the a wall so is'nt seen if anything goes wrong)  and see what happens, or you could be more cautious and clean the zipper side of a cushion.

all the advice in the world won't tell you as much as just cleaning a bit of the suite.

[bennymon]

dont worry about the chemdry label the paid to have it put there and chemdry  clean  all sofas hwe del

[Jim_77]

chemdry  clean  all sofas hwe

You sure?

Yes they pay to be named there, but it doesn't mean they know any more than another experienced technician.

Andrew, yes manufacturers do cover their butts in terms of the info they put on care instructions.

I've seen plenty that say on the same label "Do not wet clean" and then "Do not use dry cleaning solvents" !!!

As Mike says, there is no real way of telling without performing a bit of low-risk testing.

I've actually just remembered the last time I chickened out of wetting a suite.  It was a black cotton print, very thin and flimsy fabric, with a sort of chinese-looking pattern, the job was for a high-end customer who was spending over £600 with me 

I didn't want it to end up looking slightly less black in some places, as many cotton prints will suffer loss of colour when extracted.  Also didn't want to risk snagging with the hand tool.

It wasn't visibly soiled, so I gave it a good old vacuum and a spray & wipe with mineral spirit dry cleaning solution.  This was in December 2005.

I cleaned a dark green cotton print a couple of weeks ago, extracted a little test area and dried it off with no visible difference... but when I emptied the machine the water was tinged with green as expected!  I never apply spotting solvents to these, just too much risk of ending up with a pale patch!  My wet crock test with an alcohol spotter backed this up, the colour of the towel looked like I'd just wiped wet paint off something!

[russell james]

HAVE YOU DONE A BURN TEST ON IT?

[Jim_77]

speak up!

[russell james]

 

[Mike Roper]

Its a good idea to clean/test on sides of cushion,but what is more ideal is to learn and understand why something should or shouldnt be cleaned with what method.What effect would wetting it have ?
When labels say do not dry clean do not wash- why do they say it , what are they saying?
This is usually to do with a fire retardant back coating which would be comprimised by solvents or a washing machine cycle, but shouldnt be affected by cleaning as we do it.
At the end of the day it comes with experience but as with carpets alot can be learnt experimenting on samples.
Mike

[JandS]

How do Chemdry clean     is it HWE     does the dry bit mean they dry clean or that it's dry when they've finished??

John

[carlton care]

There is really no DRY CLEANING as you always need a percentage of water, some machines have hot solvent capability built in, eg, Ninja, there are also a number of hot solvent machines on the market.

I use chrystalising/encapsulating foam.             When faced with doubtful materials/curtains I've sprayed ( in a mist ) One Step ( there are now other similar products) used gentle aggitation and quickly extracted, but, I might have been lucky by never having any problems.

If in doubt DON'T DO IT

As far as I'm aware C/D use HWE for much of the work they do

[Jim_77]

How do Chemdry clean     is it HWE     does the dry bit mean they dry clean or that it's dry when they've finished??

John

Neither.

Does Virgin mean that Richard Branson has never dipped his wick?

It's a company name, that's all.

[andrew christopher]

I havnt done a burn test on it as of yet. If i did clean the sofa its more of a favour since its for a good friend who helps me out with van/car reapairs so would be nice to do it.I wouldnt be charging for it and can easily not do it. I will explain to him and test on the back of the sofa and see how i feel and how confident. I was interested to know from the experienced guys their take on it.

Thanks for the replies.


Andy

[Ken Wainwright]

My understanding is that the Dry part of ChemDry is in reference to the quick drying attributes of their low moisture pad cleaning system.  It's a terrfic marketing tool.

Safe and happy cleaning 
KenDry 

[clinton]

Ken

You are right on the marketing tool (CHEMDRY)and it does sound that its a dry system even on upholstery