How To Safely Clean Upholstered Furniture Using Your Truck Mount

The primary drawback in using a truck mount upholstery cleaning attachment is also its greatest advantage: Convenience!

A cleaning technician who might hesitate to suggest the "add on" of some upholstered furniture cleaning while on a carpet cleaning job is not as likely to hesitate when he just has to connect an upholstery cleaning tool and "go to work".

Unfortunately, this ease of quickly switching tools also makes it easy to overlook such important steps as:

• Testing
• Inspection
• Dry soil removal
• Preconditioning
• The use of a properly designed upholstery tool
• The use of proper cleaning chemicals

Regardless of the cleaning equipment or system used, the neglect of these important considerations will result in unsatisfactory results, displeased customers, as well as the probability of expensive damage claims.

For the most important considerations in using truck mount equipment to safely clean upholstered furniture areas follows: http://www.ecleanadvisor.com/members/139.cfm

Acid Rinses

Over the past two decades many cleaners have shifted from the use of alkaline carpet cleaning detergents to the use of acidic rinse agents. Cleaners began to become concerned about potential cleaning residues, and while some attempted to solve the problem by rinsing with clear water alone, others chose to use existing chemistry to attempt to neutralize pH as well as rinse cleaning agent residues from carpet.

The products they first tried were already available, and had been on the market for several years already: Acidic Rinse Agents.

These products were primarily used for rinsing upholstery after preconditioning, and their primary purpose was (and still is) to be used for stabilizing dyes, preventing cellulose browning, and softening velvet and chenille fabrics.

These products still work for carpet, but have mostly been replaced by products that act as cleaning agents as well as neutralizing agents. These products are acidic in pH, and do help to neutralize preconditioning agents, but have the added benefit of providing cleaning as well as neutralization. With these acidic cleaning (rather than rinsing) agents, you need not precondition the entire carpet, but instead only the parts that have heavy accumulations of petroleum, proteins, or fats.

Browning: Correction without Destruction!

If you clean a natural fiber fabric that contains cellulose fibers such as cotton, linen, or regenerated cellulose such as rayon, there is always a risk of a condition known as cellulose browning.

If you use the new generation "dry" upholstery cleaning tools, such as the Upholstery Pro, and acidic cleaning detergents, your chance of causing browning is far less than it once was.

However, if you tend to clean all upholstery with "the same stuff" (usually an alkaline cleaner) and use old fashioned wet upholstery tools, browning still can occur. Should you ever cause browning on upholstery, follow these steps to correct it:

1. Remove the furniture from your customer's house whenever possible. Most browning removal procedures take repeated applications, and visiting a home several times is costly to you, and annoying for your customer (which means it can become VERY costly to you if they tire of your visits before you have solved the problem.)

2. Clean the furniture using only an acidic rinse agent (such as Upholstery Rinse) or an acidic detergent (such as Natural Fiber Cleaner). This method will also remove the alkaline cleaning agent residues that caused the browning in the first place. Rapidly speed dry immediately afterward, and in most cases, the browning will be gone, or greatly reduced.

3. If step 2 does not work, apply an acidic neutralizing treatment, preferably one that does not contain any detergent or surfactant (such as Dye Stabilizer and Rinse). The reason not to use a product with a surfactant is that this eliminates the need to clean the fabric once more, or leave further residue. Repeated cleanings and accumulated residue will cause texture changes.

4. If step 3 does not work, apply a reducing agent, that again does not contain a surfactant (such as Coffee Stain Remover). This type of product requires time to work, and has a strong odor,and in this case may leave a powder residue than can be vacuumed away without causing distortion.

5. If step 3 doesn't work, you will need to rinse the fabric again, dry quickly, then use a non-chlorine oxidizing agent (such as Boost All) added to a neutral shampoo (such as Fabric Shampoo). This application will need to be followed by another acidic rinse application, and speed drying. This step may result in over whitening and additional texture distortion, and should be avoided whenever possible.

While your first goal should be to never allow browning to occur, if it does happen, your best choice is to attempt to remove the browning with steps 2 and 3, repeating those steps as needed and drying quickly. In this way you have the best chance of removing the browning, and also minimizing texture distortion and bleaching that cause additional damage.

Carpet Cleaning Detergents

Carpet cleaning detergents are an important part of hot water extraction cleaning. While cleaners sometimes use acidic rinses or even clear water after using traffic lane presprays, as we discussed last, the majority of cleaners use a carpet cleaning detergent in their portable or truck mounted carpet cleaning equipment.

Carpet cleaning detergents have been around as long as there has been hot water extraction machines. At one time they were used alone for cleaning, and some cleaners still do most or all of their cleaning by simply adding this type of product to their solution tank or truck mount stock solution.

Most cleaners, though, use a carpet cleaning detergent to clean the areas of a carpet that are not routinely sprayed with a traffic lane prespray.

The two types of carpet cleaning detergents that most cleaners encounter are liquids and powders.

Liquids have the advantage of being easy to dissolve in water, and that they often leave the carpet with a soft hand, or feel.

Their weakness is that in very hard water areas,they may not be as effective.

Powders, on the other hand, need more time to dissolve, but are often the most aggressive cleaners and are very effective in hard water applications.

So if you use a portable machine or have a truck mount that has a sensitive (translate "easy to clog") chemical metering system, then liquids make sense, especially if the water is soft.

If you use a truck mount, and if you are willing to take a few minutes to make sure you detergent is dissolved thoroughly, you might prefer the extra cleaning power that a powder can give to you.

A third category of carpet cleaning product that is NOT a detergent are the "surfactant free" or "soap free" products. These products have no detergent, but only alkaline builders in them. What they provide is good cleaning of oily soils without leaving a surfactant residue behind. Carpets cleaned with these products feel like they've been rinsed with water only, and have no odor. Such products are ideal for people who want a "chemical and fragrance free" cleaning.

Upholstery Inspection and Testing

In the last few weeks I've gotten more than a few emails and calls about upholstery cleaning problems. In fact, one of which came in after this video was done!

Every one of these problems, without exception, could have been prevented by proper testing and inspection of the fabric. Taking a few minutes (and it only takes a very few minutes) to look over the piece of furniture before you clean it, and conducting a few tests, will help you determine three VERY important things that you and the customer need to know before you begin cleaning:

1. Testing and Inspection helps you better inform your customer as to what they should expect in the way of a result from your cleaning efforts. Simply put, a heavily soiled and stained white polyester sofa will clean more quickly and look a lot better than a heavily soiled and stained white rayon sofa.


2. Testing and Inspection helps you to chose the best products. The "best" products doesn't mean defaulting to "safe" either. This means you can use aggressive and effective products on durable synthetic fiber fabrics, and of course gentle and safe products on less durable, perhaps non colorfast natural fiber fabrics.


3. Finally, Testing and Inspection helps keep you out of trouble and from paying claims. Finding out that the dyes in a fabric might bleed, or that fabric weakness might result in a torn area during cleaning keeps you from paying needless claims.

Understanding Traffic Lane Presprays

At my last count, we sell over 30 different traffic lane presprays here at Pembertons! That can make things pretty confusing for the most experienced cleaners. Much of that variety exists because of brand, fragrance, and other preferences. To simplify things, you can break prespray products down into four categories:

Standard Traffic Lane Cleaners, Olefin Preconditioners, Enzyme Presprays, and High pH Presprays. The names of these categories are mine, but they give you an idea of what each one is.

Standard Traffic Lane Cleaners usually have a pH around 10, and are considered by most carpet manufacturers and fiber producers to be safe for all synthetic carpets. These products have solvents and surfactants as part of their formulation to create products that really do most of your cleaning. You'll find that they emulsify oils, suspend soil, and break down most spots so completely that you need to use little, if anything, in your extraction solution. Products such as these have lead to the use of acid rinse agents and detergents, and sometimes simply the use of clear water rinses. There remains a place for alkaline cleaning detergents of course, and we'll discuss that at a later time.

Olefin preconditioners are made primarily to cope with the issue of the way oily soils, especially oily particulates, cling to oil loving fibers such as olefin, polyester, and triexta. These products use advanced surfactant technology to break the bond of these oily soils and allow for easy suspension and later extraction. The use of such products will lessen the chance of wicking as well.

Enzyme presprays work specifically on food based soils, such as proteins, carbohydrates, and starches. If you clean restaurants, cafeterias, and other food service areas, such products can speed up your cleaning, and eliminate the need for special spotting. These products are not necessarily as effective on the oily soils that are often found in Asian restaurants, however.

Your ultimate "nuclear option" is the use of highly alkaline presprays. Such products have pH ranges between 11 and 12, and may not be suitable for non colorfast carpet fibers. Their distinct advantages are the fact that they can be used for abused rental property carpet, as well as restaurants and other carpets that have been exposed to heavy traffic, accumulated synthetic and protein based oils, and general abuse.

Introduction to Cleaning Chemistry

This is the beginning of a series of presentations I’ll be giving about how your cleaning products work. I was struggling to come up with a way to begin this series, and my good friend and fellow trainer Jim Smith shared this idea with me, and I’d like to share it with you.

“In order to remove soil and stains from carpets and fabrics, you need to change those soils to a free flowing nature. An example of something with a free flowing nature would be sand or water running through your fingers.

If soil behaves like sand, it can be readily vacuumed away. If stains behave like water, they can be blotted or extracted from the textile.

Where we need cleaning chemistry is where a soil or stain is not free flowing, but instead it is sticky or oily, and therefore no longer “free flowing”. Sticky can include, by the way, the process where electric charges hold very fine particles to fibers that otherwise resist vacuuming.

Once we understand what chemistry is needed to break those sticky or oily bonds away from the fiber surface, we can better choose what products are needed.

Stryker Cleaning & Extraction Wand

This new carpet cleaning wand is changing how carpet is cleaned! The primary reason that this tool was invented was to create a wand that minimizes repetitive stress issues with what used to be called "the trigger hand".

The Stryker eliminates two key stress areas in the following ways:

1. Solution Flow. On the Stryker wand, this is controlled by an ball valve that is activated by the left hand. This allows the right hand (or opposite if you are left handed) to simply push the wand.


2. Wand Use: The handle on the Stryker is designed to be used like a wood plane, or saw handle. This "straight push" design allows for easier movement of the arm, and eliminates the "45 degree" grip needed when the operators hand has to reach around a conventional wand tube and activate the solution valve.

In addition to these two ergonomic improvements, the design of the cleaning head enabled hot water to flow out of several small holes instead of jets, which means that the hot solution pours directly onto the carpet yarns, rather than allowing heat and pressure loss into the air.

Finally, the rotomolded body gives unimpeded airflow for better extraction and drying.

Try this wand out with our 30 day "no questions asked" money back guarantee!

Upholstery Pro Tool

This tool has changed the way that I clean upholstery, and it can for you too.

The Upholstery Pro is more than "just another dry tool". Instead it combines a shearing effect to keep cleaning solution from penetrating into fabric, along with a light weight design and a few never before used features that put this tool head and shoulders above the rest.

The features that make this tool so unique include its ability to use either a conventional "off on" trigger, or a "constant flow" design that only needs to be turned off when the fabric is vacuumed or the tool is moved. This enables the operator to have maximum solution flow control on delicate natural fibers when needed, and constant flow for increased heat and decreased fatigue on heavily soiled synthetics.

Perhaps the most overlooked feature is the design of the face of the tool that contacts the fabric. The rounded design and jetless flow has nearly eliminated cleaning tool marks and texture distortion during cleaning. This makes this tool ideal on microfibers, velvets, and chenille.

If you wish to try a tool that is easy to use, easy on textures, and yet aggressive enough to clean the most soiled fabrics, give the Upholstery Pro a try. As with any Pembertons purchase, you have the security of knowing that we will honor our 30 day, no questions asked, money back guarantee if you don't love this tool.

FAQs - Rust Colored Marks on Chenille

Q - Hey Lisa:

Here in the Orange County area I periodically come up against a problem with furniture covered using a "Chenille" fabric and my ability to clean it.

When the couch has "DOWN FEATHERS" filling in the cushions and, (depending on the age of the couch), during pre-inspection I see what appears to be orange or seemingly rust marks on the outside of the fabric.

I have been told by one of the local high end upholstery shops that it is the breaking down of the fire retardant (sprayed on the feathers), fabric protector and long term moisture in the air.

To date I explain but most normally walk away from those couches – Have you seen this before and do you have any suggestions on how to remove this discoloration?

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Lisa - Re: Chenille question

If I started out by sharing my opinion of chenille RUGS with you (which are sold at Pottery Barn, and shrink to about half their size when washed...) - we would have a long dissertation here. :)

As a fabric on upholstered furnishings, this type of tricky textiles needs advice from someone in that field. So I'm copying this to Jim Pemberton who is the best I know. (Jim and I are team teaching Aug. 6-7 in Vegas with a new program combining hands-on rug and fine fabric topics.)

JIM - any advice on this topic? Or explanation? Is this stenciling?

Please copy me... as I'd like to learn about it as well.

Lisa
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A – from Jim Pemberton

Lisa Wagner asked that I comment on your questions on rayon chenille upholstery and the discoloration that you're seeing.

I'd like to have a digital picture to look at, but I think based on your report to Lisa, that I can make these conclusions:

1 - I doubt that its flame retardant. Flame retardant, when exposed to excessive moisture, usually leaves a white stain, not a brown one.

2 - I doubt that its fabric protector. The only discoloration that I've seen from some over applications of fabric protector has been yellow, not rusty-brown.

3 - Whatever the cause, I also doubt that its from within the cushion, as you did mention that the discoloration is at the tips of the yarns.

This is what I have seen in rayon upholstery, as well as draperies, that can cause this type of discoloration.

1 - Oxidized spills, especially those that are sugary or oily. These can start as clear and turn brown over time. I do NOT think this is your problem, as the discoloration should look like a spill.

2 - Reaction to cleaning agent residues. This isn't like the browning you see on unprocessed cotton, but the result is the same. You haven't indicated that you cleaned it, though, so I'm assuming its not that.

3 - Sizing: Water marks on rayon turn rusty brown when sizing is present. I doubt its that only because its usually seen as a ring, and I'm not convinced there would be a great deal of sizing used on chenille. However, based on the moisture you say might be present in the environment, it is a possibility.

4 - Oxidation from exposure to light and pollutants. This is what I believe to be the cause. You can see this sort of problem on draperies that are exposed to direct sunlight, humidity, and fumes.

Correcting the problem is problematic, as rayon is sensitive to both moisture and bleaches, as well as the fact that repeated clean and rinse processing will distort the hand of the fabric.

If you wish to try, I would use a neutral detergent and an mild, non chlorine bleach additive that contains sodium percarbonate. You can apply the solution in a mist, GENTLY agitate with a soft horsehair brush in one direction; allow about 20 minutes of dwell time, then extract with an acidic rinse agent, followed by fast drying.

I would hesitate to do this on location, especially as you mentioned the humid environment. Take this to a location where you can control the humidity and closely monitor your results.

Before you go to this trouble, you might consider testing a small area with fresh 3% hydrogen peroxide. If that doesn't work, the above formula likely will not.

Resist trying stronger concentrations of hydrogen peroxide, as these might weaken the fabric.

Let me know what comes of any tests or remediation processes that you attempt.

Best regards,
Jim Pemberton