Upholstery Cleaning
Why is professional upholstery cleaning important? Because you probably spent a great deal of time and money choosing just the right furniture for your home. The look and the feel of new furniture is something we wish would last for a long time. However, we don’t just keep our furniture as pieces of art. They are well used and well-loved fixtures in our homes.
Upholstery and Furniture Cleaning By SOS
Our goal is to remove normal soiling without changing the color, texture or finish of fabric. Before cleaning, you should tell the technician how old your furniture is, if you have used any spotters or cleaners on it yourself or if the piece has ever been reupholstered.
Depending on the type of fabric, different methods of cleaning will be used. These can include:
- Dry solvent cleaning: thought of as the safest method.
- The upholstery shampoo method: quick, effective and dries quickly.
- Dry foam cleaning: similar to the shampoo method but it uses less moisture so it dries even faster.
- Hot water extraction cleaning: the most effective way to remove heavy soils, provided the fabric is compatible with this method. This is also the preferred method for restorative cleaning and sanitization.
We will inspect your furniture and upholstery to see which method will work best for your situation.
Things to Remember About Upholstery Cleaning
To make sure your investment in your furniture lasts, regular upholstery cleaning is recommended. There are also a few things you can do to care for your furniture:
- Prevent fabric colors from fading by keeping your furniture out of direct sunlight.
- Vacuum upholstered furniture as much as possible. Remember, dust settles on upholstery just as much as it does on hard surfaces.
- Avoid leaving newspapers on your furniture. Ink can accumulate and is very hard to remove.
- Don’t cover your upholstery with dark-colored blankets or sheets. The dyes can rub off onto the fabric when dry and bleed into them when wet.
- Consistently beat, vacuum and rotate cushions that are used often. This can help distribute the wear. Do not remove cushion covers for dry cleaning or machine washing even if they have zippers.
- Applying fabric protection can increase the life of your upholstery. However, it does not eliminate the need for proper fabric care. Loose dirt should still be vacuumed up on a regular basis and spills and stains should be cleaned away as quickly as possible.
All upholstery fabrics are different and can’t be cleaned the same way. Before using a store-bought spotter, check the labels on your furniture. Furniture manufacturers attach tags with cleaning codes noted as follows:
- “W” means it is wet-cleanable
- “S” means solvent-clean
- “W/S” means either wet or solvent-clean
- “X” means dry vacuum only. No type of cleaning agent whatsoever can be used on this type of fabric.