Cleaning Codes for Upholstery

[Jim Pemberton]

I think its meant to be a smirk.

It would match the look I get from my children when I gently chide them about something.

Seriously, you and Richard also gave me some great information, along with many others here, that will help me in an upcoming project.

Have fun and carry on (not like any of you need my permission!)

 

[Bob Savage]

Most of the time those tags say "CONSUMER" in big letters. I tell the customer that it means for them to follow the tag since they are the consumer if they need to spot clean it.

Since we as cleaners are not the consumer, an inspection if you're knowledgable will allow you to proceed with your method, which for me in almost all of the cases is to wet clean it, making sure not to overwet it and do good vac strokes.

I'll never forget the day I saw the "S" tag on outdoor cushions that were exposed to the rain.

Go figure.

 

[Wing It]

Jim-when is your next advanced upholstery class? Perhaps a class at the mikeysfest experience?

 

[The Great Oz]

An 'S' tag is a great warning that a piece might be more care sensitive than one with a 'W' tag or no tag at all, so shouldn't be casually ignored. Otherwise I'd agree with Bob that the warning might keep an owner from wiping down a bleeder with a wet rag.

On a tour of a furniture manufacturing plant in NC (back when there were such things) we watched a guy putting the cleaning stickers on hundreds of identical chairs. We walked down the rows and saw that some of the chairs had 'W' and some had 'S' tags, so it's been hard to take the tags too seriously since.

PS: there are fabrics that must be dry solvent cleaned. They are rare, but if you use any kind of water-based method you're going to have an expensive reupholstery job, so don't get too carried away with the idea that you can clean everything using water.

 

[Mikey P]

exactly , I've seen the S code on flocked velvets..