How Often Do You "Bring Furniture In"?

[Jim Pemberton]

How often do you bring furniture to your plant/garage to clean? I'm especially interested in what you do with heavily soiled and stained decorator type fabrics made from silk, rayon, acetate, or cotton (or some blend that has any of those fibers in them) as well as aniline and nubuck leather.

 

[Desk Jockey]

The easy stuff is done on location.

The special care is usually brought back here where we can dry it rapidly in our dry room and where we can see what looks like after it dries just in case any soiled areas need touched up.

 

[hogjowl]

Whenever is rains.

 

[Ken Snow]

Could use once in a while or when customers bring to us in the poll Jim. We rarely do it ourselves but a hundred pieces or so a year come to us, mostly cushions. We clean a few thousand pieces a year so it is less than 1% but not zero.

Ken

 

[Desk Jockey]

We clean a few thousand pieces a year so it is less than 1% but not zero.

Man that's a lot! 8)

 

[sweendogg]

If its a larger odor in the couch, and they want to us to attempt a salvage deoderize and clean.. (bucko bucks!) We have them bring it in.. so far only one taker on this. We have had several cushions brought in. I have recommended people bring a chair or sofa in so I have more control over the drying process as well as the ability to use stronger products that don't belong in a house. If they don't want to agree to our recommendations, its not uncommon to turn down the work.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

Added question:

For those of you that do bring in such furniture, how is your pricing different than what you charge for on location cleaning?

I'll have more to say on this in the future, but your feedback is helpful.

 

[sweendogg]

have total control of the piece of furniture usually means we can get a lot more indepth with the cleaning, with out risk of leaving it wet in a customer's home. And just like rug Cleaning in plant, if we suspect a fugitive dye(s) we can test that completely overnight and match a cleaning program that would prevent a dye transfer. Also alot of times in the home we are asked to clean only the surface contact areas (and we agree if its synthetic and it won't affect the texture, hand, treatment of the fabric) But often if they take the time to bring the piece in to us or have us pick it up, they agree to have us clean the entire thing. We also perform repairs in house like sewing up wrips or reattaching buttons ext... so overall our job ticket is usually up compared to onsite cleaning. We may charge pickup and delivery, of course we will increase our price they want us to attempt aggressive deoderization or decontamination, but regular cleaning if the customer brings it to us and picks it up is usually close to the same price.

 

[The Great Oz]

20% in-plant, but we do a high percentage of "designer" furniture that carries more risk. When the minimum sofa charge is $135, you lose the plaid hide-a-bed to the $45 guys.

Anilines are over half of our leather work and all get done in the shop, as do any protected leather pieces that need color repair.

We charge 20% more for items we bring in to the shop.


I'm interested to know if anyone that cleans cotton velvet on-location goes back to finish the job after it dries.

 

[Mikey P]

Are you implying that it can't be made to dry presentable?

 

[LisaWagnerCRS]

How often do you recommend cleaning upholstery? (Sorry, the UFT manual is not part of my library...) Are there recommended standards like the EPA gives for carpet?

Just wondering....
Lisa

 

[Jim Pemberton]

S300, Reference Guide for Professional Upholstery Cleaning
Page 14
Appendix A
"Every 12-24 months......."

I'll send you a copy Lisa. Don't worry, its not like owning a copy of "The Satanic Verses".

Seriously, that time span is pretty subjective. The microfiber sofa that is essential a "Shamwow" stretched on a frame needs a lot more attention than a silk chair that's meant to be looked at, not sat on.

 

[Desk Jockey]

30% more.

It costs more but these are generally fabric that I feel would be risky or may not dry well if left to dry natural or need extra attention after drying.

 

[Hoody]

I'm interested to know if anyone that cleans cotton velvet on-location goes back to finish the job after it dries.

Are you implying that it can't be made to dry presentable?

I'm interested what you you mean as well Bryan. I was always taught to set the nap and deal with indentations(with a carding brush) of any sort while its wet. Otherwise after its dried any markings or nap distorations can be permanent. Or am I missing something ?

 

[Desk Jockey]

I'm interested to know if anyone that cleans cotton velvet on-location goes back to finish the job after it dries.

We use to go back on velvet cottons the next day with a Jiffy steamer and dry steam and brush the pile to soften and remove the grooming marks.

We quit doing it because it took more time and money and was much easier to do in plant. Plus too many fuzzies when brushing it with a brass bristle brush. :shock:

 

[harryhides]

For Leather, we only clean on site average for a couch is $200.00
For restoration which is 90% of all of our leather work and couch is $1,200.00 - they cost more here than in the US.

For Fabric covered furniture, like the Great Oz, we have become to goto folks for several designers and Upholsterers. Approx 20% of our fabric furniture comes back here.
It is a monopoly service for all of those pieces that only a novice or a fool would attempt on location. Antiques are another gold mine. Our service charge is 2.5 times our on location pricing. We tell customer 10 days before they'll get it back.

The advantages are as follows -

You have time as your friend vs on location where time is your enemy.
You will have no competitors except when it is restoration and even then many restorers would bring their serious problems to us.
You always have work on a slow day or when a big job cancels.
You can set up on a platform for the sake of your back.
You can pre-test properly.
You have all of your toys right there, steamers, steam irons, compressed air, small ironing boards for skirts, dehus, fans, sunlight, ozone machines, poultices, powdered cleaners, encaps, high pressure, low pressure, high vac low vacuum.
The customer never sees it when it's half done and looks horrible and thinks you're a moron.
You can safley apply a solvent based Protector ( and charge more for it )
Wrap it up in saran wrap and it is delivered looking like a new peice - customers love it.

There really are very few Cons except that you do need some space.

 

[The Great Oz]

You lay the nap down on cotton velvets and let it dry. Once dry, the velvet needs to be brushed aginst the nap and back down again, so you either wait until it dries completely or take the time and effort to force it dry. Otherwise it dries hard and flat and looks like satin instead of the soft velvet that it was prior to cleaning.

Most on-location cleaners set the nap down and leave. Their customers think that all furniture cleaning needs to be put off as long as possible because cleaning will change the look and feel of their fabric. Add an extra emphasis if you applied a protectant before you left.

 

[sweendogg]

.. speaking of my % in house, I have a loveseat to pickup tomorow with a rug that a Cat was almost killed over!!! (someone remind me to bring a piece of plastic to wrap the couch in before I put it in the van!!! :shock: