Upholstery, never cleaned in 16 years.

[steamron]

I went to do a sectional today and at first it didn't look too bad I pre-treated it with an upholstery pre-treat and rinse with all fiber rinse with my prochem upholstery tool with a glide, it still looked like crap.
So I grabbed a bottle of encapsulation cleaner DS, and used a white towel.
Vigorously hard scrubbing it I started getting some on the towel.
There has to be an easier way, could of been there 3 hours.
Suggestions,

Thanks

 

[Cleanworks]

I went to do a sectional today and at first it didn't look too bad I pre-treated it with an upholstery pre-treat and rinse with all fiber rinse with my prochem upholstery tool with a glide, it still looked like crap.
So I grabbed a bottle of encapsulation cleaner DS, and used a white towel.
Vigorously hard scrubbing it I started getting some on the towel.
There has to be an easier way, could of been there 3 hours.
Suggestions,

Thanks

Use an orbital car polisher with an oxy encap.

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

We did some carpeting and upholstery for a long standing client.
It went as it usually does, finishing up, coiling hoses, the lady of the house asked if we could ‘freshen up’ her fathers space in the carriage house…

2 rooms, living room, and a lazy boy recliner….

That space, and recliner took twice as long as the main house. (Multiple rooms, multiple floors).

First, the old guy I think needs adult diapers, and probably a full time bib.

Second, the recliner, I thought was some sort of vinyl, was fabric. It was so caked in food, urine, and the head rest was so crunchy, you could knock on it.

I cleaned the armchair with Tops Spot, almost full strength, 3 times!

 

[Bryce C]

Was it natural, synthetic, or blended? What cleaner did you first use that you described as "upholstery pre-treat"?

This is a synthetic sectional I cleaned a few weeks ago that was trashed. Used Bio-Break at 9.5pH, went over the entire thing twice with preconditioning, agitating, and extracting. Tried spotting the heavily soiled areas with volatile solvent, encap ds, degreaser, and peroxide at different stages and the soil hardly budged. Used an orbital buffer with cotton towels at the end. To me the result looked like shite. Almost offered to have cleaned it for free but the customer was surprisingly happy. Made an improvement for sure but I thought it sucked.

In the future I'll assess it during pre-inspection more honestly, get the customers approval or disapproval to clean it knowing the results will likely be poor, and not anxiously hope to myself that I can pull off a miracle while cleaning it. The whole thing was sad and frustrating. Sorry bout the before and after pics being different pieces of the sectional but they all looked similar to one another before as they also did afterwards. My photo expert is getting better at consistent before and after photos...

And to boot I left lines with my uph tool that Jim saved my arse and helped me correct before we wrapped up. Hadn't experienced that previously. Hopefully after this Fabric Pro workshop it never happens again. What a trip.

 

[Bryce C]

I cleaned the armchair with Tops Spot, almost full strength, 3 times!

What is the pH of Tops Spot? Looked on their site and couldn't find the info. Is it a similar type of product to the Avenge Pro Spotter by Bridgepoint I use, a general alkaline spotter between 9 and 10 pH?

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

What is the pH of Tops Spot

@Mikey P ?


11-12

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

What is the pH of Tops Spot? Looked on their site and couldn't find the info. Is it a similar type of product to the Avenge Pro Spotter by Bridgepoint I use, a general alkaline spotter between 9 and 10 pH?

IDK.

If I were to guess, between 8.5 - 10.5.

 

[Bryce C]

Thanks. Funny it's the same exact color of Avenge Pro too. I never thought about using a spotter as a prespray. Why not though. I suppose with dilution ratios adjusted that's true for many things.

 

[Sierra Clean Care]

Thanks. Funny it's the same exact color of Avenge Pro too. I never thought about using a spotter as a prespray. Why not though. I suppose with dilution ratios adjusted that's true for many things.

Do NOT mix, or use in conjunction with a peroxide solution. It WILL cause color loss.

Dealing with trashed upholstery sometimes extreme situations call for extreme measures…

 

[BIG WOOD]

I went to do a sectional today and at first it didn't look too bad I pre-treated it with an upholstery pre-treat and rinse with all fiber rinse with my prochem upholstery tool with a glide, it still looked like crap.
So I grabbed a bottle of encapsulation cleaner DS, and used a white towel.
Vigorously hard scrubbing it I started getting some on the towel.
There has to be an easier way, could of been there 3 hours.
Suggestions,

Thanks

Sometimes the carpet treatment is needed and you just have to break the rules to get the results you need, depending on what type of fiber you’re cleaning

When there’s more oils, you need more surfactants. And when more surfactants are needed, you need more water to allow the surfactants to work. Notice the couch I cleaned here was moved out in their yard for that reason

 

[BIG WOOD]

Thanks. Funny it's the same exact color of Avenge Pro too. I never thought about using a spotter as a prespray. Why not though. I suppose with dilution ratios adjusted that's true for many things.

some gel spotters are heavy foamers. You don't want that covering the entire fabric. It'll kill your suction

 

[Bryce C]

Sometimes the carpet treatment is needed and you just have to break the rules to get the results you need, depending on what type of fiber you’re cleaning

When there’s more oils, you need more surfactants. And when more surfactants are needed, you need more water to allow the surfactants to work. Notice the couch I cleaned here was moved out in their yard for that reason

View attachment 127614 View attachment 127615

Holy guacamole man those are INCREDIBLE results. Amazing work man. I'm slowly learning how to safely push the boundaries to do this caliber of work. Bravo dude...

some gel spotters are heavy foamers. You don't want that covering the entire fabric. It'll kill your suction

Good call Matt. I'll keep that in mind moving forward. I've only used a gel spotter once on upholstery with old hardened paint and man was it a bear to rinse out. Wtf, probably not doing that again. I'll stick to volatile solvents where it seems useful and just keep working it. Just learning today that there are some rare situations where water based detergents don't cause bleeding but solvents do. Man... test, test, test!

 

[Bryce C]

Sometimes the carpet treatment is needed and you just have to break the rules to get the results you need, depending on what type of fiber you’re cleaning

When there’s more oils, you need more surfactants. And when more surfactants are needed, you need more water to allow the surfactants to work. Notice the couch I cleaned here was moved out in their yard for that reason

View attachment 127614 View attachment 127615

Is that velvet? Did you have some texture restoration work to do after cleaning?

 

[BIG WOOD]

Is that velvet? Did you have some texture restoration work to do after cleaning?

It was just polyester microfiber. Knowing the difference between those two fabrics will save you a big amount of stress and money