Upholstery Cleaning

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Your home, office or vacation rental upholstered furniture sees a lot of wear and tear. From daily use to accidental spills, your sofas, chairs, and other upholstered pieces can start to look tired, dirty and feel rough. Implementing a regular upholstery cleaning checklist is the best way to care for your investment in quality furniture. 

Upholstered furniture is often expensive, so you’ll want it to last. Plus, clean upholstery not only looks better but can also help provide a healthier indoor environment. Here’s why routine care is so critical:

• Extend furniture lifetime – Regular cleaning keeps fabrics from wearing out prematurely. It also prevents stains from setting that can be impossible to remove later.
• Improve air quality – Over time, upholstery traps allergens, pollen, pet dander, and other pollutants. Thorough cleaning removes these asthma and allergy triggers.
• Prevent mold and mildew – Moisture allowed to linger can lead to mold growth in upholstery. Cleaning inhibits this health hazard.
• Maintain appearance – From subtle dirt buildup to obvious stains, unclean fabrics simply don’t look as nice. Proper maintenance keeps your furniture visually appealing.

When upholstery gets dirty, the only solution is a complete cleaning process. Half-measures like vacuuming or spot cleaning alone is not enough. 

We inspect the material of the furniture to know what solution and how delicately to treat the upholstery.

Cleaning upholstery may sound straightforward, but there are right ways and wrong ways to get the job done.

Below are the steps we take:

Before we start the actual cleaning work, take a few minutes to thoroughly inspect all upholstered items. This helps in several ways:

• Identify problem areas or set-in stains needing extra attention
• Determine the best cleaning method based on fabric types
• Look for damage like loose threads or cushioning issues
• Check tags for the manufacturer’s cleaning code recommendations

Make notes on specific areas to attend to or repairs needed so that you don’t forget.

We always start by thoroughly vacuuming all upholstered surfaces, including crevices and hard-to-reach spots. Use various vacuum attachments to lift and remove dirt, dust mites, crumbs, and other debris.

Vacuuming serves several important prep functions:

• Lifts dirt so detergent can dissolve stains underneath
• Removes loose particles 
• Clears pet hair and lint to prevent matting
• Allows cleaning solutions to penetrate better

We check your pre-inspection notes and tackle any major stains before the main cleaning. Using a specially formulated pre-treatment solution:

• Identify stains – Circle stains so you know areas needing attention
• Spot test first – Check an inconspicuous spot to ensure the solution won’t discolor or damage that fabric type.
• Apply pre-spray – Lightly mist-stained and heavily soiled areas according to product directions. This helps lift stains so detergents work better.
• Let dwell for 5-10 minutes – Give cleaners time to work before extraction.

Now comes the deep cleaning process. While a few very delicate upholstery fabrics must stay dry, most do extremely well with hot water extraction cleaning. Here is the method:

• Vacuum again – Go over all upholstery with the vacuum to remove any residual dirt or stains loosened by pre-sprays. This prevents them from redepositing during extraction.
• Pretreat again – Quickly re-apply stain pre-treatment solution to any remaining marks noted during this vacuuming.
• Extract with steam – Using a specialized steam cleaning wand and detergent, work over all fabric surfaces to inject steam and cleaning agents deep into the fibers. Extract immediately to lift stains and dirt back out.
• Detail heavily used areas – Use smaller attachments to thoroughly steam clean cushioned armrests, backs, and seats. Slow down and make multiple overlapping passes to cover comprehensively.
• Rinse with clean water – Switch out detergent for plain water and make finishing passes to rinse thoroughly. This prevents residue that attracts soil quickly. Check work until extraction water runs clean.
• Groom nap – For deeper piled upholstery fabrics, brush the damp nap to realign fibers evenly as they dry. This maintains a uniform attractive texture.

Fabrics must dry completely before using furniture or even replacing cushions. Wet upholstery leads quickly to water rings, discoloration, fabric distortion, and potential mold issues.

• Air out in sunlight – Open draperies to allow bright natural light to aid evaporation. Consider placing smaller damp items in direct outdoor sunlight.
• Use air movers – Position commercial air movers to continually circulate fresh air across damp upholstery.
• Check before replacing cushions – Upholstery beneath cushions must feel completely dry before replacing them. Even slight underlying moisture will breed mold.

Once thoroughly dry, the upholstery fabric looks brighter and feels soft and fresh again.