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Us cut and paste info on upholstery

Posted by ALEXDH (ALEXDH), 16 December 2003

Got this from Us website may be of interest to newbys like me.


Hi If your new in the field of carpet and upholstery cleaning this is some very valuable information,you will need to know,

First of all indentifiing the fibers, usually white is a cotton fiber but I have seen a white herculon here and there, so the easy way to tell is under the center cushion of the sofa there is usually a flat tag on decking or bottom ( under cushion) ,usually in the corner of the tag you will see an S or SW or a W, S means specialty fabric or (Cotton) SW is a (Cotton Blend)these two should be treated the same because of the Cotton Content,W Is a herculon and is a more durable plastic fiber that can handle high Ph spotters to aid in spot removal, Unlike The Cotton Fiber that should an acid side spotter and extraction cleaner ,If you Clean cotton with a high ph you may get whats called celulostic Browning what was white is now brown or looks dingy ,a newbies nightmare,dont worry if if happens to you you wil need to carry some tannin acid with you or a solution such as No Brown,they are on the extreme acid side, (Follow the instructions on the bottle for application such as mixing correctly or if allowed to use straight out of the bottle,my preference for this ph correction is tannin acid i use (Certified) Co. , Tannogen)certifieds products are the best i have used from my 14 yrs experience in the field and i have tried alot of stuff,any way spray some tannin acid in a fine mist all all the afflicted piece take you extraction tool and just vaccuum it out of the upholstery(you can also brush in with a soft brush before extracting, extract repeatedly to dry piece the best you can,because cotton is water sensitve so Dry Dry Dry,I use what is called a dry tool that doesnt saturated fiber as heavily as some older extraction tools when cleaning, also to dry u can find small upholstery blowers that will speed drying,its important to dry as fast as posssible if you have a sensitive piece,this should correct your problem, foam cleaning,mixing an acid shampoo in a bucket to foam up and use only the foam to clean maybee nessesary due to sensitive material and over wetting possibilities,using just the foam is dryer, then extract.
Citris spotters are usually on the acid side and should work great with out the fear of cellulostic browning,you ph with a natural fiber of any kind should be spotted and cleaned with a ph of no higher than a (6) check your MSDS sheets for ph or label on bottle, any acid side upholstery spotter should do,and dry dry dry,you can experiment to find that ultimate cleaner, but keep that ph on the acid side,NO alkaline on cotton, well thats it, I hope I helped someone out there, good luck and God Bless , J Wood, Carpet Pro, Rochester NY


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