[Jeremy]

IN the previous post, I told you about how I'd been conned throughmy own stubborness.

I have a burning question. The lounge suite in question looked like mock suede. When the techy started to clean the couch. the fabric rolled off in balls like toilet paper.

I even had a go my self. We clean mock suede all the time. What could have been the problem.

Couch was in storage for a while

[Roger Koh]

One possibility is during the storage, inert gases have deteriorated the adhesive bondage between the base fabric and the pile fiber.

If aggravated with solvent content solution, heat or agitation will further weakens the bond which is what you experience.

Roger Koh
Leather Doctor® System

[Doug Holloway]

Hi Guys

Faux suede is a laminate and as Roger said something has broken the bond between the layers, although an inert gas wouldn't do it because it is inert.

Much more likely to be damp, fungal degradation.
I worked for some years developing adhesive systems for non wovens, laminates and sometimes due to poor manufacturing control, the adhesive was not properly cured and this lead to susequent problems either brought on by water or heat.

I would suspect this is case of poor process control or understanding and storage in a damp area.

Cheers

Doug

[David_Annable]

Hi

I havn't seen one delaminate to this extent, was a solvent used on the greasey areas?

I do clean these occasionally, but generally try to avoid them.

Was the item surveyed beforehand?

Dave

[Ken Wainwright]

Additional to the variables already mentioned, it could have been a Dry Clean Only flock. The consequences of a wet clean are exactly as described.

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken

[Roger Koh]

Doug,

I have observed that rubber bands when place next to especially gas stove areas deteriorate faster than other places where there is no combustion.

And I presume that the adhesive would have some latex ingredient that contributes to this unusual phenomenal.

That’s why I point at the “inert gas”.

Do you think there is any merit in this observation?

Roger Koh

[Jeremy]

Gents. Thanks for the posts, really appreciated. In all cases, the couches are pre-inspected as part of the procedure.

I think in this case the techy looked at this and decided that, because he's cleaned hundreds of them without problems, then this did not need any special treatment.

Our process for cleaning any couch is not to use any solvents what so ever. The reason for this is because I'm not cleaning them, someone else is. In order to avoid problems we provide the techy with the simplest and most gentle process and chemicals possible so that he is unlikely to make a mistake.

Having said this the techy did point out the problem and was told to carry on

I think we need to look at our processes to see if we can improve and prevent this from happening again.

Jeremy

[Ken Wainwright]

Jeremy

Bear in mind that many specialist upholstery pre-sprays have solvent content, the most well known probably being Prochem's Fabric Restorer and HydraMaster's Fabric Master Heavy Duty (I think, if not it's the other one).

Safe and happy cleaning
Ken