[misterrartois]

Having done carpet and upholstery for nearly a year now i can honestly say establishing what a carpet is is quite easy,but i cannot 90%of the time tell the differant fabrics on Upholstery!

Brocade,cotton ,polyester etc etc ...sometimes one can do burns tests and all the other nonsense...and i still aint got a bleedin clue what it is!

So far ive been lucky(it says what it is on the cushion for instance)but what is the real foolproof way of determining what a fabric is??There are so many mixes around that can go wrong.Sigh.Is it just me ?

The Ncca book is quite useful,but i dont think completely foolproof.

Any advice Guys?I sometimes find myself panicking before a job.

[AquaMagic]

Burn test,

You could get a loose fibre and see if it floats to determine polypropalene, there are other tests, i.e wool disolves in clorine bleach and Nylon in Formic acid (think this is right) but to be honest all you really need to do is identify if its synthetic or natural, if its got a natural fibre treat it within safe ph levels and make sure its dryed fast.

I find that with a little practice the burn test is by far the easiest and most complrehensive.

Dene

[davep]

Is it a safe bet to treat all upholstery as if it was delicite?  better safe than sorry that way