Beat Those Allergies With A Thorough Upholstery Cleaning
Trouble with the sniffles? Do you keep sneezing whenever you use the sofa? Does your skin start itching in just a few minutes after it has come into contact with the cushions? Watery eyes, blocked nasal passage, and other flu-like symptoms are a pointer to the allergens in the immediate environment, and if these spike whenever you use the furniture, then it is time that it is given that thorough clean. Let’s take a look at how you can keep those allergens at bay.
Weekly dusting and vacuuming
Dust settles on the sofa on a daily basis – even when you’re not using it. In fact, when the house is closed off for weeks like when you’re out on vacation, you will come back to find a layer of dust that has been building up on the surfaces and upholstery. This just goes to show you the importance of the dusting ad vacuuming regardless of how much or little traffic is handled in the residence. It’s also why it is recommended that you cover the cushions and electronics before you leave for extended periods.
The frequency of the dusting and vacuuming will be higher for the busy households. For instance, with kids and pets around, there is bound to be more soiling winding up on the upholstery. Add this to pollen, mould spores, dust mite waste – these will retrigger reactions when they get into the body of affected persons.
To show you just how dusty the upholstery is, take a cushion from the sofa and give it a good smack. A cloud of particles will rise from it. When people use the sofa, the disturbance causes a similar release of particles into the immediate airspace, triggering the reactions. The more concentrated that the sofa is in allergens, the more severe the reaction. The weekly dusting and vacuuming will go a long way in improving the quality of the indoor airspace. When vacuuming, it is recommended that you use a high-efficiency particulate air filter (HEPA) vacuum cleaner as this will get the job done more effectively.
While vacuuming is necessary, it is not enough. It doesn’t get to the grime that is buried within the upholstery, and this will continue accumulating, putting the health of the family members, and the structural integrity of the sofa at risk. The gunk pilling up within the sofa ranges from the decaying food crumbs that are deposited by household members enjoying those tasty snacks while resting on the sofa, the mounds of skin flakes that are naturally shed by the family members – plus the colonies of dust mites they sustain, the faecal residue and even body parts of insects that come to feed on the food residue in the unit, sweat and body oil that adhere to the upholstery, and the dirt that these greasy spots attract- they all need to be cleaned off.
A thorough deep cleaning is recommended to be carried out several times a year, depending on how busy the household gets. However, this not just about sloshing detergents onto the furniture and scrubbing away. There are different factors that come into focus, including:
- The type of upholstery material – from the natural and synthetic fabric sofas, to the aniline, semi-aniline and nubuck leather sofas, they all have their ideal cleaning methods. The solutions and systems that are used when working on the durable polyester and olefin sofas are different from those that one uses when cleaning the delicate linen. Even water, which is taken to be a universal cleaning solvent, can wreak havoc on your leather sofa when the wrong quantities are used.
- The level of soiling – How much dirt is involved, and are there particularly troublesome stains? There are cases where pre-treatment products will be required, to chemically break down these stubborn spots before following through with the rest of the cleaning. The products that are selected for this process will determine how successful it will be. Remember that it is an intricate balancing act, as you don’t want to use solutions that will be tough on the stains and also corrode the underlying upholstery.
- Equipment used – the machinery that DIYers use, and that which the professionals rely on, have different capacities. The units that are available for renting from the local dealerships usually have smaller component parts – such as the pumps and motors, in a bid to make them lighter and more portable for the DIYer to ferry home and manoeuvre around the house easier. However, this compromises on the desired effectiveness of the units, meaning that the DIYer will be operating at a disadvantage. As a result, there will be grime that remains behind in the upholstery, and even residue of the cleaning solutions used, which will become dirt magnets. Even the extraction power is impacted on, in which case the sofa is left with too much moisture, causing it to take days to dry – which increases the chances of mould and mildew growing in the unit. With a fungi infestation there’ll be an increase in the concentration of mould spores, which will become a concern, putting the health of the household members at risk.
- Skill level of the cleaner – determining which mode of approach will be suitable for the sofa cleaning process, how to use the machinery, and deal with those stubborn spots, all while not posing a risk to the furniture itself, requires skill. There are numerous mistakes that DIYers usually make, many of which lead to costly ramifications. For instance, soaking the sofa in too much water can lead to issues like the dyes that the upholstery has been treated with getting leached out while there are also those fabrics that will actually shrink. This is why it is especially recommended that you hire professionals for the task, since they are best placed to determine the right mode of approach for your particular sofa cleaning situation.
Outsourcing the sofa cleaning to a professional will take away the risks that come with the task, while also enabling you to get the desired quality results. What’s more, you get to avoid the hustle of the task, allowing you to relax instead of scrubbing away at those stubborn grime spots on your upholstery for hours.
