Different Stages Of The Sofa Cleaning Process
By calling the professionals to clean your sofa, you will have saved yourself lots of headache and frustrations that come with the DIY process. After all, sofa cleaning is not the everyday chore, yet it is a vital part of its maintenance process. Going the DIY route exposes you to plenty of risk, especially due to lack of the requisite skills and equipment needed for the job. You can’t just apply the laundry detergents on the upholstery and scrub away. Different types of sofa materials have their specific cleaning processes – which is one of the reasons that manufacturers insist that those who buy their products hire the services of a professional to work on the sofa. Just what is involved? As mentioned, the specific approach will vary, from the natural and synthetic fabric upholsteries, to those that have leather units. However, this is a general multi-step stage that you can expect:
- Inspection
The first stage is assessing the condition of the furniture. What kind of soiling is involved? Are their particular stubborn that will require specialised formulations to work on them? What products or systems will be suitable for the specific type of upholstery being dealt with? All this needs to be considered before kicking things off, in order to plan the appropriate method of approach that will deliver the required results within the shortest time possible. One of the benefits of hiring professionals for the task is that they have the skills and experience needed to determine the right approach that will be safe and effective for your particular situation, as opposed to going the DIY route and spending hours poring through loads of blogs and video tutorials looking for instructions on how to deal with your particular situation.
- Vacuuming
Next up is removing the loose debris from the furniture. The professionals use high powered vacuuming systems, that ensure even the particles that are in the nooks and crannies of the sofa re suctioned off. Note that even with the vacuuming, the equipment and attachments used vary, especially with aspects such as the fibre density of the upholstery coming into focus. From the crevice tool that’s handy for getting into tight spots including between the sofa cushions, the upholstery tool that coaxes the dust from the cushions and the rest of the sofa, a power or turbo brush for that deeper clean – including those units with rubber parts that are able to grab the pet fur that is stuck onto the furniture – these units have different applications, and their specialisation aids in the efficacy of the vacuuming process, preparing the furniture for the next stage.
- Pre-treatment
With the dust and loose debris having been got rid of, it allows the cleaning agents that will be used to focus on the dirt spots and stains. Pre-treatments are not compulsory, but they come in when there are stubborn spots. These are the likes of coffee and tea stains, ink blots and wine residue on the sofa, pet urine stains and heavy build-ups of greasy residue. Here, the spot-treatments are applied to chemically break down the gunk, which will make it easier to remove afterwards.
- The washing process
This is the core of the operation, the stage at which the gunk that has adhered to the upholstery, and those dirt spots and stains that have stuck to the material, are flushed out of the furniture. The mode used will vary. For instance, hot water extraction can be employed for the fabrics that can handle the pressures and temperatures involved. Here, a mixture of heated water and cleaning solution are pumped into upholstery, and together with the action of agitating brushes, dislodge the grime, after which the contents are suctioned out of the unit. For upholsteries like leather where excess water would actually be a danger to the unit, specialised leather cleaning formulations are used which remove the dirt without posing a risk to the underlying material.
Common DIY mistakes seen during this stage include overwetting the sofa, where some fabrics can shrink, and in other situations there’ll be colour bleeding. Note that if the sofa is left too wet such that It takes days to dry, then there will be increased risks of mould and mildew growing within the unit – which opens a Pandora’s box of problems.
- Deodorising
While the source of the odours that were making the sofa uncomfortable to use have been removed, what about the lingering smell? Here, odour neutralisers that are used during the sofa cleaning come in to make the odours themselves inert. This reaction takes place at a molecular level. As such, after the sofa cleaning process you won’t have to worry about the odours recurring. The furniture is left with a fresh and invigorating scent, that adds to the appeal of the interior space.
There are situations that will require additional measures to be carried out to protect the sofa. For instance, you may choose to have stain protectors applied onto the upholstery. These come in handy to repel spills that wind up on the sofa, buying you more time to remove the liquids before stubborn stains are formed. For leather sofas on the other hand, it is recommended that you have them moisturized, to restore the oils that had been lost from the unit over time, which will bring back that soft and supple feel to the upholstery.
There you have it – the 5 steps to sofa cleaning that will restore the charm to our unit. Note that, based on the particular situation, there will be variations. Additional measures such as drying processes can also be included in the process. Here, powerful vacuums are used to extract the bulk of the moisture from the upholstery, which aids in cutting down the drying time to just a few hours – even as little as 3, after the process has been completed. This minimises the disruption to the interior space and prevents troublesome issues like the growth of mould and mildew on the unit.
