I think I just had my first problem with browning upholstery...

[Sapphire Steamer]

So here I am coming to the forums asking this question a few days ago and run into another sofa the next day. Significantly less cotton content than the last one I turned down, drove an hour to get there and gave it a shot. Customer contacted me today upset and sent pictures of what appears to be brown spots. Too bad she sent me the worst quality pictures in the world. I'm going there tomorrow to look at it and attempt to remediate.

I used low pressure, only cleaned with Prochem all fiber rinse in the solution line and didn't have to treat many spots. It seemed to be cleaning fine, it's an off white sofa but appeared by the tag to be mostly polyester. Stuffing did contain 30% cotton from what I remember... should have followed Rob's advice and taken a picture of the tag. No cleaning code listed. Looked a little yellow while wet but areas that were drying seemed to be drying the correct color. Customer ran the heater and flipped the cushions.

The problem seemed to happen during the drying process.

I'm assuming the cotton content caused the issue here. Should have followed my own advice like the last expensive sofa I ran into and just turned it down. Will be there tomorrow to assess the damage in person. Feeling like a total tool and can't stop wondering how much that sofa cost as she said it was custom made.

Out of all these years and sofas cleaned, this is the first problem since I was a rookie 12 years ago and didn't know what Rayon was.

My initial plan of attack: Revisit site in the morning and treat with Prochem Yellow RX and clean with fresh water without All Fiber Rinse.

Read on here that the next step would likely to be pick it up, take it home, and experiment.

Spent the afternoon panicking on the forums and read that Haitian cotton cleaner might help here?

Hoping to repair this and avoid an out of pocket expense or worse an insurance claim. Have already offered her money back. Hey, I guess I'm really in business... and things can happen.

Anyway, here's some pictures. Can someone let me know how deep of a hole I dug myself? Any advice? Sorry for the terrible quality:

Thanks guys,

-- Bret

 

[John Rockwood]

So here I am coming to the forums asking this question a few days ago and run into another sofa the next day. Significantly less cotton content than the last one I turned down, drove an hour to get there and gave it a shot. Customer contacted me today upset and sent pictures of what appears to be brown spots. Too bad she sent me the worst quality pictures in the world. I'm going there tomorrow to look at it and attempt to remediate.

I used low pressure, only cleaned with Prochem all fiber rinse in the solution line and didn't have to treat many spots. It seemed to be cleaning fine, it's an off white sofa but appeared by the tag to be mostly polyester. Stuffing did contain 30% cotton from what I remember... should have followed Rob's advice and taken a picture of the tag. No cleaning code listed. Looked a little yellow while wet but areas that were drying seemed to be drying the correct color. Customer ran the heater and flipped the cushions.

The problem seemed to happen during the drying process.

I'm assuming the cotton content caused the issue here. Should have followed my own advice like the last expensive sofa I ran into and just turned it down. Will be there tomorrow to assess the damage in person. Feeling like a total tool and can't stop wondering how much that sofa cost as she said it was custom made.

Out of all these years and sofas cleaned, this is the first problem since I was a rookie 12 years ago and didn't know what Rayon was.

My initial plan of attack: Revisit site in the morning and treat with Prochem Yellow RX and clean with fresh water without All Fiber Rinse.

Read on here that the next step would likely to be pick it up, take it home, and experiment.

Spent the afternoon panicking on the forums and read that Haitian cotton cleaner might help here?

Hoping to repair this and avoid an out of pocket expense or worse an insurance claim. Have already offered her money back. Hey, I guess I'm really in business... and things can happen.

Anyway, here's some pictures. Can someone let me know how deep of a hole I dug myself? Any advice? Sorry for the terrible quality:

View attachment 98821View attachment 98822


View attachment 98823View attachment 98824

Thanks guys,

-- Bret

The pictures look more like water stains on the arm. The back seems to be more of an appearance of chemical reaction? Either way I would use PC Yellow rx but I would mist on with a hand held sprayer and speed dry using an air mover. You could put towels around perimeter to keep off of material not effected.
Yellow rx works pretty fast, you should see a difference in about 2-5 minutes. If you see a difference wait till it's dry and repeat until gone. Less is more should be your game plan.
Did the cushions have the same problem?
You can explain to her that this is part of the correction procedure but I don't think I would go into detail.
If this doesn't work you can explain that the next process will require to be done at your shop.
Hope this helps.

 

[Sapphire Steamer]

Thank you @John Rockwood for the advice regarding containing the areas affected with towels. I have never needed to use Yellow RX before, just felt like it was a good idea to have some on my truck just in case.

She didn't send my any pictures of the cushions, think it might be just the body.

To confirm you would simply lightly mist it on and let it dry until it's fixed?

 

[John Rockwood]

Thank you @John Rockwood for the advice regarding containing the areas affected with towels. I have never needed to use Yellow RX before, just felt like it was a good idea to have some on my truck just in case.

She didn't send my any pictures of the cushions, think it might be just the body.

To confirm you would simply lightly mist it on and let it dry until it's fixed?

Yes, I've used the product in the past and have never been disappointed. I would not rinse. Once you see an improvement (after about 5minutes) then give it a few more minutes to make sure no more improvement is noticed then speed dry. Drying should only take a few minutes using an air mover. After the area is dry go ahead and repeat till it's gone. Being that the fabric is thin you want to reduce the amount of moisture.

 

[John Rockwood]

So here I am coming to the forums asking this question a few days ago and run into another sofa the next day. Significantly less cotton content than the last one I turned down, drove an hour to get there and gave it a shot. Customer contacted me today upset and sent pictures of what appears to be brown spots. Too bad she sent me the worst quality pictures in the world. I'm going there tomorrow to look at it and attempt to remediate.

I used low pressure, only cleaned with Prochem all fiber rinse in the solution line and didn't have to treat many spots. It seemed to be cleaning fine, it's an off white sofa but appeared by the tag to be mostly polyester. Stuffing did contain 30% cotton from what I remember... should have followed Rob's advice and taken a picture of the tag. No cleaning code listed. Looked a little yellow while wet but areas that were drying seemed to be drying the correct color. Customer ran the heater and flipped the cushions.

The problem seemed to happen during the drying process.

I'm assuming the cotton content caused the issue here. Should have followed my own advice like the last expensive sofa I ran into and just turned it down. Will be there tomorrow to assess the damage in person. Feeling like a total tool and can't stop wondering how much that sofa cost as she said it was custom made.

Out of all these years and sofas cleaned, this is the first problem since I was a rookie 12 years ago and didn't know what Rayon was.

My initial plan of attack: Revisit site in the morning and treat with Prochem Yellow RX and clean with fresh water without All Fiber Rinse.

Read on here that the next step would likely to be pick it up, take it home, and experiment.

Spent the afternoon panicking on the forums and read that Haitian cotton cleaner might help here?

Hoping to repair this and avoid an out of pocket expense or worse an insurance claim. Have already offered her money back. Hey, I guess I'm really in business... and things can happen.

Anyway, here's some pictures. Can someone let me know how deep of a hole I dug myself? Any advice? Sorry for the terrible quality:

View attachment 98821View attachment 98822


View attachment 98823View attachment 98824

Thanks guys,

-- Bret

Just noticed the first picture, what is the piece being held up? Looks like the underside. Is it the skirt on the bottom picture?

 

[Sapphire Steamer]

Just noticed the first picture, what is the piece being held up? Looks like the underside. Is it the skirt on the bottom picture?

Yes, it's the underside of the skirt. And thanks so much for the support!

 

[John Rockwood]

Yes, it's the underside of the skirt. And thanks so much for the support!

FYI, I would not try to correct the spots. Usually that material is not colorfast. You could try a small area and see what happens. Try to explain to her that the construction methods used might hinder being able to correct.
Try to wait till the end to explain to her and by then she's probably delighted if you're able to correct everything else. Let us know how it turns out.

 

[Sapphire Steamer]

FYI, I would not try to correct the spots. Usually that material is not colorfast. You could try a small area and see what happens. Try to explain to her that the construction methods used might hinder being able to correct.
Try to wait till the end to explain to her and by then she's probably delighted if you're able to correct everything else. Let us know how it turns out.

Thanks John, feeling pretty good about going into this tomorrow. I'll take some pictures and hit you guys back and let you know how it goes.

 

[Kevin Dumas]

but appeared by the tag to be mostly polyester. Stuffing did contain 30% cotton from what I remember... should have followed Rob's advice and taken a picture of the tag.

Are you aware that most tags only identify what is used in the stuffing materials and not the fabric covering?

 

[Sapphire Steamer]

Are you aware that most tags only identify what is used in the stuffing materials and not the fabric covering?

Yes, this was explained to me on another thread, thank you for bringing this up.

 

[Sapphire Steamer]

Let us know how it turns out.

@John Rockwood my dude you saved my ass today. What ended up being the main issue was water marks on 3 arms, and a straight line on the bottom of one cushion. Under some skirts had brown spots, and there were water marks on the upholstered area under the skirts.

I mixed Prochem Yellow RX at the recommended dilution rate and filled up a spray bottle. I experimented on the upholstery under the skirts that had some water marking as I figured it was the most inconspicuous area. Once I felt more confident I switched to the water mark on the arm. Started with a very small portion. Let it dry. While it was wet it looked really yellow, but noticed significant improvement after drying. Repeated to apply the chemical and let it dry. Only applied treatment directly on the brown line, dabbed at it with a white towel to make sure it wasn't too wet. I had noticed that with the water content in the diluted chemical it was causing the line to drift slightly where it stayed wet too long. So I switched to immediately drying it with no chemical dwell time. This improved significantly. Repeated until I could hardly find the line anymore. Here's while wet and after treatment on one arm:

Turns out, even though I felt like it was a night and day improvement, barely visible, the customer could still see it and was expecting more of a complete reversal. I continued working and worked on setting expectations. In the end, I ended up being at site for several hours, and the customer appreciated corrective treatment performed. She understood the time it would take to continue to work on all the other areas of the sofa that weren't visible, and we ended up resolving on a refund and this round of correctional treatment. This technique worked well and in the end I ended up getting a signature on a Resolution Agreement that I whipped up real quick. So, I almost made money! But it's behind me now.

Thank you @John Rockwood for the help and I'm looking forward to a good stress free weekend with the family.

Kind regards,

~Bret

 

[sbsscn]

awesome work

You also could have use cti's/pros choice browning treatment before cleaning it to prevent it from occurring

 

[sbsscn]

Understanding just a small amount of chemistry will save, prevent and in many cases make you money, but please get educated, you wont regret it!