Nasty watermarks

[Steve NZ]

Hi all.

This is a rather embarrassing post, customer has sent me pictures of some rather nasty watermarks caused by an upholstery job I did yesterday.

I've been do Upholstery cleaning for over 2 years now and never struck this before, customers are generally really happy (5 rating)

I'm guessing on the cushions the dirt from the fillings is coming back through as it dried?
But the back and arms of the couches has me worried I've stuffed them.

Please help.

Cheers Steve.

 

[Fedri]

Hi all.

This is a rather embarrassing post, customer has sent me pictures of some rather nasty watermarks caused by an upholstery job I did yesterday.

I've been do Upholstery cleaning for over 2 years now and never struck this before, customers are generally really happy (5 rating)

I'm guessing on the cushions the dirt from the fillings is coming back through as it dried?
But the back and arms of the couches has me worried I've stuffed them.

Please help.

Cheers Steve.

Possibly you have used a high ph cleaner on a cotton or linen fabric that left the ph too high gave this browning. I can see browning, no watermarks. If it was a cotton/linen fabric, you need to go back to correct it. It would help if you rinsed it with an acid rinse; the browning should come out that way.

 

[wandwizard]

I am pretty sure the chair you showed is correctable. Not so sure about the couch. Something doesn't look quite right about it. Your pictures are extremely low quality btw. The fabric is either VERY loose fitting OR it distorted from your cleaning. If that fabric was nice and tight before you cleaned it I honestly don't offer any hope of fixing it. If it was already that extremely loose before you cleaned it then it might be possible to reclean it and reverse it what appears to be browning. I can barely see your pictures.

Do you know what kind of fabric you were working on? If not, you best take some training ASAP. I've heard that rayon/viscose is making it's way back into upholstered fabrics in a big way and that is NOT good news. I saw my first one the other day and even with all my experience I turned it down. I have not seen rayon fabric in furniture in probably over 20 years easily. It will almost certainly be tagged as S or dry solvent clean only. Yes, I know as well about the tags as anyone on here. I've been wet cleaning dry clean only fabrics since the late 80's, but I will NOT wet clean a rayon fabric furniture, PERIOD. If I did it would be VERY, VERY LOW MOISTURE. If you caused that loosening of the fabric I can only think of ONE fabric that would likely do that, rayon. All naturals should be cleaned with products safe for naturals and every effort should be made not to overwet or to leave it very wet from the cleaning. No better advice you'll get IMHO.

 

[Steve NZ]

Thanks Guys.
First time I've struck this, but the couch had a thin cover over it which I wish I hadn't had attempted now, however I hired a much lower psi Machine and corrected it with advance browning treatment and it looks much better, guessing I got it far too wet the first time.

 

[sbsscn]

Thee best way to correct this is by

correcting your cleaning procedure before you even touch it to clean

1. Always, I mean Always test, inspect, and evaluate.
2. If for what ever reason you cannot do the above mentioned
3. Disclose all possible warnings
Shrinking, color loss, deterioration of material, wicking and odor issues,
stains remaining, fire retardant damage (just to mention a few)
4. Explain why you are giving the warnings and document and have them sign and agree to the cleaning terms BEFORE NOT AFTER the cleaning!
5. In worst case scenarios.. WALK AWAY!!! dont own it!!

Now how to correct your issue?

in your case
1. pour some CTI/Pros Choice Brown out in a spray bottle.
2. Take the chair(s) outside. get adequate ventilation in the room of the sofa
3. Wear a respirator with carbon cartridges.
4. Cover any wooden areas and avoid wetting the wooden areas/parts
5. Mist/ lightly spray the fabric and lightly agitate with horse hair brush.
6. Wait at least 10-20 minutes and or until you see the stains reduce/ remove
7. Do a cool fresh water rinse only
8, Dry extract multiple times

If you wanted to prevent this from happening then you could have started off with
dry soil removal
apply Robs cotton and linen shampoo

or if you dont have Robs cotton and linen

pre vacuum
apply anti browning
agitate
apply prespray
agitate
rinse
Dry

Browning treatments have reducers and smell Horrible.
Fumes are toxic and irritants.

You MUST Warn your customers of the fumes BEFORE doing and using this stuff in their homes