We’ve all been there! Whether it’s our favourite chair or lounge carpet, you accidentally spill something that you can’t clean yourself. So what do we do? We call in a professional, only to be told the stain won’t come out and the furniture or carpet is a write off.
Before you start pulling your hair out and looking at replacing the carpet or getting rid of that favourite chair make sure you speak to more than just one professional. There is a vast array of specialist solutions, training and equipment out there and where as one company may not be able to remove the stain others may be successful.
Here at Texatherm we are very fortunate to have insurance approved contractors that supply us with written off carpets and furniture that we can experiment on. we’ve come across carpets that has been written off and chairs that have been thrown away, yet we’ve managed to successfully clean them using specific methods and techniques. Let us show you an example.
The mobility chair pictured below was written off due to becoming damp and colour bleed transferring from a purple throw that was covering it. The customer was told it was permanent and there was nothing that could be done.
We picked up the chair and took it to our training centre to demonstrate that once something has been written off you have nothing to lose in experimenting. What’s the worse that can happen, you get it wrong and write off a chair that has already been written off.
First we tested the affected fabric with several spotters to establish if we could gain transfer of colour on to a terry towel and ascertain which solution would be the most effective. We then pre sprayed the chair with Bio-Trax and agitated using a soft Tampico brush.
The product was allowed to dwell for a couple of minutes. Bio Trax is a bio enzymatic product and we chose it as during our testing we established that the colour bleed was probably made up of natural dyes.
Once everything had dwelled we rinsed the chair with warm water at 50°C mixed with Tex Rinse which is a pH neutralising acidic rinsing product. The Tex Rinse was mixed at 1 part rinse to 60 parts water in the EMV machine.
Once the chair was thoroughly rinsed we started seeing the results (as pictured). We then pre sprayed CBT onto the chair which is an acidic spotter for the Removal of Cellulosic Browning, Tannin, Tea/Coffee, Water Marks and Yellowing etc. Again we agitated in using a soft Tampico brush and rinsed out using Tex Rinse to remove the last of the faded stains.
As you can see from the before and after pictures the chair came up like new other than the age related fabric wear and was naturally dry in just under 1 hour 40 minutes.
So next time don’t take just one professionals word as gospel, there are many highly trained quality cleaners out there that constantly invest in training on the latest techniques, they may be able to achieve results that others cannot. Every day there’s something new coming on to the market.
Save yourself the time, money and frustration of replacing your favourite chair or lounge carpet when it may not be a write off!
If you need help look for a professional that can demonstrate he has been professionally trained. For example you could contact the industry association the NCCA on 0116 271 9550 they are happy to give advice and can also recommend a technician that has sat their carpet and advanced stain removal courses.