Sofas in households with young children often suffer the most damage. But when it comes to cleaning stains, one method doesn’t fit all fabrics. In fact, you can make the situation worse if you don’t know how to treat your upholstery the right way. This is mainly the reason why we always say you should book professional cleaners but we also know that’s not possible in 100% of the cases. So, if for whatever reason you must clean your sofa yourself, here are some tips on how to treat different surfaces.
Leather
If you have one of those super comfy and stylish leather sofas, you are blessed in a way, because it only needs dusting and occasional conditioning to maintain its look and feel. However, it gets more complicated when it comes to removing stains from leather. It is extremely sensitive to chemicals and we do not recommend experimenting. In this instance, you really don’t have much choice but to book a professional cleaning service. The one thing you can do before the experts arrive is dabbing the stain with a clean cotton cloth. Don’t ever rub leather as it can cause irreversible damage.
Natural Fabrics
Natural fabrics include cotton, linen, wool, velvet and silk. If your sofa is made of any of those it probably looks gorgeous. Ok, maybe not so much when it gets stained or used as a mini artist’s canvas. This type of upholstery needs to be cleaned at least twice a year by professionals. The rest of the time you can rectify artistic or food and drink accidents by steam cleaning. Wet washing is not recommended, because natural fibres retain water and moisture. You can completely ruin the look of the sofa if you use too much water-based cleaning products. Yet, in this case, they are well preferred than any other types of sofa cleaners.
Synthetic Fabrics
If your sofa is made of polyester, acrylic, nylon or olefin, you are lucky when it comes to cleaning. Those synthetic fabrics are pretty resistant to chemicals and can even be machine washed (that is if you can remove the parts and wash them). You can use almost any water-based fabric cleaner with success. However, we must say you should test the product on a small, not too obvious part of the sofa. That way you will know if the cleaner causes shrinkage or discolouration.
Mixed Fabrics
One of the most common scenarios in upholstery design is the use of blended fabrics, which includes some natural and some synthetic fibres. The maintenance of such upholstery is quite expensive because it requires professional cleaning. Very rarely, the manufacturer would specify a DIY cleaning method on the label of the sofa. You could try a mild water-based cleaner with mixed-fabric upholstery but there is no guarantee shrinkage, discolouration or other types of permanent damage won’t occur.
Stain removal on various sofa surfaces is tricky on its own, but apart from the appearance of your soft furniture, professional upholstery cleaning is more important for the health of your family. Fabrics need regular wash and disinfection, especially if they can’t be put in the washing machine or taken to the dry cleaners. There are so many allergens, dust particles and germs trapped in the fibres that if you could see them, you would never want to go closer to your sofa until it gets proper treatment. So, don’t risk further damage or falling ill because of incorrectly cleaned furniture. Call MiraKal Cleaning Services and get your sofa looking and feeling just like when you first bought it.