Upholstery after cleaning

The experts at Doctor Steam can restore the beauty and extend the life of your favorite upholstered furniture.

Upholstered furniture can be composed of varied types of materials like wool, silk, rayon, cotton, nylon, acrylic and polyester. Therefore, one cleaning process will not work on all types of upholstery. Before cleaning, special considerations must be made for factors such as color, color-fastness, residue from previous cleaning and shrinkage of fabric. We'll provide the cleaning process that's right for your particular upholstered fabric.

Doctor Steam uses two different processes to get your upholstery clean.

1. Steam Cleaning (Hot water extraction)
If pre-testing of the upholstery shows that both the fabric material and the fabric dye are stable in water, then steam cleaning method is used to get the most dirt and oil from your fine upholstery.

First, the upholstery is vacuumed to remove excess dirt.  Next, a pre-spray is applied which contains surfactants. The surfactants reduce surface tension and allow better water penetration and cleaning.  Hot cleaning solution is then sprayed under pressure into the fabric and extracted to remove the suspended soil and moisture.  Extra drying passes are used to prevent over-wetting and to speed drying. 

Most fabrics respond best to wet cleaning, but this method can be used only if the upholstery fabric and dyes are stable in water.

2. Dry Cleaning
If pre-testing of the upholstery shows that either the fabric material or the fabric dye is NOT stable in water, then a dry cleaning method is used.  Dry cleaning solvents are sprayed onto the fabric and allowed time to suspend oily binders such as perspiration and soil. Suspended soil and solvents are then recovered by extraction. The advantage of the dry cleaning system is that there is neither fabric shrinkage nor dye bleeding.

Only moderate results can be expected with dry cleaning method on heavily soiled fabrics.

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