How to Clean Upholstery Properly

First, it's critical to understand the cleaning basics for any surface, as the quality of upholstery cleaning results depends on following these "rules" for proper cleaning.

Dry Soil Removal
Often neglected and yet critical to a complete and satisfactory cleaning job, dry vacuuming should be done first. Most of the soils in any fabric are insoluble particulate matter that must be removed before the fabric is exposed to either water or solvent-based cleaning solutions. Regardless of the vacuum suction of the cleaning extractor, these units cannot (and are not designed to) remove embedded, gritty, insoluble soils during water or solvent extraction processes.

Soil Suspension
This step loosens as much soil as safely possible from the surface of the fibers, primarily during the preconditioning process, but some suspension also occurs during the extraction process. Soil suspension involves four fundamentals:

1. Time - The months or years between cleanings leave fabrics with built-up soils that cannot be completely removed if the cleaning agents in the preconditioner are not given several minutes of dwell time. The exact amount of dwell time varies with the level of soil and the cleaning method being used. On sensitive colors, as with natural fiber jacquards, or natural cottons that may easily brown, dwell time should be limited.
2. Agitation - This aids in the distribution of preconditioning agents throughout the fabric. Use a horsehair brush, natural sponge, or even a mechanical scrubbing device, but do so with care, as some delicate fibers and constructions are easily damaged with harsh mechanical action.
3. Chemical action - In this step cleaning solutions (detergents, solvents, etc.) act on soils by suspension, emulsification, etc., to begin to loosen soils - most of it happens during the preconditioning step.
4. Temperature - When water-based solutions are heated, the surface tension of the water decreases, causing more rapid penetration and cleaning. Heat aids in cleaning not only by lowering the surface tension of water, but also by melting waxes, fats and greases, which makes them easier to remove - and requiring lower concentrations of solvents and detergents in the cleaning solution. The surfactants used in cleaning formulations work better when used in hot water. Enzymes and some bleaching and reducing agents must be heated to specific temperature ranges to work efficiently. Simply stated, hot water cleans better, allows for the use of safer cleaning agents (and less of them) and dries faster!

With each cleaning method, these principles are used in different ways or to varying degrees. However, to achieve maximum cleaning results, you must increase the use of one or more of these fundamentals if you decrease the use of any one of them.

Extraction
Extraction, the “removal” step, occurs after soil suspension, to remove soils from the fabric. While extraction is sometimes called the “rinsing” step, in hot water extraction all methods have a soil extraction or removal step. Hot water extraction, when safe, does remove the most suspended soils, however.

Drying
Slow drying is one of the leading causes of cleaning-related damage (bleeding, browning, shrinkage). Improper technique, over-wetting of fabrics, malfunctioning equipment, carelessness, absorbent fabrics or environmental factors (air temperature and humidity) can all contribute to slow drying. Regardless of the cause, fabric problems and customer complaints will result if drying is too slow.

Air movement from carpet dryers and proper home ventilation and humidity control will ensure reasonably fast drying (the BSR/IICRC S300 Standard for Professional Upholstery Cleaning recommends drying time not exceed 6 hours). Cleaning technicians must be aware that humid weather and common absorbent, natural fibers will extend drying time, and appropriate measures should be taken to speed the drying.

Adapted from Complete Guide to Restorative Drying published by Restoration Science Academy.

For expert how-to videos, view our Upholstery Training Video Series led by industry veterans Pat Muller and Tim Baker.

See our other cleaning chemistry Tips & Tricks.