Why should I get my sofas and upholstery cleaned?
Upholstery will eventually get dirty, there is no getting away from it. Upholstery is going to be affected by everyday use, more so than your carpets. Not only is it subjected to contact wear and tear and airborne soiling, but it is also subject to human and in some houses animal body contact. This contact can lead to contamination of the fabric by body fluids, perspiration, greasy deposits from hair, body warmth and compression.
Due to the very nature of the upholstery fabrics being more delicate than your carpets, more care and attention should be given to the pre inspection, to determine the correct method and cleaning techniques to be used. The upholstery can be damaged or completely ruined if the correct techniques and procedures are not followed. This is why it is important you use a qualified professional upholstery cleaner.
By following a regular cleaning program, vacuuming once or twice a week, using throws if you want your dogs on the furniture and having an annual professional deep clean, you can greatly increase the life of your upholstery.
Hygiene
You wont believe how dirty they get
Life
Put a bit of spring back
Comfort
Fabrics will be soft to the touch again
Relax
Rest easy again
8 Step Upholstery Cleaning Process
- Assess the upholstery composition and structure to determine its suitability for hot water extraction.
- Place cover sheet under item to be cleaned to prevent spillage of cleaning solution onto the floor.
- Vacuum the upholstery both ways, north to south and east to west using a Sebo BS36 twin motor Vacuum. This is done to achieve a better final result. Vacuuming this way removes 80 to 85% of soiling from the upholstery.
- Pre-treat specific stains and marks on the upholstery. This is done by misting micro splitting cleaning solution over the area. Misting the solution over the area and allowing it to settle on the fabric or fibres is done to prevent over wetting of the item being cleaned. The solution will then be gently agitated into the fabric or fibres.
- A shampoo will then be made up by mixing fibre shampoo with a cleaning solution and hot water. The shampoo will be applied by hand using a sponge and agitated into the fabric or fibres, only the foam of the shampoo is used, again this is done to prevent over wetting.
- The shampoo will then be washed, rinsed and extracted off the upholstery using an Airflex storm extraction machine with a Saphire upholstery pro attachment. The Saphire upholstery tool almost makes it impossible to over wet the upholstery.
- Brush and groom the upholstery to set the pile, this not only improves the look of the upholstery but improves drying time.
- The air mover machine will then be used to help with the drying.
- I have mentioned above, the importance of not over wetting. This statement cannot be over stated enough. Over wetting leads to extensive drying time, rapid re-soiling and greater potential for colour bleed, cellulosic browning, delamination, and mildew with associated odours. This is why it is important to use a qualified, professional, upholstery cleaner, who uses adequately powered extraction machines, correct attachments and equipment as well as suitable cleaning solutions alongside appropriate techniques of cleaning.
Why get your mattress professionally cleaned?
Your mattress is possibly the one place in your home that gets over looked for cleaning; you just change the sheets and put fresh ones on thinking that’s sufficient. In fact your mattress is quite possibly the dirtiest thing in your house. On average we produce about half a litre of sweat a night and shed about a gram of dead skin, making your mattress the ideal place for fungal spores, bacteria and dust mites. It is thought on average your mattress will be home to about 2 million dust mites, not a nice thought. When you lie on your mattress the air gets displaced out of your mattress, along with an amount of dead skin, bacteria and all kinds of microscopic bugs, you then breathe this air whilst you are sleeping.
The reason for having your mattress professionally steamed cleaned is obvious, so why don’t more of us have them cleaned regularly? The answer is that we don’t think they are dirty because they are covered by a sheet. The sweat, skin, bacteria and dust mites will still build up in your mattress through your sheets. Steam cleaning your mattress is probably more important than steam cleaning your carpets, due to the health benefits of people who suffer with asthma, eczema and allergies.
At Shift & Sparkle we use a high powered Air flex storm extraction machine with an inline Magma heater for steam cleaning. First we will vacuum both sides of your mattress to remove any surface soiling. We will then treat both sides of the mattress with our cleaning and sanitising solution which will effectively eliminate bacteria and odours. We then rinse out the cleaning solution using the Airflex storm extraction machine with Sapphire pro tool attachment; this prevents over wetting of the mattress and aids drying times