Weird upholstery issue today?

[joey895]

Today I cleaned a solid red sofa. What I would call moderately soiled with a few spots of who knows what on it. It cleaned up great, it really brightened up and most all of the spots came out.

The issue I had was 2 spots on one cushion and 1 spot on another showed up AFTER I went over it, I mean almost immediately after going over it rather large spots between baseball and golf ball sized. They looked kind of like water marks, meaning the outer edge was darker than the middle of the spots.

I tried spot-n-boost first with ZERO improvement, then went to POG and seemed to be getting some improvement but couldn't get them all the way out.

I unzipped and looked inside at the cushion thinking maybe something was wicking up but the cushions were white and completely spotless.

In the end after I was giving up I decided to dry the spots quickly with a hair dryer to see the final results before I left and they pretty much completely disappeared by the time they were completely dry. I then rinsed one of the spots again and it darkened back up as soon as the moisture hit it, of course it disappeared with the hair dryer again.

My process was I pre-vacuumed, pre-sprayed with Prochem upholstery cleaner, scrubbed with horsehair brush and extracted with drimaster, running O2 rinse through the machine.

So can someone please tell me what the heck happened and would they have likely gone away with just normal drying or did the heat from the hair dryer help?

 

[sweendogg]

This sounds like a question for Jim Pemberton, question though. Had the chairs been cleaned before? And if not, had the homeowner attempted some kind spill remover? If so I wonder if an oxidizer or strong store bot spotter was used that deterorated the fabric to the point that it absorbed water differently and thus became visible when you wet it out compared to the surrounding fabric. Thus it would take a water medium to refact the light so that the spot was visible but dry, the surface of the fabric would not refact it any differently then the surrounding areas.

 

[joey895]

It had never been cleaned before and yes she has spot cleaned. She even asked me if I thought it might be something to do with her spot cleaning but she did not remember or want to admit what she used on it.

 

[Hoody]

Residual from the original spot, and or residue from the home cleaner that she used ?

 

[Dolly Llama]

She even asked me if I thought it might be something to do with her spot cleaning .

tell her YES
to cover your ass, even if it wasn't her fault....


..L.T.A.

 

[lancehollister]

Residue from a previous clean. Instead of breaking out with your spotters an air mover or hair dryer would have solved it.

 

[renegade_cowboy]

Had that happen many times over the years and they always disappeared as it dried. What kind of fabric?

 

[joey895]

Residue from a previous clean. Instead of breaking out with your spotters an air mover or hair dryer would have solved it.

I know my first post was kind of long winded but I stated that a hair dryer did actually solve it, it just took me a while to get to that point.

My biggest problems were that I didn't have an explanation for the customer and all the time I wasted trying to take the spots out.

 

[ruff]

Previous spotting and spills cause that part of the fiber to accept, absorb and hold more moisture.
Every time you wet clean that area and potentially the filling material, will absorb and hold more moisture than non treated/spotted parts.
Once dried it goes away.
Ofer

 

[Jose Smith]

It's very simple (or most likely it is). Spots that are invisible on dry fabric, but appear on wet fabric are very common. I encounter this on both cellulosics and synthetics. The spots can be either water based or oil based.

Usually these can be identified when you first wet the fabric. Don't panic the next time you wet down a fabric and a spot appears. If it was invisible before you got it wet, it will be invisible again when it dries.

Jose Smith

 

[joey895]

Thanks guys. That's just what I needed to hear and I'll definitely learn from this and not spend an hour working on these types of spots next time.

 

[Jim Pemberton]

What Jose said

Most rings, darkening, and discolorations that show up IMMEDIATELY during cleaning disappear. Its the ones that show up during the drying process that are trouble.

 

[billyeadon]

Bar stools and dining room chairs are especially prone to this. Sometimes you will prespray a chair and 14 overlapping spots appear. It is a sick feeling until you realize that they will all disappear again.
You followed a good pattern to remedy the situation. Hair dryers are a required tool for fabric.