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Brisbane Upholstery Cleaning Detective

I received a call recently from a client from Stafford Heights regarding a butter coloured corduroy lounge or sofa a friend of hers had purchased 3 years or so ago from a big retailer at Everton Park. Now my company gets many calls about upholstery cleaning but this one intrigued me as the colour had changed in parts of the lounge suite to a bluish tinge.

I thought it was time to become a bit of a detective and try to get to the bottom of why this colour change may have occurred so that I could help my client out. I booked a time to have a look at the lounge at no cost or obligation to my Stafford client.

Now this was an interesting situation. My client had been given the lounge (as a present) from her generous friend. Before the friend had the lounge delivered to Stafford he had it cleaned by another company hoping that the bluish tinge would disappear. As the lounge cleaning detective I had to factor this in to my thoughts as inexperienced cleaners can sometimes damage fabric through negligent chemical use. It was perhaps part of the puzzle anyway? Let us delve a bit further………………….

My upholstery cleaning fabric colour change checklist:-

What is the fibre type and how was it dyed?

Where exactly on the lounge was the colour affected?

What dry cleaning or hot water extraction chemicals may have touched the lounge or upholstery? Have they left negative residues?

Could neutralising the fabrics PH help?

Were optical brighteners used?

Could dye transfer from other fabrics ie. clothes etc. (crocking) be to blame?

Is there a possibility that perspiration / body oils (particularly in medicated people) have reacted with the dyes?

Does it look different under natural versus artificial light?

Is the fibre shape consistent or has it changed in the colour changed areas?

Is there a backing material showing through only in the effected areas due to wear and tear?

Anyway you get the picture. With upholstery cleaning of Brisbane lounges there are many things to consider even if there is no problem with the colour.

So what did I come up with?

I believe the generous friend had transferred over time colour from his favourite clothing which was blue denim jeans. He was also known for his heavy perspiration and was on many prescription medications.

In this case I did not have good news for my wonderful Stafford Heights client but this is an unusual situation after all.

Not all problems of carpet cleaning, upholstery cleaning or tile cleaning have a solution.
Sometimes the damage is done.

Cheers for now!

Mark from Aqua-Pro Services

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Choosing The Right Carpet Fibre For Your Brisbane Home

Are your carpets coming up to replacement time?

Fibre choice at this time is arguably the most important thing to consider when ripping up the old, tired carpet and replacing it with beautiful new carpet.

Being a Brisbane based carpet cleaner operating from Everton Hills means that I do a lot of cleaning in suburbs around me like Mitchelton, Bridgeman Downs and Albany Creek.

In many of these homes the homeowner is preparing for an upgrade as the carpet has been down for 10 to 20 years and has seen better days. So what is the question I get asked a lot when carpet cleaning these homes? You guessed it………..”What type of carpet do you recommend for my home when I replace this one?”

Part 1- Carpet Fibre Choice.

You will have to “stay tuned” for the other installments of how to pick the best carpet for your Brisbane home but for my money fibre choice is Number 1.

We have 2 choices:

Natural or Synthetic Fibre.

An example of a natural fibre is Wool. Some synthetic fibres are Nylon, Polypropylene (Olefin) and Polyester. And of course there are the blends of both synthetic and natural fibres.

Personally I don’t like blends that much even though they do bring the positives of both groups together they also bring the negatives as well and sometimes they can be “polar”. So let us rule blends out.

Wool carpet has many great qualities. It is soft and luxurious, fire resistant and resilient.

But on the dark side……..it has high absorbency when “steam” cleaned which means in humid old Brisbane it takes a long time to dry relative to other fibres. It also loves to “own” stains in my opinion and due to the fact it is a chemically sensitive fibre carpet cleaners are restricted in what we can use to try and get stains out. It also smells a bit like “wet dog” when it is cleaned due to sulphur compounds hitting your nostrils. In addition, last but not least there is a little moth in Brisbane that loves eating the stuff. This little pest over time can destroy a Wool carpet. So I would like to rule Wool out- sorry Wool lovers!

In the “cheapy” synthetics we have Polyester and Polypropylene / Olefin. You do get what you pay for when you buy carpet and these cheap fibres do not last that long due to low resiliency. They also have “wicking” problems. Wicking occurs when through capillary action dirt and staining materials can resurface soon after cleaning. Olefin also has static electricity issues when the conditions are right and it, as well Polyester, loves oily soils and does not like to give them up. I think these fibres generally do not represent true value for money so I am going to cross them off my list also.

Let us now move on to Nylon and my favourite Solution Dyed Nylon. Nylon has come a long way. It has been changed along the way which is why you hear the term “fifth generation” Nylon. The shape of the extruded fibre has been changed to hide soiling. Also anti-static and stain protection qualities have been added. Acid dye blockers were the last generation change in Acid Dyed Nylon which means acid dyes like those found in soft drinks no longer present the same risk of staining that they used to.

Acid Dyed Nylon is ok but Solution Dyed Nylon is my pick for fibre choice. The dye is 100 % through the whole fibre. The colour of your carpet is actually the colour of the carpet! Solution Dyed Nylon has colour fade resistance, great stain resistance, is hard wearing and great to clean and dries relatively fast. It is by no means “bulletproof” or even totally “party proof” but it won me over. Recently we renovated our Everton Hills home and put 6 rooms of Solution Dyed Nylon throughout the house in bedrooms and the office. I chose it over the other fibres for the above reasons and put my money where my mouth is so to speak.

I hope this has provided some useful information on carpet fibre selection and stay tuned for the next installments.

Cheers for now!

Mark from Aqua-Pro Services

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