How to home clean heavily soiled upholstered chairs?
Saturday, June 5th, 2010 at
4:48 am
I was given some wonderful old chairs by my grandfather, they are high quality but sadly they are heavily soiled everywhere. We have been using slipcovers but I’m sick of them bunching up and I always have to fix them anytime someone has sat in them. How can I clean these chairs – they don’t have to turn out perfect but less grungy looking would be perfect! I live in a very rural area so we cannot take them to be cleaned. How can I clean them at home? Is there a product that will break up the oil and dirt?
Check your local grocery store or hardware store to see if they rent carpet steam cleaners. Usually these machines have upholstery attachments. Then you could use a stain remover and upholstery shampoo in the machine as well as pre-spot treatment (also sold at the same place as the machines). You might even think about using a "high traffic" solution….it’s normally used on carpets, but it’s an excellent stain remover on highly soiled furniture so long as the material is color-fast (meaning the color does not fade with cleaning).
I would use the pre-spot treatment solution on the chairs with a soft bristled brush to rub it in. Then use the steam cleaner with the upholstery attachment and heavier duty cleaning solution. You want to be careful and make sure you extract as much water as you can from the chairs at the end of the cleaning so that the foam cushion inside will dry completely (the machine does all that, you just need to take your time when doing it).
Doing this is probably your best bet on getting them as clean as possible on your own. If you have the money to do it, carpet cleaning companies usually clean upholstered furniture as well.
good idea….
or if u can… they make this stuff called SPOT SHOT… it has a ORANGE cap w/ blue can…. works GREAT!!!
I used it on the edge of the couch where soil builds up & it got it rt. off. It’s for carpet but I have used it on my soiled oil clothing as well as the couch & chairs.
The grocer should carry it. Or I know Walmart does if u have on close.
hope that helps
Add 1/4 c. laundry detergent or liquid dish detergent to 1 c. warm water. Blend with an electric mixer; whip the mixture until the suds look like whipped cream (it will be dry and form peaks).
Step 7Test for fading by dipping a cloth in the suds and rubbing a small place on the back of furniture. Let dry. If fading, shrinkage or discolouration occurs, have the job done professionally; if not, proceed to the next step.
Step 8 Pick an area on the furniture, dip cloth and rub suds on.
Step 9 Dirt will begin to appear in suds as they work. Use a scraper to scrape suds away.
Step 10Rinse area with a damp cloth.
Step 11Repeat steps 8 through 10 on other areas of furniture, allowing for overlap of areas during cleaning.
Step 12Allow to dry overnight, preferably with an electric fan blowing on furniture.
I looked this up on google ( I hope it works)
I go with the renting a steam cleaner also! I suggest using a cleaner called Simple Green instead of their expensive shampoos and other products. The Simple Green is wonderful on grease or oil, non-toxic and biodegradable. Oh! And it’s much less expensive than those other products.
On their website and on the back of the bottle, they tell you how much Simple Green to mix with water for cleaning upholstery and carpets. It’s very little product to water. And I would mix up a spray bottle of 50/50 water to Simple Green to do a real good "spot" treatment with before you even start shampooing.
Remember any product needs time to work! Spray the stronger Simple Green and water mixture on (don’t soak it but dampen pretty well) and walk away for at least 1/2 an hour. Then come back and use the steam cleaner. If the chairs are really bad, you might have to do this a couple times. Watch and see what color the water is that the steam machine is sucking up. If it’s still dirty, so is the upholstery.
If you get into an issue with foaming, just add a couple teaspoons of white vinegar into the water in the carpet machine. The vinegar smell will go away but it keeps the cleaner from foaming.