After 56 Years in the Business, Here’s Why I Chose Controlled Wet Cleaning
One of the questions I hear from homeowners is whether upholstery should be cleaned with water or with a solvent.
There are two major approaches to professional upholstery cleaning: water-based cleaning, often called wet cleaning, and solvent-based cleaning, sometimes referred to as dry cleaning.
Over my 56 years in the carpet and upholstery cleaning business, I have worked with both methods.
I eventually made a personal decision about which approach I was most comfortable using in a customer’s home.
I chose wet cleaning.
That doesn’t mean every upholstered fabric should be wet cleaned. It doesn’t mean upholstery should be saturated with water. And it certainly doesn’t mean that cleaning upholstery is as simple as spraying it and extracting it.
Quite the opposite.
Proper upholstery cleaning requires an understanding of the fabric, dyes, construction, cleaning chemistry, temperature, moisture level and drying process.
Here’s why I came to prefer controlled wet cleaning.
Why I Stopped Using Solvent-Based Upholstery Cleaning
Many years ago, I decided to try solvent-based upholstery cleaning because I wanted to have another option available for fabrics that might not respond well to traditional water-based cleaning.
At first, I thought it made sense.
But after working with the process, I began thinking about something beyond whether it could clean the furniture.
I started thinking about the environment I was creating inside my customer’s home.
The solvents I was using were not chlorinated solvents, but they did contain volatile organic compounds, commonly called VOCs.
I took precautions.
I used respiratory protection appropriate for working with the solvent, and I had a long exhaust hose attached to the vacuum system so that the exhaust from the vacuum motor could be directed outside.
Those precautions helped protect me.
But eventually I found myself asking a different question:
What about the homeowner?
What about their children?
What about their pets?
The technician might be wearing respiratory protection, but the people living in the home generally aren’t.
And there was another issue that bothered me.
The solvent doesn’t simply disappear when the cleaning is finished. As the solvent remaining in the fabric evaporates during drying, vapors can enter the indoor air.
Ventilation certainly helps. But I couldn’t honestly say that every trace of those vapors would immediately leave the home.
That became something I was increasingly uncomfortable with.
I Remember Asking Other Cleaners the Same Question
I remember attending a carpet and upholstery cleaning convention many years ago.
At one point, I asked a group of cleaning professionals a very simple question:
“Who here can honestly say that they feel completely comfortable using these solvents in a customer’s home?”
Nobody answered.
That silence stayed with me.
I wasn’t asking whether solvent cleaning could work.
I was asking whether we were completely comfortable with the environment we were creating for the customer.
I wasn’t.
And eventually, I stopped using solvent-based upholstery cleaning in my customers’ homes.
Why I Became Comfortable With Wet Cleaning
My experience with wet cleaning has been very different.
A large percentage of the soil found on upholstered furniture is ordinary household soil: dust, particulate matter, food residue, body oils and other contaminants that accumulate from everyday use.
Water-based cleaning, when properly performed, can be extremely effective at removing this type of soil.
That doesn’t mean that every stain will come out. A stain can involve a chemical change to the original dye or even permanent damage to the fabric.
But when we’re talking about removing accumulated soil from upholstery, I have always been very comfortable with a properly controlled wet-cleaning process.
The important word is controlled.
Wet Cleaning Does Not Mean Soaking the Furniture
One of the biggest misconceptions about wet cleaning is that the furniture needs to become soaking wet.
It doesn’t.
The goal is to use enough moisture and cleaning solution to effectively clean the fabric while controlling how much moisture is introduced into the furniture.
That requires judgment.
I need to consider:
- What fiber is the fabric made from?
- Is it cotton, linen, wool, silk, synthetic or a blend?
- How stable are the dyes?
- How is the furniture constructed?
- How much moisture can the fabric tolerate?
- How much heat should be used?
- How quickly can the moisture be extracted?
- How will the furniture dry?
- Are there areas of the furniture that should receive less moisture?
These aren’t questions that can always be answered simply by looking at a cleaning-code tag.
The cleaning code can provide useful information, but it is only one part of the evaluation. I’ve written more about this in Ask Alec: Can You Trust the Cleaning Codes on Your Upholstery?
Cleaning Chemistry Matters, Too
The cleaning solution itself is another important part of the process.
The upholstery cleaning solution I use is an ammonia-based cleaner formulated to work rapidly on many types of upholstery soil.
It begins with a relatively high pH, which helps break down soil and stains efficiently.
But the chemistry is designed so that the pH drops toward a more neutral position relatively quickly as the solution is diluted and evaporates.
That is important because using a strong cleaning solution isn’t simply a matter of choosing the strongest product available.
The strongest cleaner isn’t necessarily the best cleaner.
The chemistry has to be appropriate for the fabric, the soil and the cleaning process.
My background in chemistry has been particularly helpful throughout my career because I’ve learned that cleaning isn’t simply about finding a product that works.
It’s about understanding why it works and how the fabric is likely to respond.
Color Bleeding and Shrinkage Are Real Concerns
When people ask me why they should be concerned about wet cleaning, two of the biggest issues are usually color bleeding and shrinkage.
Those are legitimate concerns.
But they aren’t reasons to automatically conclude that upholstery shouldn’t be wet cleaned.
They are reasons to understand the fabric before cleaning it.
Temperature matters.
Moisture level matters.
The type of fiber matters.
The construction of the furniture matters.
And the experience of the person doing the cleaning matters.
Natural fibers can be particularly interesting because different materials can expand and contract at different rates.
I’ve seen firsthand how changes in moisture and humidity can affect fabrics.
Sometimes the Problem Isn’t the Cleaning
Years ago, I did considerable work for a very well-respected interior designer in the Boston area.
He had upholstered several sofas for a client and had added an accent strip around the sofas as a decorative border.
One day I was at the client’s home cleaning the carpets when she mentioned that the sofas were buckling along the sides.
She asked if I could do anything about it.
I told her that I didn’t think cleaning would correct the problem, but I offered to test a small area.
I already suspected that cleaning wasn’t going to solve it.
I simply wanted to make sure I had done everything I reasonably could for her.
Later that day, I called the interior designer and explained what I had seen.
I told him that I believed the problem was related to the fact that two different fabrics had been used.
Those fabrics could expand and contract at different rates as the temperature and humidity inside the home changed.
He replied that he had been adding accent strips to furniture for years and had never had a problem.
I told him that perhaps he simply hadn’t been made aware of the problems when they occurred.
The point wasn’t that the furniture had necessarily been improperly constructed.
It was that different textiles can respond differently to changes in their environment.
Experience teaches you to look for those possibilities.
I Saw the Same Principle With Silk Walls in Boston
Another example happened at the InterContinental in Boston.
A large condominium was being renovated, and silk fabric had been installed on the walls from approximately four feet above the floor all the way to the ceiling.
When it was first installed, it looked beautiful.
Then, during the renovation, someone opened some of the sliding doors to bring in outside air.
The building was right on the water.
The outside air was humid.
That humidity entered the condominium, and before long the silk-covered walls began to buckle.
I was called in to see whether there was anything I could do.
My answer was that there wasn’t a simple cleaning solution to the problem.
The fabric had reacted to the environment.
I did tell them that a solvent-based fabric protector might make the silk somewhat less likely to absorb moisture from the air, but I couldn’t promise how effective it would be or how long that effect would last.
Eventually, humidity could still find its way into the fabric.
That experience reinforced something I’ve learned over and over again:
Even very small amounts of moisture can affect certain textiles.
That’s why moisture control is so important when cleaning upholstery.
Different Parts of the Same Sofa May Need Different Treatment
There’s another thing I’ve learned over the years that homeowners probably don’t think about.
Not every part of a sofa is constructed the same way.
The upholstery on the main body of a sofa is generally secured and supported by the furniture’s construction.
The backs and sides are attached to the frame.
Cushions have their own internal construction.
But look at a sofa skirt.
A skirt can simply hang from the bottom of the furniture without the same type of support.
Because of that, I may choose to clean certain areas of a sofa by hand rather than applying the same amount of moisture that I would use on a more securely supported section.
The objective is simple:
Use enough moisture to clean the fabric effectively while keeping moisture as low as reasonably possible for that particular area.
That is not something you learn simply by buying a piece of equipment.
You learn it through experience.
Experience Changes How You Clean
After 56 years in this business, I don’t look at a sofa and simply think:
“What machine should I use?”
I think:
“What am I looking at?”
I want to understand the fiber.
I want to understand the construction.
I want to understand the condition of the fabric.
I want to know what type of soil I’m dealing with.
I want to know how the dyes are likely to respond.
And I want to determine how much moisture, heat, cleaning solution and extraction the particular fabric can safely tolerate.
That’s why I don’t believe there is one upholstery-cleaning procedure that should be used on every sofa and chair.
The fabric determines the cleaning approach — not the other way around.
So, Is Wet Cleaning Safe for Upholstery?
It can be, when the fabric and furniture are properly evaluated and the cleaning process is controlled.
But I would never tell a homeowner that every upholstered fabric should automatically be wet cleaned.
There are fabrics and circumstances that require a more conservative approach.
That’s where professional experience becomes important.
The question shouldn’t simply be:
“Can this fabric get wet?”
The better questions are:
How much moisture can it tolerate?
At what temperature?
With what cleaning chemistry?
How quickly can that moisture be removed?
And what is likely to happen to the fabric and the furniture as it dries?
Those are the questions I have learned to ask over more than five decades in this business.
Alec’s Bottom Line
I have used both solvent-based and water-based upholstery cleaning methods during my career.
I ultimately stopped using solvent-based cleaning in customers’ homes because I became uncomfortable with the VOC exposure it could create for the people and pets living in the home.
I’ve remained comfortable with wet cleaning because, when appropriate for the particular fabric, I can control the chemistry, temperature, amount of moisture and extraction.
But wet cleaning isn’t about getting furniture soaking wet.
It’s about knowing how much moisture the particular fabric and furniture can handle — and using no more than necessary to do the job properly.
After 56 years of cleaning carpets, upholstery and fine textiles, I’ve learned that the most important piece of equipment isn’t always the machine.
Sometimes it’s the experience of knowing what not to do.
If you have a question about upholstery cleaning, fabric care, stains or protecting your furniture, that’s exactly what Ask Alec is here for.