Are you buying a sofa, rug or carpet?

What to look for when buying new soft furnishings

How is it going to be used, and will it respond well to cleaning?

The following information are opinions gleaned from a quarter of a century in the soft furnishing cleaning industry.

Fabrics

Fabric specifiers are over reliant on rub test counts, or commercial/domestic ratings when assessing how appropriate fabrics are for a given environment. These ratings are not an indication of how well a material will respond to cleaning, and can also be misleading for wear tolerance

Plant based fibres

Natural.

Cotton, linen, hemp & jute have excellent breathability and are nice to look at and sit in but be aware they will stain more easily and there are less options for treating those stains. They are far less forgiving than synthetics if cleaning is not performed on a regular basis.

Regenerated fibres

Viscose is the dominant regenerated fibre and is often marketed as sustainable because it is produced by processing wood pulp, a process which involves extremely hazardous chemicals, making workers sick and damaging the environment. Real life performance of the viscose fibre is extremely poor. Viscose can demonstrate impressive rub test results in the lab but any hint of humidity such as warm bodies, or humid weather will see performance plummet. To make things worse it is extremely absorbent (which you would know had you ever tried to dry bamboo socks), but if left wet for too long will brown.

Viscose has been renamed many times in an exercise in obfuscation.

Rayon, art silk, bamboo silk, Tencel, Modal and Lyocell are derived from wood pulp and best avoided.

Wool felts vary enormously. You want the felt to be quite dense. Lightly felted wool feels nice and soft, but the face yarn will wear quickly on frequently used surfaces exposing what should be the backing fabric. A good quality wool fabric can be extremely durable.

Applying quality fabric protection to fabrics containing natural fibres makes them less absorbent, and therefore less likely to stain and increases the efficiency of cleaning. Only WoolSafe approved products like PSP Decorgard should be used on wool. Traditional protectors on wool can increase soiling. 

Synthetic fibres like acrylic, polyester and polypropylene can be cleaned with a wide variety of products. Oily type spills like ointments and oily food are the most likely cause of stains as the oil absorbs into the fibre. Fabric protection helps prevent this from happening.

Rugs

Do yourself a favour and avoid long shaggy rugs. These cannot be vacuumed efficiently and if they need to be cleaned you have to take them to a rug laundry, which is expensive.

Viscose rugs can look amazing, but they are also impracticable. They are extremely absorbant so are easily stained, do not handle traffic and become fragile when wet. They should not be used in high traffic areas.

If you must have one then we strongly advise having a high quality fibre protector applied to improve it’s cleaning response.

Woven wool rugs are the best. They naturally repel soil and traffic well. Avoid really long pile, if you can.

Wool carpet is still the premium carpet for most situations. It is the most resilient fibre and resist general soil better than synthetic fibres. But, it is much more vulnerable to spills and accidents. If you have indoor pets it is usually safer to go with a synthetic.

Just a note on the current trend, big loop pile wool. This is harder to vacuum, treat accidents and clean in general. Looks great but we wouldn't recommend for the home.

Some wool carpet has viscose added for a bit of lustre. Don’t go there. See viscose rugs above.

Synthetic carpets are generally trouble free but do tend to distort and become matted in traffic zones long before wool in a similar situation.

A good quality, solution died nylon should still give years of service and be able to cope with a variety of accidents

When disaster strikes

Nothing causes a panic like a spill on the new couch. OR it may be the freshly laid carpet.

The automatic reaction these days is to Google a solution. Beware - the internet is a dangerous place! There is some good advice there, but even more really bad advice.

DO NOT EVER

• use bicarb or borax on wool or other natural fibres. If the stain is wet you will have yellow carpet as bicarb is way too alkaline.
• rub or scrub aggressively, this turns wool to felt, damages most natural fibres, deforms finer synthetic fibres etc
• put salt on wine spills! It may absorb some of the wine, but it helps the remnants penetrate more deeply. 
• use WD40 to remove pen, blutak or anyting else from fabrics. It will quite likely work. But it will also leave you with a permanent oily shadow.

DO’s

Liquid spills

Soak up as soon as possible. Gently press down on the spill with  paper towel, colour fast fabric towel or microfibre. Keep replacing towels as they get wet.

Apply more pressure as the spot gets dryer. If carpet is drenched try soaking up by standing on a towel over the spill. You are trying to remove as much liquid as possible.

Finally apply a quality cleaning product like ACCI No Rinse Spotter. Try to blend out the moisture rather than making a really wet in one spot. Blot away with clean cloths.

Solids

Use a blunt knife or scraper to remove. Follow with dry towel and press down to absorb moisture.

Spray on quality product like ACCI No Rinse Spot Cleaner, try to blend out the moisture, and blot away.

Remember some carpets/ fabrics may be prone to colour loss or browning when wet for too long, so use as little moisture as you can. Don’t worry too much about granular lumps, these can likely be vacuumed out when dry.

Large, hot, very acidic or alkaline spills can stain very quickly. If it has stained you will not be able to remove it so there is no point getting more aggresive.  It is important to remove the spill quickly as the longer it’s in there the darker the stain gets. Many stains can be treated later but damage from a mad panic cannot!