Can I get my faux suede sofa clean?

I will cover five things in this article that will help you decide to try yourself or get someone trained.

1. Price and cost of a professional sofa clean ( we all know it matters with the current climate )
2. Things we can try ourselves at home compared to what a professional does to clean your faux suede sofa.
3. Issues and problems that may arise. ( We don’t want to go in going in blind )
4. Some good questions to ask yourself before cleaning your Suede sofa. 
5. Look for Reviews. 

So I will start with the most important thing to us all:

1. Price and cost of a professional sofa cleaning compared to doing it yourself.

• Professional Cost:

I’m going to go by what we do at Art of Clean. Let’s not forget that with all our prices, the most important thing we offer is the love, care and attention we give to all our customers’ needs.

We would get a customer call in or email, and the first thing our amazing girls in the office would do is ask what the material is. Sometimes the customer isn’t sure. In this case, more often than not, they aren’t sure if it’s Suede or Faux Suede. We will ask them to send us a picture. As you can imagine, a picture doesn’t always show what we need depending on the image taken or how we receive it.

With this type of material, even with a picture, we would send a technician to do a patch test first. Once we are confident we can do the cleaning, we will do a quote.

We do two Quotes:

• Clean Only
• Clean & Protect.

To give you an idea, examples of our prices from a lower price to an upper price:

• Domestic Upholstery – footstool, Clean Only: incl tax £40.42
• Domestic Upholstery – footstool, Clean & Protect: incl tax £56.10
• Domestic Upholstery – 5 seater sofa, Clean Only: incl tax £ 393.85
• Domestic Upholstery – 5 seater sofa, Clean & Protect: incl tax £441.83

• Doing it yourself:

Doing the job ourselves, you could have to do the labour yourself, so your time is the cost. You would need to decide what the material is, and then you would need all the correct products and equipment.

2. Things we can try ourselves at home compared to what a professional does to clean your faux suede sofa.

Ourselves:

• Wipe with a slightly damp cloth:

Wipe the suede with a slightly damp cloth to eliminate as much dirt and dust as possible. Please avoid getting the suede too wet.

• Dealing with old stains:

A little trick I have seen for dry stains, use a pencil eraser to rub the area gently, and it should remove the stains. You can buy erasers specialising in cleaning suede, but the pencil eraser should work similarly.

• Stain removals on suede:

Many brands produce specialised suede cleaners. We always recommend testing on a hidden sofa piece. Follow the cleaning instructions on the product you buy. Once you have cleaned the test area, remove as much moisture as possible. You then leave for 15-20 minutes to ensure the product does no damage before doing the whole sofa.

• Brushing a Suede sofa:

Everywhere I have looked, it says that gently brushing will make it look gorgeous again. So, after you have done your cleaning, brush in gentle circular motions. In the areas where you have had to remove stains, you may need to apply a little pressure.

Professional:

I thought the best way for you to see this is through a video that our excellent colleague Pierre has done.

( I know you have a hectic day, so this video may help you clean your sofa and show you what we do. )

3. Issues and problems that may arise. ( We don’t want to go in going in blind )

Both faux suede and suede are delicate materials, and you risk doing damage if you are unsure what you are doing. Water damage is the most common damage to this material, which is why when cleaning this type of material, we always do a dry clean, not wet.

Some cleaning solutions can be too acidic for the material and leave dark patches if you are not careful. I have seen a home remedy of diluted white vinegar. Remember, acidic solutions can eat away the material if not used correctly.

Oil and crayons can damage, and knowing how to remove them correctly is vital to successfully cleaning.

Whilst it may be cheaper for you to do it yourself, the cost of buying a sofa if you mess up is a far greater cost than calling someone.

4. Some good questions to ask before cleaning your Suede sofa:

If you’re going to attempt it yourself:

• Do you know if it is Suede or Faux Suede?
• Do you have the right solutions for the type of suede you have?
• Do you have the correct equipment to do the cleaning?
• Do you have the confidence that you know what you are doing?

Have you answered No to any of the questions? Then ask the professionals for advice.

Things to ask a professional:

• How long has your company been doing this?
• Are all your staff trained and up to date in cleaning various materials?

5. Look for reviews: 

Another article you may like to read:

Help your sofa live longer

Written by Tracey Gilbey, Marketing

For further advice or information on our Carpet and Soft Furnishing care, please don’t hesitate to contact the Art of Clean team on 01223 901549 in Cambridge. Our services include Carpet Cleaning, Upholstery Cleaning, oriental and area Rug Cleaning, Curtain Cleaning, Patio and Driveway Pressure washing, Leather Cleaning, Stone and Tile Floor Cleaning and Wood Floor Sanding and Restoration. We also supply new flooring and carpets through our sister company Art of Flooring. Farthings Cambridge provides our Dry Cleaning service.