Monday, 24 November 2014

New sofa for Christmas? Beware the damage that a simple water spill can do to rayon/viscose upholstery

 

Viscose, aka rayon, has become a popular upholstery choice for sofas because of its silky softness and vibrant colour choice.  It is also a cheaper fabric to produce so you'll find many more affordable sofas are upholstered in viscose pile material.  Naturally, these factors have swayed a number of excited buyers to indulge in a sofa upholstered in viscose.

So whats the problem?

Well, firstly we need to briefly understand the make-up of viscose.  It is make from cellulose produced from wood pulp.  Through manufacturing, a fibrous product is produced - viscose.

Its beautiful shine and luster looks great on the sofa, however there are some drawbacks:

Water, or any other liquid is spilt on the sofa the fabric will swell the fibers massively.  Even when dired the fabric will sustain its new enlarged dimensions.  The issue of this expansion is that the fabric actually becomes much more light reflective in its engorged state.  This will ultimately mean your sofa will develop an imbalanced appearance with patches of different colour.

If you have children, or have children visit your home regularly, this may become a real issue.  After spending a good sum of money on a lovely new sofa for your home you may find it very quickly looking worn and not so attractive.  Which leads us on to the next issue:

Dry Cleaning - Due to the fabrics aversion to moisture the upholstery requires dry cleaning only.  This skilled cleaning will need to be done by a professional so whenever your sofa needs a little sprucing up you will have to pay the price.

So just be aware, because your beautiful and affordable priced sofa may start to become a bit of a practical and financial burden.  We are a specialist cleaning company in Cambridge who provide an upholstery dry cleaners service, if you have any questions or concerns about your upholstered sofa and its cleaning needs feel free to call us for advice on 01223 863632 or see our website www.artofclean.co.uk to find out more.


We are a professional cleaning company who specialise in Upholstery Cleaning, Leather Furniture Cleaning  Hardwood Floor Cleaning, Stone floor Cleaning, Carpet Cleaning, and Rug Cleaning for domestic and commercial clients.  We work through out Cambridgeshire, Essex, Suffolk and Hertfordshire.