Upholstery Cleaning
Sofas, armchairs, chaises longues & ottomans… the upholstery we have in our homes provides comfort & style.
Over time, sitting… lounging… adventuring… & sleeping will all eventually make their mark on your fabrics.
Upholstery cleaning is a specialist service. It requires a broad understanding of the many different fabric types that can go in to modern furniture making. Every week, we encounter materials that cannot be treated with water or are unsuitable for rinse extraction cleaning. Only by careful pre-testing can our technicians determine how best to treat your soft furnishings.
Technicians from Green Man are trained to deliver the correct procedure according to the type of fabric you have & the condition it is in.
How is upholstery professionally cleaned?
A typical deep-clean of a sofa will follow the method in the slides below –
- Pre-test fabric to determine whether it is suitable for deep-cleaning*
- Vacuum the fabric to remove dry/ loose soils
- Pre-treat any stains or problems areas
- Apply fabric specific pre-spray
- Agitate pre-spray manually
- Rinse extract all areas of the sofa, taking care not to over-wet
- Arrange cushions and ventilate space to encourage efficient drying
*Please note that owing to an increase in unstable fabric types, we will request as much information as possible prior to booking in a clean for you. Please try to determine what materials your fabric is made of and let us know, if you can.
Pre-testing the fabric 
Pre-vacuuming the fabric 
Applying the pre-spray 
Agitating the solution into the fabric 
Rinse extraction (or “steam cleaning”) 
The rinse extraction stage 
Final groom of the fabric 
A sofa after professional cleaning
Deep-cleaning rinse extraction can remove a huge amount of soiling. Our technicians are able to deep-clean pure cotton velvet upholstery. Even linen dining chairs can be significantly improved.
Professional Upholstery Cleaning – challenges for modern fabric restoration
Professional carpet & upholstery cleaning requires good initial training – for that, we are thankful to the National Carpet Cleaners Association. However, being trained is only the first step to being able to deliver a consistent & reliable service.
Before we attempt to clean any piece of upholstery, we need to determine whether it is suitable for rinse extraction cleaning (sometimes called steam cleaning). If it isn’t, then it may be that we need to consider low-moisture cleaning or dry cleaning it. The most well known water sensitive fabric is cotton velvet. Because of the way the pile is cut, the cotton fibres are prone to collapse, which is why a dry solvent clean is most usually specified. However, other water sensitive fibres exist which we regularly encounter.
The most notorious water sensitive fibre (in our opinion) is viscose. Often sold as a luxury fibre, it’s the product of an industrial process which creates a shiny but weak thread out of wood pulp. The result is a material that can respond to water like cardboard! If you are aware that your upholstery (or rug) contains more than a small amount of viscose, it is important you let us know.
Plant-based fibres such as cotton & linen are usually wet cleanable but, occasionally, we will find that a particularly batch of fabric or style of processing means that it is prone to water-marking. Thankfully, there are a number of ways to overcome this.
In summary, the initial pre-test is important. If you have any information from the point of purchase, this is also very useful.
If you have any specific questions about whether or not your upholstery can be safely cleaned, please just ask :)
Contact us today
We are happy to offer Blue Light card holders 15% off all services all year round (when over our minimum charge/ not in tandem with other offers). Simply email us a photograph of your card when booking & show your card to the technician on the day.
Blue Light Card provides those in the NHS, emergency services, social care sector and armed forces with discounts from a wide range of businesses.
Why Choose Green Man?
Green Man offer a professional upholstery service at an honest price.
In an area overcrowded with companies making unrealistic promises, and using methods often unsuitable for either the commercial or domestic customer, Green Man make a simple pledge to all our customers – we promise to deliver the right method of clean suitable to do the job properly every time.
As members of the National Carpet Cleaners Association, we take professional integrity seriously and offer an honour guarantee on every job we do: if you’re not happy with the work we’ve done, we’ll come back & sort it out as soon as possible for free!
“Green Man deliver powerful, sanitising solutions using eco-friendly technology”
Eco-friendly does not mean a compromise on results.
We constantly refine the range of products we use to be able to offer both our commercial & domestic customers an effective & environmentally sustainable solution.
- Clear commitment to use environmentally friendly solutions
- Traditional service values
- Wide range of treatments tailored to your needs, including deep-cleans, stain rescue, low moisture cleans & zero-drying time cleans
- 6 van team = responsiveness in time-sensitive situations & the workforce for large scale operations
- Powerful eco-solutions that continue to clean & outperform standard treatments, even after the work is done!
- Unbeatable and long-lasting results
- Fully trained and insured technicians
Please browse the articles below to hear about some of our recent projects.
More content can be found on our Case Studies page . . .
Successful clean of rugs, upholstery & wood flooring in Bath
We were contacted earlier this month by a customer in Bath who was looking to get a rug, upholstery & wooden floorboards cleaned. Because of the hard floor element of this request, we arranged a suitable time with the customer to pop in & carry out a short survey. These surveys are a great way … Read more
Great results on large commercial office chair clean in Bristol
Last week saw three of our technicians spend a very productive afternoon cleaning 147 commercial office chairs for a Bristol business. These chairs, known as task chairs are specialised office chairs built to offer support & comfort for working long hours, they are often a mixture of mesh, fabric & plastic. We had requested that … Read more
Excellent clean of Upholstery, Carpets & Wood Floor in Bristol
Yesterday saw our Bristol based technicians spend a busy day in Temple Cloud cleaning a variety of upholstery, carpets & wooden flooring. Due to the large amount of cleaning that was required, we had already been out to the property last week to carry out a short survey so that we knew exactly what to … Read more
Excellent results on domestic upholstery clean in Bristol
This week started with our Bristol technician, Grace carrying out a great clean on domestic upholstery in Long Ashton which consisted of a 2 seater & 5 seater sofa. Although there were no overall concerns with either sofa, the customer was looking to have them cleaner, fresher & sanitised! The first step in the cleaning … Read more
Great improvement made during upholstery clean in Bath
Last week saw our Bath based technician, Jake carry out some upholstery cleaning on a reasonably stained sofa. The stains were mainly caused by the customer using a water based vacuum to clean up spills which had left behind unsightly watermarks. The first thing Jake did on arrival was pre-test the fabric, this way he … Read more
Great results on domestic clean of carpets, rugs & upholstery in Bristol
The start of a new week saw our technician Pete, carry out a domestic clean of carpets, rugs & upholstery in Knowle, Bristol. There were no reported issues or concerns with any of the items but with a large 2 seater sofa, 4 rugs & the carpets on the stairs & landing, Pete had a … Read more
