Stain removal from sofas, carpets and mattresses

A stain and general soiling are different jobs. Soiling is even and comes out when the whole surface is cleaned. A stain is local, and cleaning only the stain does not work: the treated patch ends up lighter than the rest of the fabric, and instead of a stain you have a patch of another colour.

So stain removal here always means cleaning the whole item: the sofa, the carpet, the mattress or the chair.

What it costs

The price does not depend on how difficult the stain is — it is per item: sofa from UAH 1,299, carpet and fitted carpet UAH 130 per square metre, mattress from 600 per side, dining chair 199, armchair 450. The minimum order is UAH 2,000.

What comes out

• Coffee, tea, juice, wine — dye in the fibre: fresh ones lift completely, old ones may leave a shadow.
• Grease and hand marks — on armrests and backs they come out well.
• Blood and sweat — protein: treated cold only, since hot water fixes them for good.
• Urine — salts: the mark goes, and the smell goes with the salts, sometimes over two passes.

What does not

Hair dye, iodine, ink and marker, sun bleaching, and any stain that has already been attacked with household chemicals and rubbed. That last one is the commonest reason we decline: a rubbed stain is larger than the original and the fibre is already damaged.

What to do before we arrive

One thing: blot, do not rub. A dry light-coloured cloth pressed onto the stain takes most of the liquid before it reaches the filling. Rubbing does the opposite — it drives the liquid deeper and widens the edge.

Do not apply heat: no iron, no hairdryer, no hot water. Heat sets protein and some dyes, and after that cleaning no longer helps.

A fresh stain and a day-old one

The difference between them is larger than the difference between two liquids. While the stain is wet it sits in the top layer of the fibre and extraction takes it out completely. Once dry, the dye is fixed and the liquid has reached the filling — and then it is two cleans with drying in between, not one.

So calling on the day costs the same as calling a week later, but the first result is predictable and the second is not.

How to book

Describe the stain and the item in the upholstery cleaning form — that way the cleaner brings the right product rather than a general one. Prices are on the upholstery cleaning prices page; the items are sofa, carpet and mattress.

Questions and answers