How Do I Deal With Affected Upholstery Items During Water Cleanup In My Queens Home?

6/9/2020 (Permalink)

Saving items affected during water spills helps reduce the cost of restoration.

SERVPRO Can Help Perform the Necessary Cleaning and Drying to Restore Them to the Pre-loss State in Queens

After a water spill, you may expect cleanup only to involve mopping wet surfaces and drying wet contents. However, many incidents turn into full-blown cleaning exercise where you have to resolve several issues to restore your Queens home to its preloss state.  If a burst pipe sprays water on upholstery items, various cleaning challenges can arise.

How does water affect upholstery items necessitating cleaning?

For successful water cleanup in your Queens property, preparation is crucial. When you involve our SERVPRO crews, part of preparation goes towards predicting what sort of problems the exposure to water is likely to cause. Typical issues include:
    •    Browning
    •    Material Shrinkage
    •    Bleeding of dyes
    •    Water spots

The problems mostly develop due to the exposure of items to significant amounts of water, or if the items are soaked over extended periods. Alternatively, materials dissolved in the water can be deposited in the materials of the upholstered items, soiling them.

Why does browning happen?

Some upholstery items have sections made from cellulose fiber fabrics such as raw cotton. A combination of factors can lead to browning. When such material is over wet or dried slowly, browning can happen. Another common reason for browning is the use of alkaline cleaning products in the process of removing other forms of soiling since the alkali reacts with the material. Luckily, it is possible to prevent browning by thoroughly rinsing the material after cleaning. Our SERVPRO technicians also expedite the drying process, especially by using air movers.

In case some browning still happens even with the preventive steps, we can use different approaches to rectify the problem, thus saving your item. We can rinse the material with an acidic rinsing solution to counter the effects of alkaline cleaning agents. Alternatively, we re-clean the item with specially formulated detergents.

Do upholstery items always bleed when exposed to water?

If your items bleed after exposure to water, there is a high chance cleaning cannot resolve the issue, so other forms of repair such as resurfacing may be necessary. The good news is that it takes more than just water exposure for dyes to bleed. The most likely reasons for such outcomes include:
    •    Colorfastness of the fabric
    •    Aggressive cleaning method such as pressure washing with over 200psi
    •    Exposing the material to strong alkaline or acidic products

Apart from ruining the item, bleeding also transfers problems to other items. For instance, if the furniture sits on a carpeted area, or is in contact with other fabrics such as draperies, the dyes can stain the other items. Our SERVPRO technicians help in many ways, including using hydrogen peroxide, chlorine bleach, or other products to try to reverse the damage if minimal areas are affected. We also use manual corrective methods such as subjecting the area to high-pressure air, which can help force the dye into the fabric backing.

How do water spots develop?

It may seem ironic that water, which is used widely for cleaning, can also cause some problems. Water spots mainly develop because water contains some impurities such as minerals or other microscopic particles. The spots are more pronounced when the exposure only affects sections of an item. The spots could appear as a collection of circles if the exposure happens through sprinkling or large patches of discoloration when there is significant exposure.

In many cases, water spots develop when items are left to dry undisturbed. Therefore, the cleanup and other restoration steps that our SERVPRO technicians take help diminish the chances of water spots developing. We can also take specific cleanup steps to remove them once they develop. We can re-wet the item and clean it from scratch. Since residues dissolved in water are the main problem, we use alternatives such as distilled water when cleaning.

Can cleaning processes lead to physical changes?

Careful handling of upholstery items such as furniture is necessary to avoid damages. Actions such as moving items and actual cleaning steps such as agitation can result in physical damages. One likely form of physical damage is shrinkage of material, especially in furniture skirts or cushions. Our technicians handle items carefully to prevent such outcomes. We can also take steps to resolve shrinkage, in case it happens. Steaming the shrunken material while slightly tugging it helps resolve the problem.

Saving items affected during water spills helps reduce the cost of restoration. Call SERVPRO of Long Island City at (917) 793-0419 to help restore any damage to your items, “Like it never even happened.”