What We Won't Clean, and Why: Silk, Viscose, Leather

Most cleaning websites tell you what they can do. This is the other list. We'd rather say no now than take the job, take your money and hand back a piece that's worse than when we arrived.

Fabrics we don't clean at all

Leather

Not cleaning, not restoring, not reconditioning. Leather needs its own products and its own trade; the wet-extraction method that works on fabric is the wrong tool for it. A leather sofa, a leather armchair, a leather-topped bench — we'll point you to someone who does leather.

Silk, viscose, bamboo silk, art silk

Silk and anything with viscose in it — sold as bamboo silk, art silk, faux silk, banana silk, rayon — shrink, bleed dye and can go stiff or yellow when they get wet. They need a shop with machines that wash, wring and dry the piece immediately. Nobody can do that safely in a living room, and we won't pretend otherwise.

Fabrics we clean with a smaller promise

Wool

We clean wool — rugs, some sofas — and the result is usually more modest than on synthetic. Wool holds dye loosely and dislikes strong chemistry, so we use less of it. Fresher and cleaner, yes; a set-in stain, maybe not.

Cotton and linen

A gentle refresh only. Dust, grit, bacteria and whatever else is living in the fabric come out. The chemistry strong enough to break down an old stain would wreck the fabric, so we don't use it. Cotton also browns and yellows from the inside as it ages, and that's permanent — a cotton mattress with a yellow patch isn't dirty, it's old.

Stains no chemistry brings back

Some of what looks like a stain isn't dirt — it's the fiber itself. Dye lifted out by a spill or a store-bought spot cleaner. Color faded by the sun where the arm of the sofa faces the window. Damage locked in by a rental machine that ran too wet and set the mark into the backing. Once the fiber has changed, no chemistry brings it back, and we'll tell you which kind of mark you have before we start.

What we do promise: the right chemistry for your fabric and your stain, the whole piece cleaned edge to edge, and the price you saw before we arrived. If a spot appears or comes back within 48 hours, we come back and re-clean it for free.

Jobs that belong to another trade

• Reupholstery and furniture restoration
• Pressure washing and window washing
• Curtains and drapes
• Car interiors
• Hard floors
• Headboards and bed frames

Not because they're hard — because they're a different job with different tools, and doing them badly with ours helps nobody.

Not sure what your fabric is?

Look for the tag under a cushion or on the back of the rug. If there isn't one, send us a photo of the fabric up close and one of the back or the underside — the weave usually gives it away. We identify the fiber before we choose the chemistry on every job anyway; doing it before you book just saves a trip.

Sofa & upholstery cleaning — full page and prices