cleaning stain/watermark from the cream upholstery

[Paul J]

we spilled boiling hot coffee on the cream seat cover of our 2018 RT T590, the coffee was tough enough to get off, took bleach in the end, more worrying was the rather strange blue-ish watermark stain, I guess it may well be time to price up a new cushion, just wondered if anyone has any experience with this issue, and any possible solution ?

many thanks

 

[Figaro]

I think you're correct, price up replacement.
The bleach has taken the colour out of it.
Is it leather or the plasticised type leather ?
Get you're credit card out for a new one.

 

[Paul J]

thanks for your reply, however, the strange thing is, that's not the area we cleaned with bleach. I'm guessing that water has got into the seam where the bead is, at the lowest point, soaked into the foam somehow (which is odd, because we used very little water) and come back out in this rather uniform shape. It's PVC artificial material. I must say, somehow I'm surprised, I thought that due to the fact they're not leather, they would be pretty easy to clean, I guess this is a tough stain in the first instance, but this even discolouration is just strange

agreed though, credit card is ready, hope it's not too painful, what would you guess, £100 ish ? it's just the zip-on cover, the foam survived

 

[Figaro]

Maybe the bleach released chemicals in the foam that reacted and caused discolouration ?
Either way I don't think it'll come back sadly.
No idea on cost.

 

[Paul J]

ok, I'll price up a new cover on Monday morning, thanks for the replies

...... and I'll start drinking water instead of coffee !

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[Southdowners]

What a nuisance!

The fabric would be liable to split at the point where the cushion dips and the bead is positioned. This being the case I think the discolouration could be due to some sort of strengthening material underneath. Can you unzip and make sure it’s dry underneath? It could just be possible that the liquid went through the stitching at the bead and into the absorbent strengthening below which would account for the regular shape.

Good luck!

 

[Paul J]

sure, I have the cover off, at the point of the bead, that lowest point, the foam inside is split, and theres a length of fabric running vertically down through the slit in the foam, and it has a plastic part on the underneath, kind of shoved through and popped out of the underside, that holds the shape of the cushion, that length of fabric could easily have become uniformly wet and the moisture then come back up..... it's also a strip of the brown fabric (inside) which probably didn't help matters. I guess I'm clutching at straws, but when we were bleaching the coffee stain, we noticed this uniform mark, and made a point of bleaching just part of that mark, the bleach wouldn't touch it

 

[Wagoneer]

We had to replace the seat cushion in our 8 year old German van. The converter gave us the name of the company who makes all their upholstery.

Whilst touring Germany we visited this company. They made up a new cushion within 3 days, using the original foam. Total cost about £230 which we thought was quite a good price as the cushion was quite a complicated shape and comprised a mix of fabric and imitation leather.

Your cushion looks quite a standard shape by comparison so should be much cheaper to replace.

 

[Southdowners]

Sounds like there’s been a chemical reaction then. It’s never a good idea to use bleach on synthetic fabrics.

It’s a shame it’s not just a flat surface as it would have just wiped clean. I suppose the manufactures thought it would look stylish without a thought to practicality.

 

[Paul J]

thanks Wagoneer, hopefully it won't be too bad. I remember getting a price for just the OEM cover for a Vauxhall Astra Estate about 20 years ago, Vauxhall wanted over £600 ! (thats not the seat, just the fabric cover) ..... shame when they see fit to rip you off for something that can clearly only fit their vehicle, at the end of the day, we did them a favour by buying their product, I think that replacement parts should be at least 'reasonable' rather then them taking advantage. It would be hilarious to price up a vehicle by having the computer add up the entire individual parts cost !

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[Paul J]

Southdowners, no, it's not the bleach, the actually coffee stain was only on one end, and the bleach was applied with a pastry brush, and kept to a minimum, them wiped off just that area, thats the reason I thought it was strange, anyway, no point crying over spilt coffee, I'll get over it, could have been worse, could have been my beer !

 

[BobtheBass]

Whilst out sea fishing in my boat once I got bored and added up the cost of building the 36hp Diesel engine (original cost £3,500) from spare parts using the parts price list I had. I gave up when it got to more than £25,000!!

 

[Paul J]

£695 per hp ? that's not a cheap engine

so, on the boat, did you just wait until it drifted ashore ? - or indeed, are you back yet ?

 

[Paul J]

I decided to soak the cover with water from the front and back, I noticed some similar darkening of the top surface, so I threw the lot in the washer on a rinse and spin, it's out and hanging over the maiden, the jury is still out, but somehow it looks for the moment a whole lot better

 

[BobtheBass]

I think I'm in Polynesia somewhere..........

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[Paul J]

isn't Polynesia the art of putting Parrots to sleep ?

 

[Lenny HB]

I decided to soak the cover with water from the front and back, I noticed some similar darkening of the top surface, so I threw the lot in the washer on a rinse and spin, it's out and hanging over the maiden, the jury is still out, but somehow it looks for the moment a whole lot better

Fingers crossed

Our Hymer has a similar material, their Ecotech one, they say to clean it with dilute bleach.

 

[Bustup15]

I decided to soak the cover with water from the front and back, I noticed some similar darkening of the top surface, so I threw the lot in the washer on a rinse and spin, it's out and hanging over the maiden, the jury is still out, but somehow it looks for the moment a whole lot better

Hi @Paul J try googling FurnitureClinic, it's a Newcastle based company who specialise in repairs. My Jaguar dashboard had an unfortunate encounter with our parrot - don't ask! Jaguar quoted £1300 for a complete dash section, F.C. Techician spent 5 minutes evaluating the damage, strip out complete dash (full width of car), strip off fabric cover which it turns out is some form of vinyl and not leather, replace cover and rebuild for under £300.
Note I haven't had this work done yet but they have a great reputation for restoring designer handbags nationwide service ad well as furniture.
May be worth shipping them the complete cushion to evaluate It?

 

[Paul J]

Thanks for that Bustup, would be interesting to know how you get on with that, and sure, I'll note their details, sounds a useful company

 

[Paul J]

Looks like a rinse and spin in the washer has sorted it, hopefully it won’t reappear once dry, I’ll post a photo when it’s dry

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