White canvas papasan couch

[Grant D.]

I cleaned 2 white papasan couches for a friend recently.  I used encap green and pre scrubbed with my drill driver and tuway pads and rinsed with my uph spotter.

Talked to my friend this morning and the smaller papasan chair is great, the larger one is great on one side, but the bottom side has browned, and has white lines where it touches the bamboo underneath. 

I take it this is a classic case of browning due to taking too long to dry that side? In reading a thread below here it appears I didn't use the best pre-spray for this piece, but it seems to have worked fine on all but one side of one piece.

My question, is what should I do to fix it?  Will any of these work?

1. Re-clean the browned side with this product, which I just happen to have laying around and has a ph below 7.
http://coreproductsco.com/index.php/Concentrated_Cleaner
2.  If I can't use that, there is a janitorial store in town that should have something in stock I can get.  Should I look for "haitian cotton" shampoo?  Or dry foam shampoo?

After re-cleaning that side I'll speed dry it with fans and return.  Any ideas or things I should avoid doing are appreciated!

• 

[Mike Charles]

It may also be from the bamboo.

We have found that bamboo and wicker wick (sorry) a lot when exposed to moisture.

We moved a lady's wicker basket from the floor, and saw a bright orange stain. When we asked, she didn't even know that it was there. She had SS clean before, and then she put the wicker basket back. It was a plain basket, no staining or tanning. We got the area to lighten up, but it was just like a furniture stain.

Since then, we have been really leary of any bamboo or wicker, and even block them in place before we prespray as a precaution.

You may want to treat this as such if your browning treatment doesn't correct the problem.

[Mike M]

Grant - I don't think I would use the core product. If you are looking locally get the Haitian cotton cleaner and speed dry the piece.

Mike also has some excellent points.

I think your process was all good until you got to the HWE part. What did you use in the machine? Did you use extra dry strokes? Fan?

[Grant D.]

From the description, where the cushion was touching the bamboo is white, and the other parts are browned.. Could be a better problem than stain from the bamboo?

I tried doing extra dry strokes but I remember being nervous about the amount of water being used.  I wasn't able to speed dry since I had to leave when done with the couch, customer only had one fan and placed it on the smaller papasan, which coincidentally is the one that this did not happen to. 

So it sounds like I should try the following:
1. Go buy some haitian cotton shampoo.
2. Re-clean and shampoo
3. HWE rinse.  Extra dry strokes
3. Speed dry.

Is that the best product to use? 
http://www.chemspecworld.com/catalog_browse.asp?ictNbr=242
I think the place near me will have this or something similar.  Can this kind of stuff be put in a sprayer or do I need to mix and leave in a bucket and dip horsehair brush into foam?

[Mike M]

Grant - Skip the HWE and just go with the shampoo and speed dry.

I used the Chemspec product you posted years ago. If its the same formula then it will work fine.

[micky navarro]

the problem lies in the water used. both mike c and mike m bring valid solutions.

another thing to consider is be sure its not the beginning stages of mold growth.
i had wicker baskets holding potted plants and they turned deep brown from mold!!

[Grant D.]

I re-cleaned them yesterday.  The supply house near me didn't have any cotton shampoo the only thing they had that said it could be used to correct browning was Envirox Carpet Complete.  I think it's ph is about 6 to 6.5.  I mixed it fairly strong. I spent a lot of time on these things yesterday afternoon, this stuff is really hard to get rid of.  Looking at them this morning looks like the problem is about 95% solved, but if I get right up to them I can still see a tiny bit of the issue there.

I think I'm going to offer to re-do them again in a couple weeks. I'm going down to take the Uph. class at Jon Don next week so I can get some of the haitian shampoo there.  Do you guys think that will work better/easier/faster?

[Mike M]

Probably?

There are other things you can do to correct browning. You'll learn that at class and I'm sure they carry the products you will need.

[Grant D.]

Well I gave them back and told her that I wanted to do them again in a couple weeks after I get the haitian shampoo, but the lady was thrilled.  Well I started with a black papasan that was supposed to be white, and now we have a white papasan that's basically been cleaned 3 times with a very very small amount of browning.  So I guess alls well that ends well for now.  Would have been nice to get this one after taking the class...

But heck if the class just scares the heck out of me I might just quit doing upholstery.

[Mike M]

It won't. ................You just went through almost as bad as it gets.

The only thing worse is that the customer isn't happy and you have to buy them something new.

[Mo]

Wat to go Grant. You hung in there till you got it right. I'm sure the customer really appreciated that.