Leather Cleaning
This particular suite was cleaned in-situ in a new house. With this system of cleaning there is no mess that will contaminate other furnishings.
The smoke smell can be removed by another process by placing the suite in an ozone chamber
After cleaning the suite was almost like new considering the amount of soot etc on the surface.
The cleaning method used is Dry foam. 90% of the work is done by machine and the remainder of the cleaning done by hand.
Finally Leather protection cream is applied. The suite can be used immediately.
Cleaning a leather suite is not that difficult. The majority of leather out there is pigmented which means it has a top clear finish.
You are really only cleaning the dirt off the finish, not into the leather itself. The trick when cleaning is not to remove the top finish which will expose the pigment below.
I have been cleaning suites now for over 13 years.
The chair on the right is dirty and the one on the left has just been cleaned. The colour difference is due to the sweat that attracts normal dirt from the air and clothing, wiping with a wet cloth will not remove the dirt. When cleaned the leather feels softer and is not shiny.
This 3pc suite was cleaned by machine and took 3 hours.
Many types of care kit are sold on TV sales channels with wonderful claims but they will not clean dirty leather.
Problem Leather
In the news page I mentioned magic creams that are used to put a new look on a leather suite.
This suite was darker on the facing leather and lighter on the guzzets and outer frame. From testing the colour that was left, this suite had been re-sprayed but the colour was not top finished (sealed). A damp cloth removed colour. The suite was bought second hand? (chair only shown) and the new owner who did not know this had been re-coloured, decided to get the suite cleaned.
Unfortunately for the Person cleaning, instead of removing what he thought was dirt, also removed the colour. Not all cleaners know about leather or even test the leather prior to starting but carry on regardless. The settee was damaged further, as efforts were made to remove the 'dirt' the actual leather surface was damaged causing delamination.
The cost of repairing and re-colouring properly was not an option as this would be more than was paid for the suite. I found out much later that the person who cleaned the suite had to pay back all the money that the customer spent.