Furniture Polish On Aniline Suite

[Daren Morrish]

After some advice regarding the following:

Recently had a call to clean an expensive Aniline suite. On trying to clean the suite the LTT aniline cleaner simply sat on the surface of the leather. When trying to clean there was some very minor dirt / colour removal despite obvious 'dirty areas' on the leather.

It transpires that the owners cleaner had been spraying and wiping the suite down with 'furniture polish' over a fair period of time. I guess that a waxy kind of film is now sitting on top of the aniline, preventing me from cleaning the leather below.

Am i talking sense here and if so what would be the solution?

Cheers Daren

 

[Judy Bass]

If the furniture polish contained silicones then it will have sealed the leather and this will be impossible to remove. If the leather has been sealed then the dirt underneath will be sealed in but any dirt sitting in the surface can be removed. You could use Deep Clean as the leather is not absorbing the cleaner!!
Are the areas of dirt 'stains'? Pictures might help
Hope this helps
Judyb

 

[Alan Lui]

I hate silicones, they are in so many products you wouldn't expect, sent by the devil to wear us down.....

 

[Mark Roberts]

I wouldn't waste any time on it, more likely your make it worse and end up owning it.

 

[Judy Bass]

As long as you have done your tests and explained to the customer what the problem is you are very unlikely to make it worse if it is an aniline.
This us where your pre assessment and discussion with your customer is all important.
The problem has been created by them so don't own it
Cheers
Judyb

 

[Mark Roberts]

That would depend on who you're insured with, when I covered the south west for independent inspections the jobs i saw where a cleaner had made a customer created problem worse were near instant payouts. Any job you take on becomes your responsibility, last person to touch it becomes liable, many insurance companies are never interested in waivers sadly and fall over themselves to pay out these days.

IF you do make it worse the customer will have a fairy easy claim if they wish, consider your options carefully Daren if you're in doubt.

 

[Alan Lui]

I agree with both above.

my take is if you've been trained and have experience in the actual field, you will have a good idea of whats involved and the capable scope of works. if not you are on very dodgy ground.
I have written many disclaimers, outlining areas of concern and signed by the client if they still want the work to proceed, although if this would save me in a court of law if the client tried it on? has to be seen and tested in that situation hopefully not be me.?
Nowdays if they look dodgy I just walk and leave it to others.

i have in the past been stung by this issue, although my choice... i went to restore micro pigemented (semi aniline or what evr you want to call it) furniture etc etc, couldn't get dyes to absorb in anything like even, to me looked horrible..... after a long time and after interrogation of the clients, I finally found out that many nasty substances had either been, rubbed , sprayed or left to absorb from many different sources, including, waxes and silicones and some obscure substance bought off the internet....

I could of left it at that, and just lost the time effort and products I had used, but i didn't fancy the thought of trying to defend myself if they changed their minds after i left and tried it on. so i bought it, it wasn't restored i just stripped it recovered in fabric and got rid.

the choice is yours.

 

[Ian Hare]

Nice professional post Alan.

 

[Daren Morrish]

Thanks for all the informative reply's folks,

Daren