Caring for Leather FurnitureTips on Cleaning Vinyl…from the mourge?

 Was reminded of these good vinyl cleaing tips by my friend Jeff at the local mortuary.  I stop by the place once a month or so to clean up some folding vinyl chairs they have on site.  The chairs are a very light and made of vinyl.  They end up with "mysterious" ink marks on them and Jeff can’t get them out.  Well he went through the progression of how he cleans the vinyl and I said that’s exactly right.  So courtesy of Jeff, here’s a few tips on cleaning vinyl (Be sure you’ve read or watched the other articles on how to tell the difference between vinyl and leather).  

   When cleaning vinyl start with a mild cleaner and progress toward a stronger one.  In most cases, vinyl will not be harmed even by a strong cleaner.  Certainly pretest any cleaner somewhere that is not visible.  To pretest put a little of the cleaner on a white rag, rub it on the hidden area and look at the rag again.  If you’re showing color on the rag then don’t use the cleaner.  But in  most cases on vinyl it’s not a problem.  So heres’s the progression:

  1. You can start with a mild leather or dishsoap cleaner.  Place it on the cloth and rub over the stain. 
  2.  If that doesn’t take out the stain, add some abrasive power.  Use a stiff nylon bristle brush or ultrafine scotchbrite pad and the same mild cleaner.  Rub in the cleaner with the brush or pad. 
  3. No success.  Move to a stronger household cleaner like Simple Green.  Again pretest.  Again try just the cleaner and then the cleaner with the brush. 
  4. No luck still..   Move to the big guns.  Try Isopropyl Alcohol.  You can just use rubbing alcohol from the medicine cupboard too.  Use it the same way; first pretest, then use on a cloth, then use with a brush. 
  5. Is that stubborn stain still staring at you.  Sorry it’s probably a transfer of some sort of dye from ink, blue jeans or print material.  In that case you need to call someone like me to take care of this for you.  We can block the stain and redye the area back to the original. 

Thanks for the article idea Jeff.  Glad to see you but also happy to walk out of the mortuary too. 🙂

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