What is Microfibre Suede
People are too often confused by wordings used by manufacturers and when the term suede is used in conjunction with microfibre a lot of people believe they have a form of actual suede.
Microfibre suede is not even close to suede. It’s a synthetic manmade material all stitched together to provide a soft silky feel material that’s meant to resemble suede, but those who know suede, are aware it’s nothing like it at all, so this becomes confusing for the consumer.
The polyester threads are jointly sewn together, literally millions of fine strands to give a stain free surface, so manufacturers claim, the surface is designed to withstand staining due to how the polyesters are made.
Problems with microfibre suede is sweat from our skin, dried skin and grease from heads and hair dye, as well as fake tan.
All these problems can cause big issues with your microfibre materials, people don’t clean furniture as often as they should, leaving it and leaving it till it’s too late.
Keeping this man-made fabric in tip top shape is not that difficult at all, regular cleaning with warm water and a small amount of solution in the water is all that’s needed.
With any cleaning process also begin by vacuuming off your sofa, fabric or leather it’s the same process at the start, always remove as much debris as possible before you begin with any cleaning process. You don’t want to be cleaning lose dirt moving it around on the surface either.
To clean this material it’s easy, mix the lukewarm water together with the cleaning solution in a spray bottle and spray onto the surface. Work in full sections at a time not just the part that’s dirty, so always work with full cushions or arms, spray on the solution and agitate with a soft brush or rub over with a microfibre cloth something like a 350gsm cloth or 500gsm cloth.
The most affective method is spraying on the mixed solution allow to dwell for 30 seconds then agitate with a soft brush like a luxury horsehair brush and then vacuum off. Once you have vacuumed off the dirt and liquid make sure you smooth out the microfibre suede material again to ensure the fibres all lay in the correct direction.
Professional cleaning companies may use much quicker methods, by spraying on a cleaning solution and then steam cleaning to remove inground dirt and grime.
With this material if you over wet it when it’s dry, it goes harder to the touch, but that is easily resolved. Get a soft shoe brush and brush over all the polyesters to soften the fibres once again this will make it feel super soft and luxurious once again.
Always check your label before doing any cleaning on this type of faux material as some are okay to clean with water and others require solvent based cleaners to clean them, always check first as using water on a material that requires a solvent based cleaner could damage it, same as using a solvent on a product that states clean with water only.