Caring for Leather FurnitureCleaning your own leather furniture vs. hiring a leather pro.


thanks to www.jaymar.ca for the leather furniture picture

     This article will help you decide when to clean your leather furniture yourself and when you should hire a leather professional to clean your leather furniture for you.  Here are the advantages I have  heard over the years to each option.  Then you can decide which works for you.

The advantages of cleaning your own leather

  1. With know-how you can– With good instruction and quality products, I find most consumers can easily take care of routine cleaning maintenance to their leather furniture.  The main problem occurs when people either don’t know what kind of leather they have or when they don’t use leather specific cleaning products.  Following the information on leather help.com and you can do routine leather cleaning.
  2. Quicker response-Some stains need to be cleaned quickly.  The longer they sit on your leather, the harder they become to remove. Ink, oil stains and dye transfers are some of the stains that get more stubborn the longer they sit on your leather.  In other words, you are at your home and even with a quick response a leather pro usually takes a few days to arrive.  So your ability to get to stains as soon as you see them gives you the best chance to remove them.
  3. Save $- It will cost you less money to buy good leather products then to pay a leather professional to do the work for you.  If you keep up with routine maintenance, they your leather will not be as likely to get so dirty that you’d need a leather professional.  Here are the leather care products we use and recommend.
  4. Protected leather cleans up easily– Most likely your leather is finished leather (Check with the article on knowing your leather to be sure).  If so, then you have leather with protection on the surface which holds dirt and most stains out of the leather fibers. Therefore, it is easier for most consumers to clean than more porous leather. 

The advantages of hiring a leather professional

  1.  Dirty leather needs a pro–  Maybe you weren’t ever told you should clean your leather routinely.  Maybe it just isn’t something you’ve had the time to do. Maybe your leather sits in a room with a fireplace and gathers soot.  Whatever the reason, if you leather gets noticeably dirty, a leather professional may be a better choice to get it clean. 
  2. Regular professional cleaning is simple and consistent– Some people like the simplicity and piece of mind of hiring a leather professional to clean and condition there leather every year or every other year.  Most good pro’s will tell you how to care for the leather in between visits so that you can still deal with specific stains, but they come out regularly to keep the entire set looking great.
  3. Repairs, re-coloring included– Many times what looks like soiling on leather is actually color loss,scratching or staining of the leather.  A leather professional will not only clean the surface of your leather but also touch up scrapes, discoloration or fading areas.  As a word of warning, many upholstery companies may add leather cleaning to their portfolio of services but be wary of hiring them. There cleaning may reveal more problems than they solve and they rarely know how to deal with the color restoration that is the heart of your leather’s problem.  Just ask lots of questions of companies that offer a wide range of services beyond leather.
  4. Delicate leather need professional help–  The small percentage of you that go through the testing in the “know your leather”article above and find you have aniline/semi-aniline, nu buck or pull-up leather, probably need the help of a leather professional.  These more delicate leathers can be a challenge for most homeowners to clean themselves.  At worst, more harm than good can be done if you try to clean a delicate leather instead of hiring  good pro to help you.

 

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