Stain removal on soft furnishings in Marrakech

The whole logic of stain removal sits in this classification. Getting the family wrong means fixing the stain instead of removing it.

Oils and fats — argan or olive oil, butter, cosmetics, sebum, cooking grease. They are not soluble in water. You need a solvent or a surfactant that emulsifies, then extraction: water on its own spreads them.

Tannins — coffee, tea, red wine, dark fruit juice, cola. Soluble in water while fresh, they oxidise as they dry and turn brown. Treated cold, never hot: heat accelerates the oxidation and sets the colour.

Pigments — ink, felt pen, soil, make-up, shoe polish. The coloured particle is mechanically lodged in the fibre. It is loosened and extracted, but an alcohol-based felt pen that has migrated into the core of the fibre can stay there.

Proteins — milk, blood, egg, urine, vomit. They coagulate with heat. Hot water is the absolute enemy here: it cooks the protein into the textile and makes the stain permanent. Cold enzyme treatment.

They are made in good faith, in the minutes after the accident, and they explain a good share of the stain removals that fail afterwards.

1. Rubbing. Friction drives the substance into the fibre and breaks the pile. You should blot, from the edge towards the centre, with a white cloth.
2. Using hot water. It sets proteins and oxidises tannins. Cold, always, until the nature of the stain is known.
3. Using a coloured cloth. It transfers its own dye onto wet textile, adding a second stain to the first.
4. Pouring bleach onto a dyed fibre. It does not remove the stain: it removes the colour around it, which is irreversible.
5. Stacking household products. A stain remover applied over the residue of another creates an unpredictable reaction and leaves a ring that nothing puts right.

The right reflex while you wait: absorb as much as possible, dry, with white absorbent paper, and apply nothing else.

A coffee stain treated within the hour almost always comes out. The same stain six months later rarely comes out completely. That is not a question of resources but of chemistry: over that time the substance oxidises, migrates towards the core of the fibre, and sometimes bonds with the textile's own dye.

Three useful orders of magnitude:

• Within the hour: most everyday stains come out completely.
• Within the week: the majority still come out, with a targeted treatment and sometimes two visits.
• After several months: the result becomes a best-efforts outcome, declared as such, and it depends entirely on the fibre and on the nature of the substance.

That is why we always ask how old the stain is before the visit. It does not change the price — a stain triggers no automatic surcharge — but it is the piece of information that determines what can be promised.

Local stain removal done badly leaves a ring more visible than the original stain. The mechanism is simple: the treatment liquid pushes the textile's ambient soil out to the edge of the damp area, where it concentrates as it dries. That is browning, and it is driven by wicking.

Two answers, applied together:

• feather the treatment out beyond the edge of the stain, with no sharp boundary
• extract immediately instead of letting it air-dry, so that the migration has no time to happen

On some materials — microfibre, short-pile velvet, plain light fabric — strictly local treatment is inadvisable: we then treat the whole panel bounded by a seam. It takes longer; it is the only way to get an even surface.

On a delicate fabric — wool, silk, velvet or an unknown fibre — the method is confirmed from your photos before the date. The full mechanics of extraction are explained on the method page.

Four cases where the fibre itself has been altered. There is no longer any soil to remove:

• Bleach on dyed textile: the colour has been destroyed, not covered.
• A dye — hair, fabric, permanent ink — that has coloured the fibre.
• A burn, cigarette or iron: the fibre has melted or charred.
• An old food colouring on an untreated natural fibre, which has formed a lasting bond.

Our rule: these cases are identified on arrival, declared irreversible, treated on a best-efforts basis — and excluded from the free re-do on that specific point, since they were flagged beforehand. All the rest of the service remains covered by the re-do within 48 hours.

More broadly, we state it before every job: some stains, discolouration or smells may persist, and no 100% result is guaranteed. Mould or an infestation needs a diagnosis, and cleaning alone may not be enough.

Stain removal is charged at the price of the item concerned, with no surcharge for the stain: see the price of a sofa, of a rug or of a mattress, and the full grid for this silo. Send a photo of the stain and its age from the quote page: that is what allows us to answer with a price and a prognosis rather than a promise.