Basic brushes set for upholstery cleaning?

[Yura]

Hi all, started a furniture cleaning. Need your advice about the right brush accessories.
As far as I understood I need:
1) A horsehair brush for delicate fabrics
something like this? brush
2) Some hard syntetic brush for not delicate syntetic fabrics? Not sure which one is good, would apprecciate your advice. Or maybre I should use a horse hair one for any material?
3) A brush for leather furniture cleaning, this one is ok? brush
4) Silicone brush for pet hair. I guess this one?
5) Spotting brush
Anything else or maybe picking something wrongly? Your advices please. Thanks a lot in advance!

 

[sbsscn]

Horse hair
YEs but consider the handle-less one I find its less fatiguing

 

[Jimbo Williams]

Yep. A horse hair is all you need for a little agitation on the bad areas (arms and headrest) of furniture.

 

[wandwizard]

There are times when a stiffer brush might be needed, just not on upholstery. I generally use a stiff brush for things like stairs or car mats. A stiff brush may do permanent damage to many upholstery fabrics and is not worth the risk IMHO. Also, I'd just X out that spotting brush. I haven't purchased one in over 30 years and I don't plan on ever purchasing one. It is really intended for spotting procedures on carpet and is pretty much useless for upholstery. It is a very stiff brush used to tap over a spotting towel to work a spotter into carpets. It is NOT intended for scrubbing! It will do permanent damage even to carpet if used as a scrub brush.

Now, with the money I just saved you get a good sea sponge for under 20 bucks U.S. If you have an Interlink Supply or can get from them I highly recommend their sponge in place of a sea sponge. It works even better and will last a LOT longer. Simply rinse it out thoroughly after every use. Here it is if you can order it I recommend you do so. It is for use with most fabric shampoos. I cannot stress enough just how much I like this sponge and it's about 1/2 the price of a real sea sponge. https://interlinksupply.com/index.php?item_num=1697-6615 If you do upholstery or really fine fabrics you NEED this sponge or a good sea sponge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just my REAL opinion. I don't mean to be too dogmatic.

Btw, sea sponges work FANTASTIC too. They just don't hold up well over time like the Interlink sponge. You WILL NOT likely find a similar sponge locally. These are synthetic sponges made especially for shampooing upholstery. They do a really good job of mimicking a real sea sponge.

When you are using a horsehair brush it is to get your upholstery prespray worked INTO the fibers. It is NOT to SCRUB the filth OUT OF the fibers. Once your prespray has penetrated the rest of the work is simply rinsing it out with your machine. Getting too aggressive with a brush can do permanent damage. Btw, even horsehair can become REALLY stiff. I occasionally take mine out and actually use some regular human hair conditioner on it to soften the bristles and rinse it out just like washing your hair. It restores it just like conditioning your hair if you have any left! Those horse hairs can get stiff enough to damage a fine fabric. Don't ask me how I know.

 

[Yura]

There are times when a stiffer brush might be needed, just not on upholstery. I generally use a stiff brush for things like stairs or car mats. A stiff brush may do permanent damage to many upholstery fabrics and is not worth the risk IMHO. Also, I'd just X out that spotting brush. I haven't purchased one in over 30 years and I don't plan on ever purchasing one. It is really intended for spotting procedures on carpet and is pretty much useless for upholstery. It is a very stiff brush used to tap over a spotting towel to work a spotter into carpets. It is NOT intended for scrubbing! It will do permanent damage even to carpet if used as a scrub brush.

Now, with the money I just saved you get a good sea sponge for under 20 bucks U.S. If you have an Interlink Supply or can get from them I highly recommend their sponge in place of a sea sponge. It works even better and will last a LOT longer. Simply rinse it out thoroughly after every use. Here it is if you can order it I recommend you do so. It is for use with most fabric shampoos. I cannot stress enough just how much I like this sponge and it's about 1/2 the price of a real sea sponge. https://interlinksupply.com/index.php?item_num=1697-6615 If you do upholstery or really fine fabrics you NEED this sponge or a good sea sponge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just my REAL opinion. I don't mean to be too dogmatic.

Btw, sea sponges work FANTASTIC too. They just don't hold up well over time like the Interlink sponge. You WILL NOT likely find a similar sponge locally. These are synthetic sponges made especially for shampooing upholstery. They do a really good job of mimicking a real sea sponge.

When you are using a horsehair brush it is to get your upholstery prespray worked INTO the fibers. It is NOT to SCRUB the filth OUT OF the fibers. Once your prespray has penetrated the rest of the work is simply rinsing it out with your machine. Getting too aggressive with a brush can do permanent damage. Btw, even horsehair can become REALLY stiff. I occasionally take mine out and actually use some regular human hair conditioner on it to soften the bristles and rinse it out just like washing your hair. It restores it just like conditioning your hair if you have any left! Those horse hairs can get stiff enough to damage a fine fabric. Don't ask me how I know.

thanks a lot, will definitely order that sponge. Did I understand right, it should be used only with foam style solutions mostly used on delicate fabrics? For syntetic fabrics where I use solutions like Enz All and Formula 90 I should use a horsehair brush? thanks

 

[Yura]

There are times when a stiffer brush might be needed, just not on upholstery. I generally use a stiff brush for things like stairs or car mats. A stiff brush may do permanent damage to many upholstery fabrics and is not worth the risk IMHO. Also, I'd just X out that spotting brush. I haven't purchased one in over 30 years and I don't plan on ever purchasing one. It is really intended for spotting procedures on carpet and is pretty much useless for upholstery. It is a very stiff brush used to tap over a spotting towel to work a spotter into carpets. It is NOT intended for scrubbing! It will do permanent damage even to carpet if used as a scrub brush.

Now, with the money I just saved you get a good sea sponge for under 20 bucks U.S. If you have an Interlink Supply or can get from them I highly recommend their sponge in place of a sea sponge. It works even better and will last a LOT longer. Simply rinse it out thoroughly after every use. Here it is if you can order it I recommend you do so. It is for use with most fabric shampoos. I cannot stress enough just how much I like this sponge and it's about 1/2 the price of a real sea sponge. https://interlinksupply.com/index.php?item_num=1697-6615 If you do upholstery or really fine fabrics you NEED this sponge or a good sea sponge!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just my REAL opinion. I don't mean to be too dogmatic.

Btw, sea sponges work FANTASTIC too. They just don't hold up well over time like the Interlink sponge. You WILL NOT likely find a similar sponge locally. These are synthetic sponges made especially for shampooing upholstery. They do a really good job of mimicking a real sea sponge.

When you are using a horsehair brush it is to get your upholstery prespray worked INTO the fibers. It is NOT to SCRUB the filth OUT OF the fibers. Once your prespray has penetrated the rest of the work is simply rinsing it out with your machine. Getting too aggressive with a brush can do permanent damage. Btw, even horsehair can become REALLY stiff. I occasionally take mine out and actually use some regular human hair conditioner on it to soften the bristles and rinse it out just like washing your hair. It restores it just like conditioning your hair if you have any left! Those horse hairs can get stiff enough to damage a fine fabric. Don't ask me how I know.

And do I actually need a sponge if I have a foam generator? Maybe better to spray with foam and agitate with brushes? Also would be greatful if you tell me how exactly you work with a sponge, thanks

 

[wandwizard]

thanks a lot, will definitely order that sponge. Did I understand right, it should be used only with foam style solutions mostly used on delicate fabrics? For syntetic fabrics where I use solutions like Enz All and Formula 90 I should use a horsehair brush? thanks

A horse hair brush can be used on most fabrics as long as you rinse it and watch out for it getting too stiff. I don't think the sponge will work well with a foam generating machine or sprayer, but I've never tried it. My best guess is it will not work.

Using fabric shampoos with a sponge is really kind of intuitive. You should get a sense of how light or heavy a solution you want to apply. Some of it is common sense. If you're working on a natural fabric like cotton, linen, wool, etc. you want to avoid getting the fabrics extremely wet because they are extremely absorbent and generally take longer to dry. I saturate the sponge in a warm to moderately hot tap water shampoo solution then gently wring out the sponge to the desired saturation. If I want to apply a lot of solution to a less absorbable fabric like most synthetics I don't wring it out too much. If I'm really trying to hold back on the moisture you can go ahead and wring the sponge out until it produces kind of dry foam. That would be reserved for doing something very delicate. It really isn't too hard to learn. I had to teach myself, but my experience doing upholstery for many years and understanding fabrics sure helps. It is something I wished I'd learned when I started out back in 1987. Here are two short, simple videos that will give you a good idea of how to work with a sponge and shampoo. The rest is just doing it. Just scroll down the page and you'll see the videos at this link.

https://https://shop.truckmountforums.com/matrix-radiant-fine-fabric-shampoo.html#product.info.video

 

[Yura]

A horse hair brush can be used on most fabrics as long as you rinse it and watch out for it getting too stiff. I don't think the sponge will work well with a foam generating machine or sprayer, but I've never tried it. My best guess is it will not work.

Using fabric shampoos with a sponge is really kind of intuitive. You should get a sense of how light or heavy a solution you want to apply. Some of it is common sense. If you're working on a natural fabric like cotton, linen, wool, etc. you want to avoid getting the fabrics extremely wet because they are extremely absorbent and generally take longer to dry. I saturate the sponge in a warm to moderately hot tap water shampoo solution then gently wring out the sponge to the desired saturation. If I want to apply a lot of solution to a less absorbable fabric like most synthetics I don't wring it out too much. If I'm really trying to hold back on the moisture you can go ahead and wring the sponge out until it produces kind of dry foam. That would be reserved for doing something very delicate. It really isn't too hard to learn. I had to teach myself, but my experience doing upholstery for many years and understanding fabrics sure helps. It is something I wished I'd learned when I started out back in 1987. Here are two short, simple videos that will give you a good idea of how to work with a sponge and shampoo. The rest is just doing it.

https://https://shop.truckmountforums.com/matrix-radiant-fine-fabric-shampoo.html#product.info.video

thanks a lot!