Short-Let Damage Reports: What a Photo Inspection Should Cover After Every Guest
Written by Iva, founder of Iva Cleaning Services London. Damage in a short let is rarely dramatic. It is a…
Hair colour is designed to bond permanently to protein and to resist washing out. That is exactly what makes it hard to remove from a chair, a floor or a basin: the same chemistry that keeps a client’s colour in for six weeks keeps a splash on the backwash for ever if it is left to set. The one rule that matters more than any product is speed. A tint drop wiped in the first two minutes is a smear; the same drop found at closing time is a stain; the same stain found on Monday is part of the furniture.
This guide covers what to do in each of those three windows, surface by surface, what not to use on porcelain and vinyl, and when a stained chair is a job for upholstery cleaning rather than a cloth. It is drawn from the colour bars and backwash areas we look after on salon cleaning in London contracts, where tint on the floor is a daily event.
Wipe it off. Warm water and a cloth on hard surfaces; a damp cloth dabbed, not rubbed, on fabric. Permanent and demi-permanent colours have not yet oxidised fully in the first few minutes and most of the pigment lifts with water. Keep a spray bottle of warm water and a stack of cloths at the colour bar and at every backwash for this purpose; it is the cheapest stain removal there is.
Bleach powder and lightener are different: they are alkaline and will lighten fabric and some flooring on contact. Lift the powder dry first with a dry cloth or a dustpan, then wipe with water. Wet bleach powder spreads it.
Once the colour has developed and dried, water alone does little. The approach now depends on the surface.
Vinyl is the standard salon chair covering because it wipes, but tint stains it if left, particularly light-coloured vinyl. In order of gentleness:
Do not use acetone, nail-varnish remover, bleach or abrasive creams on vinyl. They remove the top layer and leave a dull patch that then stains faster. After any treatment, a vinyl conditioner keeps the material supple.
Fabric is harder because the colour bonds to the fibres the way it bonds to hair. Blot, then dab with a solution of washing-up liquid and cool water, then try isopropyl alcohol on a test patch. If the fabric is wool or a wool blend, stop at the detergent stage; alcohol and oxidising cleaners damage wool. If the stain remains after that, it is a job for a professional upholstery clean with the right solvents, and the chair will not be made worse by waiting a day for it. The care label codes that decide what a professional can safely use are explained in how to clean a fabric sofa.
Floors take tint daily and the drips set quickly because they are walked on. Washing-up liquid and warm water first. Then isopropyl alcohol or a salon stain remover on a cloth. For a stubborn mark, a melamine foam eraser used wet and lightly; it is mildly abrasive, so do not scrub, and test it on an offcut or under a unit first because it can dull a gloss finish. A floor with a worn or missing seal stains permanently because the colour is in the material rather than on it; the only fix is a reseal, and until then a mat under the colour bar.
Washing-up liquid, then alcohol, then a stain remover. Avoid anything abrasive on laminate edges, where the top layer is thin. Painted walls behind the backwash hold colour splashes badly; a wipeable paint or a splashback panel is the permanent answer.
Porcelain is glazed and takes most cleaners, which is why so many salons reach for bleach. Bleach does remove tint from porcelain, but the fumes are unpleasant in a backwash area and it corrodes the chrome waste and overflow fittings over time. A cream cleaner or a paste of bicarbonate of soda and water with a non-scratch pad lifts set colour from glazed porcelain without that cost. What not to use: anything strongly acidic, which attacks the chrome fittings and the grout around the basin, and scouring powder or wire wool, which scratch the glaze and give the next stain somewhere to sit. Limescale around the taps and plughole, which in London arrives within a week, is a separate problem and needs an acid descaler on its own, never at the same time as bleach; the method is in how to remove limescale.
Grout is porous and holds tint. A bicarbonate paste left on for an hour and scrubbed with an old toothbrush lifts fresh colour; set colour in grout is usually there until the grout is resealed or regrouted. Silicone sealant that has gone dark with colour and mould is replaced, not cleaned.
Be realistic. Tint that has been on a vinyl chair for a fortnight, or in an unsealed floor since the last refit, is usually faded rather than removed. The options are a professional upholstery or hard-floor clean with stronger solvents and equipment, a reseal of the floor, or re-covering the chair. A salon-supply stain remover left for the maximum time on the label, repeated twice, is the last DIY step before that.
Fabric chairs with set colour, waiting-area sofas with a season of tint transferred from clients’ collars, and any stain that two attempts have not shifted are upholstery cleaning rather than wiping. A professional clean uses solvents chosen for the fabric code and hot-water extraction where the fabric allows it, and it takes the chair to clean rather than to faded. We do this on the monthly visit of a salon contract or as a one-off; the pricing is per chair and the visit minimum is £98 plus VAT, so it is usually combined with the floor.
Chairs and floors past a cloth and a hope? Get a free quote for a one-off deep clean or a regular contract and we come back within one working hour.
