Service: Removal of Allergens from Household Fabrics
FRENCHMAN’S CREEK – Removal of allergens from household fabrics is an important step toward reducing the incidence and severity of symptoms. Let’s hear that again. Removal of allergens from household fabrics is important, nay, critical to reducing the frequency and severity of allergy symptoms.
Pictured above is the dinning room of a beautifully appointed residence belonging to a long-time customer. The home could easily be the subject of a Good Housekeeping feature. By turns luxurious and practical.
The two children enjoy personalized bedrooms, each with its own bath. Connecting the rooms is a common work space for studying and creating. Unfortunately both the daughter and her younger brother suffer from acute sinus issues. For years their mother learned everything she could about potential means of alleviating the near constant discomfort.
On hearing of our ability to safely and effectively clean any fabric window covering, on-site, she requested the service immediately. During our initial inspection it was mentioned that upholstered furniture can be cleaned using the same process. Accordingly, the project’s scope was expanded.
A week or so later the homeowner called to express delight over the difference in her kid’s quality of life. She wished for all fabrics in their rooms to be re-cleaned annually. We’ve returned eight or nine times now. Additionally the entire residence is serviced every third visit.
The Facts
Experts agree, household fabrics are to allergens as kitchen counter tops are to bacteria. However there’s a major difference in that fabric items cannot simply be wiped clean with disinfectant.
Being permeable, fabric allows air currents to carry tiny particles deep within its fibers. Over time, any such material can acquire an amazing volume of unwelcome guests. These can then be released back into the air by a number of different factors. Subsequent air currents, billowing caused by direct contact, and even well-intentioned vacuuming.
Previously, only carpets and some upholstered items could be easily cleaned in the home. Draperies on the other hand needed to be taken down, transported to a dry cleaner, then put back up on their return. Sometimes at great inconvenience to their owners.
Other window coverings like shades and top treatments couldn’t be cleaned at all! At least not thoroughly. Until the “on-site” method, the very one we use, became widely available 25 years ago.
For deep cleaning that simply cannot be achieved through vacuuming, call (561) 644-4091.
ADVANCED ON-SITE‘s specialty is drapery and shade cleaning, though we offer a range of other services related to window coverings. Contact us to discuss your needs.
This Singer Island homeowner had a very large and expensive Luminette by Hunter Douglas installed over a sliding glass door opening. (pictured) A few weeks later he hired a marble polishing company to service his floors.
The polishing process threw small amounts of a gritty compound up onto the Luminette’s face. Needless to say, the owner was very upset. That is, until he learned of our capabilities. Now he could have it restored to original condition at a fraction of the cost to replace it!
Thankfully the polishing company did the right thing. They absorbed the cleaning cost. However that’s not always the case. Which sometimes has the effect of rendering our service even more valuable.
ADVANCED ON-SITE‘s specialty is drapery and shade cleaning, though we offer a range of other services related to window coverings. Contact us to discuss your needs.
In 1996 the Hunter Douglas corporation unveiled its latest in a series of innovative window fashions. Luminette® privacy sheers combined the soft look of traditional sheer draperies with the function of a vertical blind, and its ability to control light and privacy. This proved to be nothing short of groundbreaking.
Graceful drapery-like folds of Luminette
It was not the first attempt at such a marriage, but it was the first to employ “solid state” characteristics. Whereas other products consisted of a vertical blind with sheer fabric attached to, or interwoven among its PVC vanes, this new product utilized semi-rigid fabric vanes permanently affixed to machined creases in the sheer.
There was no stitching! Through a process involving heat activated adhesives the sheer and its vanes effectively became individual components of a larger whole.
Handling Do’s and Don’ts
Fabric vanes put less stress on supporting track components than their much heavier PVC counterparts. That’s a distinct advantage when you consider the fact that sunlight and heat weaken plastic carrier assemblies over time.
Never drape Luminette fabric over a table or bed
However, semi-rigid vanes fused to a supple sheer can just as easily become a disadvantage when certain product requirements go unheeded. Chief among these is proper handling.
A common mistake is when Luminette® is taken down and lain across a bed or table. Rather than flowing uniformly, as the sheer is intended to do when hanging vertically, the rigidity of the vanes forces it to rumple in places. The fabric’s “memory” then retains this characteristic after re-installation. Steaming cannot be guaranteed to return it to its original condition.
Worse still are creases the vanes can easily sustain during take down, or when the fabric is stored improperly. They’re considered permanent damage, and will also result in unsightly rumpling and drawing of the sheer.
Luminette rolled onto shipping tube, for proper storage
There is only one way to prevent such condition issues. In the process of removing Luminette® from an opening, one must roll the fabric back onto its original shipping core – a cardboard tube similar to the type carpets are rolled onto, only larger in diameter. Painter’s tape is used to hold the last vane in place.
The additional step of placing the rolled fabric inside something known as “drapery tubing” is commonly taken. It’s a lightweight plastic covering capable of being sealed at each end. This protects the fabric from construction dust and other contaminants.
Freedom of Movement
It is important to remember that Luminette® protrudes significantly farther into a room than a vertical blind does. From 4½ inches farther in it’s “Classic” incarnation, to 6½ inches when ordered with the larger “Quintette” vane size.
Therefore any top treatment or side panel must be mounted far enough from the opening to leave ample room for Luminette® to traverse, and for its vanes to tilt without coming into contact with one of those other treatments. Likewise, if Luminette® is to be mounted inside a vertically recessed header, that recess must provide ample room. This may all seem obvious at the outset, but it’s shocking how often these rules go unobserved.
Luminette forced to interact with other treatment
For example, enthusiastic decorators sometimes try to pull off layered treatments where there is simply not enough space. Depending on the treatment types, as well as how they are mounted, a four layer configuration can protrude as much as 15 inches into a room! Taking up that much floor space in a 2,000 square foot room is one thing. In an 800 square foot room it can look like an elephant.
Aware of this, decorators will often instruct the installer to “make it all happen within 10 inches of the opening.” The experienced and principled installer will decline such a directive. He or she understands the implications. Any resistance met by a drape or shade as it moves through a confined area means additional force must be exerted on control cords. In turn, components like tensioners and brackets are stressed beyond their limits. Not to mention the wear and tear that occurs when fabrics repeatedly drag across each other’s surfaces.
Luminette® is an Island
Luminette® can develop condition issues stemming from anything which prevents its fabric from hanging freely. For instance, its semi-rigid vanes will bend if they touch the floor. Or anything on it. As discussed, this influences the appearance of the sheer fabric. And remember, Luminette® fabrics retain bad memories.
So-called “fish mouth buckles” prevent folds from stacking uniformly
To illustrate just how important it is for Luminette® to enjoy complete separation from anything in close proximity, consider the visual at left. What you’re seeing is a snapshot of a section of Luminette®, drawn across the opening so all its vanes stack to one side. Next to it, the same section is shown partially inverted so as to highlight the circled condition issues.
This Luminette® was custom made and installed to clear the floor. Not the interior door mat the homeowner later placed just inside and near the center of the sliding glass array it was meant to cover. The thickness of the mat brought it into contact with the Luminette’s vanes, pushing them up slightly. Not enough to alarm the homeowner, but enough to buckle the folds of the sheer.
Note that only the folds left spanning the mat, when the fabric was drawn closed across the opening, were affected. The rest were stacked neatly and proportionally as they should be. It’s the buckles that prevent this.
For safe and effective cleaning of Luminette, call: 561-644-4091
The Conclusion of the Matter
A Luminette® retaining its fresh from the factory appearance after many years of use, is one that has come into contact with only three things,
its original shipping core
the carriers it hangs from when installed
a cleaning head in the hands of a professional who knows how to use it
In addition to cleaning, ADVANCED ON-SITEis specially trained and equipped to take down Luminette® should painting, or other modifications to its surroundings become necessary.
A local decorator ordered this Luminette® based on her own measurements, but did not understand the difference between “inside” and “outside” mounting. She ended up with a shading whose fabric was half an inch too long.
She was referred to ADVANCED ON-SITE by a mutual business associate, who informed her we were able to modify its length using a simple rotary cutter. Do not try this at home!
ADVANCED ON-SITE‘s specialty is drapery and shade cleaning, though we offer a range of other services related to window coverings. Contact us to discuss your needs.
It’s been mentioned elsewhere on the site that we also install shades, blinds and plantation shutters. Pictured, is an install of Luminette® shadings done 6 years ago by our company.
Following that installation, the decorator had a local drapery workroom custom make and install the drapes and valances you see. This week the homeowner requested that we return to clean everything.
It was refreshing to forego “level readings,” for a change. Having installed the Luminettes, which are susceptible to permanent damage if not level during cleaning, we were confident they need not be checked, never mind re-installed.
ADVANCED ON-SITE‘s specialty is drapery and shade cleaning, though we offer a range of other services related to window coverings. Contact us to discuss your needs.
