It’s easy to see why restaurant furniture designers have moved away from upholstering their booths in cloth to upholstering them in vinyl. Modern vinyl fabric, which honestly is barely recognizable as a plastic anymore, duplicates the skin-like plushness of leather while costing restaurateurs much less to own. And since vinyl repels water, most of the spills absorbed by cloth upholstery simply rolls off these seats. However as you’ve probably found out for yourself, vinyl is less than 100% impenetrable to stains. That’s why we’ve compiled a list of the best cleaning techniques to undo vinyl’s most common blemishes, including solutions for ink, blood, scuffs, gum, rips, rain, the sun, & crumbs.
Ink
That new streak across your booth : do you know whether it came from a ballpoint pen or rollerball pen? It makes a difference. Rollerball pens, pens whose ink will blot when pressed against a piece of paper—think Uni-ball pens or Pilots—use water-based inks, which take more time to set into vinyl than their oil-based counterparts. With rollerball stains, just wipe down the booth with dish soap and water, and then dry.
Stains that come from Bics and most click-pens will take a few extra steps to lift but they’re not invulnerable. Act quick and follow these steps:
1. Wipe down the upholstery with water and dish soap (Sometimes that’s all it takes).
2. Dry the area.
3. Lightly dip a cotton swab or cotton ball in rubbing alcohol and rub the area clean, carefully avoiding other parts of the seat.
4. When rubbing alcohol fails, you can use hydrogen peroxide as a more powerful solvent, but be cautious as this will discolor the vinyl if left standing for too long.
5. Soak the affected area in a 3% hydrogen peroxide solution for thirty minutes and then wipe away.
Bloodstains
A speedy response to spilled blood will give it less time to ruin your upholstery. If the blood hasn’t dried or set into the booth yet, clean the spot away with a wet, soapy rag. Otherwise follow the steps below—and please, don’t forget to wear gloves.
1. Add a teaspoon of dish soap and a tablespoon of ammonia to a spray bottle filled with cold water.
2. Since ammonia causes the dye of some vinyl fabrics to fade, test the mixture on a hidden part of the upholstery and check for discoloration.
3. Excepting any discoloration, spray the solution over the bloodstain and let it stand for 3 to 5 minutes.
4. Most of the blood should have lifted. Gently scrub away the rest with the corner of a dry cloth.
5. Wipe the ammonia solution away with a water dampened rag and dry
Crumbs
A nearly surefire way to keep booths presentable is to just clean the darn things already. As soon as your guests leave the table, send a busboy over there to gather dishes and wipe down the seats. We know this is Restaurant 101 stuff, but when you and your busboys get lazy, bacteria will start to grow between the cracks of your restaurant booths. Eventually some guest will complain about a bad smell and you’ll have to crawl into the booths yourself and scrape out colony after colony of bacteria. Regular wipe downs and weekly once-overs with a vacuum hose will keep crumbs, and by extension bacteria, at bay.
Shoe Scuffs
Scuffs can be easily removed from restaurant booths using Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, the same product that people use on linoleum floors. It’s not expensive but if you just can’t spare the extra time or money, synthetic turpentine works almost as well.
1. Clean the booth with dish soap and water, and then dry.
2. Using synthetic turpentine or mineral spirits, lightly sponge the affected area with care. Rubbing too hard might damage the vinyl.
3. Dry up all solvents when finished.
4. Wash the booth with soap and water again and dry.
Sunlight & Rain
Imagine one of those old poolside lounge chairs whose seat and back were made from rows of taut rubber straps. Remember those? If you left one of those chairs outdoors for too many summers in a row, the rubber straps would become faded and cracked and hard. Though vinyl is better suited to the sun and the rain than cheap rubber, too much exposure to the elements will make your furniture hard and brittle like those old poolside chairs. You can prevent UV and water damage to your booths by treating them with a vinyl conditioner every month or so. It’s basically like suntan lotion for your booths.
Chewing Gum
Some either careless or passive-aggressive guest has stuck a wad of gum to the cushion of your booth. So now what? Well, try this—
1. Press an ice cube against the gum until it hardens.
2. With your fingernail or a dull knife, carefully chip away as much of the gum as you can.
3. After scraping most of residue away, remove the remnants by lightly dabbing a rag of synthetic turpentine or mineral spirits over the leftover specks.
4. Dry up all the solvent when finished.
Wash the booth off with soap and water and then dry.
Rips, Cuts, & Tears
Compared with stains, scuffs, and chewing gum, a cut in your vinyl upholstery will require a much more complicated fix. Your cheapest option is to buy a vinyl repair kit and use it to cement the tear closed. With vinyl repair kits you pour a liquefied plastic onto the cut and press down on the slowly-congealing liquid with a sheet of grain-textured paper, which you then hold in place until the plastic has hardened. Unfortunately no matter how careful you are, the repair will be noticeable—the new texture won’t match the old one, and the color is always a little off. But there’s not much else you can do. You can’t stitch it. That’d be noticeable and, besides, the rip would quickly spread. You definitely can’t ignore the problem. The best option is to reupholster, but if you don’t have the time or the money for that, vinyl repair kits are really your best option.
