What dry cleaning can and cannot remove

Most stains come out if they are fresh and we know what they are. The ones that defeat professional cleaning are almost always old, previously washed, previously ironed, or already attacked with a home remedy. What matters is knowing which is which before you commit, and you will get that from us at the counter.

Usually comes out

• Fresh food and drink: tea, coffee, soft drinks, wine, sauces, most fruit.
• Perspiration marks, if they are recent and not yet yellowed into the fibre.
• Mud and general soiling, once it has dried and been brushed.
• Most cosmetics, foundation and lipstick.
• Oil and grease, though these need identifying as oil-based so the right treatment goes on first.

Sometimes comes out, depending

• Red wine and coloured fruit juice on pale natural fibres, which is a race against time.
• Blood, if it is fresh and has not been near hot water.
• Ink, which varies enormously by ink type; ballpoint often lifts, permanent marker usually does not.
• Older perspiration staining, which may lighten substantially without disappearing.

Usually does not come out

• Anything that has been through a hot wash or an iron. Heat sets a stain into the fibre permanently. This is the single biggest cause of stains we cannot remove.
• Dye transfer, such as a red sock through a white wash, or a new pair of jeans onto a pale lining.
• Bleach marks and sun fading. These are not stains but missing colour, and colour cannot be put back by cleaning.
• Old yellowing on stored white and ivory fabric, particularly where an invisible sugar-based spill has oxidised over years.
• Damage disguised as a stain: a scorch mark, a chemical burn, or a patch where the pile of a fabric has been rubbed away.

What to do in the first hour

Blot, do not rub. Rubbing pushes the stain deeper into the fibre and can felt the surface of wool permanently. Lift what you can with a clean, dry, white cloth, working from the outside of the mark inwards.

Then leave it alone. Do not apply water to an unknown stain on a garment that has a care label saying dry clean. Do not use a home stain pen, white wine, salt, soda water or any of the other internet remedies on a good garment: at best they do nothing, and at worst they set the stain, bleed the dye or leave a ring that is harder to remove than the original mark. Above all, do not wash it and do not iron it, because heat is what makes a removable stain permanent.

Tell us what it is

Knowing what caused a mark changes which treatment goes on it, and the wrong treatment can set it. Oil-based and water-based staining are approached differently, and protein staining differently again. If you know what was spilled, say so, and if you have already tried something on it, tell us that too, because it changes what is safe to use next.

How we handle it

We look at the piece with you at the counter and note the stains before anything starts. If we think a mark will not lift, we say so at the counter, and you can decide whether the clean is still worth doing. Bring it in at The Boathouse on Ocean Drive in Gillingham, call 01634 577066, or book a collection and tell us about the stain in the notes. Collection and drop-back are free on orders of £45 or more.