I took a class on theater
safety a few months ago and we did some experimenting with old
curtains and what cleaning does to the fireproofing. Our simple and somewhat scientific tests showed that water and water with a detergent were devastating to the fire retardancy. However a curtain soaked in dry cleaning fluid showed no change in retardancy from the control. We took that to mean that when doing anything with curtains you should use a non-water based product or you'll loose your fire retardancy. Also in our case (a 20+ year old black curtain) the dry cleaning fluid didn't change the color of the fabric.
Like Van said... test in a place no one can see.
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Community College Technical Director
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