Cleaning fire retardant residue off a water damaged curtain?

gafftaper

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A renter spilled water on stage out of a dry ice fogger. Some of the water soaked into a leg before we could get it cleaned up. As it wicked upward it drew the chemical fire retardant out of the fabric leaving a lovely white stripe. Anyone know if it's possible to get it cleaned? I've called my local curtain expert, Service Master, and a Dry Cleaner who does fire restoration and other specialty work. No luck yet.

I'm wondering about just dabbing at it with a damp cloth, just barely getting it wet to try to remove the chemical and then allowing it to dry before I do it again.
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Sure, we can clean that for you. As a heads up, it may need to be treated for FR afterwards. If it can be spot cleaned successfully without simply expanding the rings, we're good. We're just outside NYC in NJ.
 
If you want to try this yourself, you can make it 'better', but not great. Here's how: take a stiff bristle brush and brush off as much of the white powder as possible, not just off the surface but inside deep in the nap too. Either blot with a damp rag or lightly spray the white area to make the area damp. Blot dry, and use a hair dryer. You'll be able to get much of it off, but you might also start to move the white line further up. Also, the difference in 'blackness' between the leg and the bottom part below the white line won't go away unless it's completely cleaned.
Another trick is to make the area wet/fully damp and blot a little from the front, but mostly from the back so that you're pulling the FR to the back of the curtain and further down towards the bottom of the nap.
 
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I concur with Tom completely. Usually a "spritz" from a water bottle and a few dabs from a cloth will get rid of a light salt stain. As bad as that is, it's going to take a combination of techniques. Another is to place a towel or two on a ironing board then steam iron from the front. This will do effectively the same thing Tom has described above and 'wick' the salts back into the fabric and drawn a bit of it through to the towels.
But ultimately the Flame retardant rating of this leg is shot. So if it all has to be reproofed you might as well send it in cause thy'll make the satin go away in retreating it.
 
Yup!

Be aware that after retreating it may not be an exact color match to the rest of your set. If the drapes are old enough, the whole set may need retreating, or replacing with IFR. I love that we have IFR!
 
agreed, we finally replaced all of our curtains(-main) and bought all IFR, they are very nice....and as said if you send them for cleaning and re-treatment, send them in pairs so they match...
 
One option would be to get a rug doctor and use that to scrub it. Not sure how well that would work, but hey, if it comes down to the point where you're considering just replacing them and everything else, it's worth a shot.
 
One option would be to get a rug doctor and use that to scrub it. Not sure how well that would work, but hey, if it comes down to the point where you're considering just replacing them and everything else, it's worth a shot.
Not a good idea. The water would just draw out more of the fire retardant.
 
Hi Gafftaper: How did this project turn out?
We'll I got into my spring musical and the project got put on hold. I took down the offending leg and switched things around so the missing leg is in front of the mid-traveler. As long as the mid is in, you don't notice a leg is gone.

I got a price quote from a local company of $1,650 to clean and retreat it. And they don't guarantee they can get the stain out. Ugh...

I'm going to try some home cleaning once things settle down a bit.

@Tom Andrews send me your company contact info by private conversation. It's a long way from Seattle, but I'm not finding a local solution.
 

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