Looking for a Bleach Cleanable Fabric?

In light of cur­rent events, there has been sig­nif­i­cant inter­est in uphol­stery fab­rics that hold up to clean­ing and dis­in­fect­ing with a bleach solu­tion. In addi­tion to health­care facil­i­ties, which rou­tine­ly have clean­ing pro­to­cols to pre­vent ill­ness and reduce the risk of cross-con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of infec­tions, spec­i­fiers of oth­er com­mer­cial envi­ron­ments are con­sid­er­ing bleach-clean­able textiles.

In order for a fab­ric to be con­sid­ered bleach clean­able, it can­not weak­en or fade when exposed to dilut­ed bleach. The Cen­ters for Dis­ease Con­trol and Pre­ven­tion (CDC) rec­om­mends that a solu­tion of 1 part house­hold bleach (sodi­um hypochlo­rite) to 10 parts water (1:10) be used for dis­in­fect­ing. Since bleach will degrade most dyes and weak­en many of the yarns used for woven uphol­stery, tex­tiles that use solu­tion-dyed fibers work best. This is because the col­or pig­ments inte­grat­ed through­out the fiber, not just on the sur­face. Con­struc­tions of nylon, acrylic, and poly­olefin yarns, as well as poly­ester yarns col­ored with high-ener­gy dyes, exhib­it strong col­or­fast­ness when cleaned with dilut­ed bleach solu­tions. Wolf-Gor­don offers a wide range of bleach clean­able woven uphol­stery pat­terns in each of these yarn constructions.

Of course, the major­i­ty of our vinyl and polyurethane-based uphol­stery tex­tiles, long pre­ferred in the health­care indus­try, also with­stand bleach solutions.