Cleaning durable seating: wipeable and bleach-cleanable fabrics

At a glance

The bleach protocol and results are from one supplier's own report (21 August 2023), as that supplier describes a method it attributes to BIFMA and ACT; the underlying documents were not read. Treat it as an illustration of how a bleach claim is tested, not as a standard.

A claim, not a test

Four words are used loosely in seating specifications. None is a pass or fail in a British or European standard that we have read.

• Wipeable. Spills can be wiped off. Usually said of coated cloth and leather-like surfaces. It says nothing about repeated disinfection.
• Cleanable. Can be cleaned by a stated method. The method is the content: a W, S, WS or X code, or a written instruction (see below).
• Bleach-cleanable. Tolerates a bleach solution without damage. Test methods differ in dilution, contact time and number of cycles, and the supplier's own report warns that you should check that the method matches the concentration, application and contact time for your setting.
• Antimicrobial. A separate claim about a treatment or a fibre, not covered here.

The risk is not the word, it is the gap between the test and your cleaning contract. A hospitality seat may be wiped daily with a spray and disinfected as policy demands. If the test applied ten lots of a stated solution with a two-hour contact, the result says nothing certain about a different routine.

The chart shows how much the colour matters. A supplier tested every colourway of one polyester fabric to the same bleach protocol and published the results: 6 colourways graded 4 to 5, 6 graded 4, 6 graded 3 to 4, 6 graded 3 and 1 graded 2. Against the grade 4 minimum that the supplier states as the ACT and BIFMA acceptance criterion, 12 of the 25 colourways reached it. The fabric did not change; the colour did. A claim for "the fabric" is not a claim for your colourway.

The one bleach protocol we read

The report names two documents as its basis: the BIFMA HCF 8.1-2019 health care furniture guidelines on cleanability and ACT Test Method 1-2020, neither of which we have read, so what follows is the supplier's description of what it did.

1. A bleach solution of 1 part sodium hypochlorite (5.25 to 6.25 per cent) to 10 parts water, described in the report as hospital-grade disinfectant diluted per the manufacturer's instructions.
2. Apply 1 ml to the centre of the test specimen.
3. Leave it for two hours, then blot up what remains on the face and the back.
4. Repeat until it has been applied ten times.
5. Two hours after the tenth application, apply 3 ml of water, blot with a clean white cloth, and air dry. Repeat the water step if chemical residue remains.
6. Compare the specimen with the AATCC grey scale for colour change. The supplier states acceptance as grade 4 minimum colour change, no colour transfer and no physical damage.

Points to take from it. It tests colour change, colour transfer and damage, and not stain removal. It is ten applications, which is an accelerated stand-in for a period of use and not a measure of years. And other manufacturers describe other routines: a guide seen only in a search summary describes a single exposure of one day and says it is not meant to imitate real use. When a supplier says "bleach-cleanable", ask for the protocol and the per-colourway report. Ask also whether it matches the cleaner your contractor will really use.

Coated cloth and the cleaning codes

Coated cloth (vinyl, polyurethane and similar) is the usual 'wipeable' construction. Two rules from sources we read. BSI's listing for BS EN ISO 12947-2:2016 (Martindale abrasion) says it is not applicable to coated fabrics and points to the ISO 5470 series, so a Martindale figure on a coated cloth is the wrong test. And polyurethane coatings can break down in damp and heat: the 2025 ACT outdoor deck asks for a ten-week hydrolysis test (ISO 1419) for polyurethane coated cloth. ISO 1419:2019 is the current edition and was confirmed in 2024 (ISO page, via a search result). Ask for the hydrolysis report and a list of the cleaners the coating has been tested against; we found no source on cleaner compatibility.

Cleaning codes. The letters on a sample card say how a woven cloth may be cleaned: W water-based cleaner, S solvent, WS either, X vacuum or brush only. They are a trade convention. We found no standard that defines them and none of them says the cloth takes bleach. The library's fabric performance tests sheet covers the codes with the other fabric tests.

Cleaning and fire treatments

A cover that has been made flame retardant by a treatment can lose some of it in cleaning. The FIRA and British Furniture Confederation guide says a treatment such as back-coating must survive a thirty-minute water soak before testing, and that the loss of effect may also apply to covers marked as suitable for washing or dry cleaning. It strongly recommends that a number of wash cycles, or dry-cleaning cycles, are carried out before testing, following BS 5651 (we did not read that standard). Covers made from yarns that are flame retardant in the fibre do not need the water soak, provided no extra treatment is applied.

For you this means: the fire report for the composite should state the cleaning or water-soak conditioning applied before the test, and your handover instructions should use the same cleaning method. A cover that is bleached weekly but tested after a single water soak is not demonstrated safe. See interliners and flame-retardant upholstery and how to read an upholstery fire test report.

Writing the cleaning regime into the handover

The claim is only as good as the routine it is tested against, so the routine goes into the specification and the handover pack. Six things to decide:

Put the answers in the handover and O&M pack, give the contractor a short cleaning sheet per fabric family, and keep spare covers from the same dye lot: see spares and attic stock. For the wider surface question, tabletop surface performance tests covers tops, and leather for furniture covers hides.

Cover cloth [ ] in colourway [ ] to be supplied with the supplier's written cleaning instruction for that colourway, stating cleaner type, dilution and contact time. Where the cloth is described as bleach-cleanable, a test report for the colourway supplied stating the protocol [named], solution [1:10 sodium hypochlorite], contact time [ ] hours, number of applications [10], colour change on the grey scale [grade 4 minimum], no colour transfer and no physical damage.

Coated cover [polyurethane / vinyl] to be supplied with abrasion results by [the ISO 5470 series], and for polyurethane a hydrolysis report to [ISO 1419] for [10] weeks. Supplier to list the cleaners and disinfectants the coating has been tested against. Martindale results are not accepted for coated cloth.

Fire test report on the complete seat composite from a [UKAS-accredited] test house, stating the water-soak or cleaning conditioning applied to the cover before the test. The cleaning method in the operation and maintenance manual to be the one used for that conditioning.

Standards and sources

• ISO 1419:2019: Rubber- or plastics-coated fabrics: accelerated-ageing tests. Fourth edition, confirmed in 2024 (ISO page, via a search result); the text was not read.
• BS EN ISO 12947-2:2016: Martindale abrasion, determination of specimen breakdown. Current (BSI Knowledge); not applicable to coated fabrics. Read for the fabric performance sheet; the text was not read.
• BS 7176:2007+A1:2011 and BS 5651: Fire tests for upholstered seating, and the cleansing and wetting procedure for fire tests on textiles. Named in the FIRA guide; editions and status not checked, texts not read.
• BIFMA HCF 8.1-2019 and ACT Test Method 1-2020: Named in a supplier's report as the basis of its bleach protocol. Neither was read.
• FIRA and British Furniture Confederation, Fire safety of furniture and furnishings in the contract and non-domestic sectors (2010, updated 2011): Appendix 1, A1.2.

Questions we are asked

What does bleach-cleanable mean on an upholstery fabric?

That the supplier has tested the cloth with a bleach solution and found acceptable colour change and no damage. There is no single standard: methods differ in dilution, contact time and cycles, and results differ by colour. Ask for the protocol and the report for your colourway.

Does a wipeable fabric survive disinfectant?

Not necessarily. Wipeable describes spills. Coated cloths can also break down in damp and heat, so ask for a hydrolysis report and the list of cleaners the coating has been tested against.

Do all colours of a bleach-cleanable fabric pass?

No. In one supplier's report of 25 colourways of the same fabric, 12 reached grade 4 and the others graded 3 to 4, 3 or 2, so a fabric-level claim does not cover every colour.

What do W, S, WS and X mean?

W is a water-based cleaner, S solvent, WS either, and X vacuum or brush only. They are a trade convention and not a test result, and none says anything about bleach.

Can cleaning affect the fire performance of a cover?

Yes, if the cover relies on a flame-retardant treatment. The FIRA guide says treatments can deteriorate with washing or dry cleaning, and recommends conditioning cycles before testing. Ask the fire report to state the conditioning used.

Who decides the cleaning product?

The specifier names the approved products and routine in the handover pack, and the cleaning contractor follows it. A product the cloth was not tested with is outside what the supplier's claim covers.