InTents October/November 2019 - 38

GO ORANGE

I

f a stain doesn't come out the ﬁrst
time a linen is washed, the problem
is usually grease or oil. That's when
the laundry experts at A1 Tablecloth
Co., South Hackensack, N.J., turn to a
citrus-based degreaser.
"It's a great product, and it is like it
sounds-it is a citrus type of product,"
says A1 general manager Adam
Pearle. "Every chemical company out
there has one. It can be used both in
the wash and as a spotting chemical,
so if we see heavy grease, we will
spray it on before it's washed, or we
will put [the load] on a heavy grease
formula in our machine. If it still has
grease after it comes off the iron,
we will spray it with that spotting
chemical directly on the stain, let it
sit overnight and then wash again.
Typically, that will do the trick."

"We pride ourselves on making sure
our customers are happy, because it is
our mission to offer quality products for
every event large or small," she says.

WHAT'S THAT STAIN?
Grease from food such as butter and
salad oils is one of the most common
stains for event linens. At Beachview
Event Rentals and Design, an event
rental company with locations in Georgia
and Florida, food stains are treated
with OxiClean™, says Kelly Meade,
Beachview's linen department manager.
Beachview expects customers
to remove food scraps from the
linens before they are placed in the
company-supplied return bags.
Mildew results when food or liquids
are left on the linens too long, so those
linens get treated immediately.
"Vinegar is our best defense against
mildew, but our washers also have

a preset program speci ically for
mildewed linens," Meade says.
Food stains that result from a natural
dyeing element, such as mustard
and curries, are a big challenge,
Richards adds. These kinds of stains
require pretreatment and working
the stain out of the ibers by hand.
Another common stain on table linens
is spilled candle wax. Beachview uses
mineral spirits on candle wax, as well as
on grease and wine stains, Meade says.
At All Occasions, linens with wax are set
aside before laundering, because if the
wax melts down in the washing machine
but doesn't get lushed out, it can spread
to other linens, Richards says. A team
member will peel off as much wax as
possible and then run the linen under hot
water in a sink to remove residue before
the piece goes into a washing machine.
Carbon stains from inks or wheels
tend to be the hardest stains to remove
because they embed into the fabric
ibers, Richards adds. At All Occasions,
when a stain persists, the linen is sent to
a spotting table-a piece of dry cleaning
equipment that can include spotting
guns and tanks for liquid spotting
agents, a high-pressure water spray,
a steam gun, and an air gun with hot
air, in addition to a working surface.
For linens at All Occasions, it's
generally three strikes and you're out-
if a stain persists through a couple of
washes and a trip to the spotting table,
the piece is taken out of inventory. But
the company tries to avoid taking that
step in order to maintain inventory
numbers, especially with linens that are
one of a kind or a discontinued pattern.
All Occasions Event Rental laundry assistants
Graciela Villegas (left) and Emy Ordonez fold
a linen coming off of a Chicago ﬂat ironer.
Clean/washed linens are pulled from the
green bin (right), fed into and pressed on the
ironer, folded, hung on hangers, and ﬁnally
placed on a Z-rack (left). Photo courtesy of All
Occasions Event Rental.

38 intents

oct-nov 2019
InTents October/November 2019

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