When customers come to John’s Cleaners with a unique problem, we love it.

Basically, there are 2 kinds of dirt: water soluble and oil soluble. Water soluble dirt is normally washed while oils must be broken down during cleaning. However, there are fabrics to consider, with shrinking, staining, heat sensitivity and a host of other considerations. Still, we try to figure out the best solution.

An example would be some uniform trousers we picked up that were caked in mud, dirt and oil. They had been through it all. Well, the trousers are wool and will shrink. The mud and dirt needs water to break down, but washing will shrink the pants. The oil needs to be broken down as well, but that won’t clean off the mud. What to do? We figured it out by spraying water on the muddy portions to break down the dirt, then letting the pants air dry so the mud becomes dusty. Beat the dust out, then dry clean and press. Voila! Trousers looked like new.

Did it take longer to clean than we charged on the contract? Yes! But results and a happy customer were more important.