I'm allergic to my cabin cushions

[Cat25Kate]

Hello All,
I just bought a 1978 Catalina 25, swing keel. The cushions are temporarily housed in the living room of my apartment, while the boat is getting its bottom painted etc in the boatyard. The cushions are fabric on one side and vinyl on the other. The former owner has kept them clean, dry, and looking fine. But I think they are the originals..They totally make me sneeze- a lot. I'm allergic to dust and I think they are really dusty. I can't get the covers off. The zippers are no longer functional- if they ever were. Any suggestions on how I can clean them or try to get the dust out? I'm thinking of vacuuming them and putting them in the sun. If it was cheap or easy, I'd just find new cushions, but it seems to be pretty expensive to do that.

Thanks for any suggestions!
Kate

 

[thinwater]

Hello All,
I just bought a 1978 Catalina 25, swing keel. The cushions are temporarily housed in the living room of my apartment, while the boat is getting its bottom painted etc in the boatyard. The cushions are fabric on one side and vinyl on the other. The former owner has kept them clean, dry, and looking fine. But I think they are the originals..They totally make me sneeze- a lot. I'm allergic to dust and I think they are really dusty. I can't get the covers off. The zippers are no longer functional- if they ever were. Any suggestions on how I can clean them or try to get the dust out? I'm thinking of vacuuming them and putting them in the sun. If it was cheap or easy, I'd just find new cushions, but it seems to be pretty expensive to do that.

Thanks for any suggestions!
Kate

Another possibility is mold. Try cleaning them with a mixture that is about 1 tbs baking soda, 2 tbs borax, and 2tbs TSP per quart hot water and DON'T rinse out all of the residue (this will prevent reinfestation). There are MANY variations on this sort of cleaning formulations, but there are several common threads:

• They leave an alkaline residue.
• There is no organic component to serve as mold-food.
• They are never stronger than this. Do not over due it.

If there are stains that require a better degrease, try something like laundry detergent or Simple Green first, then do the above as a rinse. If you have a vacuum extractor or a shop vac, used that to recover the excess water (a scrub brush and detergent followed by a shop vac functions much like a carpet cleaner).

 

[Cat25Kate]

Thanks! I'll give that a try.

 

[shipwreck66]

All foam that age breaks down with age, regardless of how well it was maintained, and is loaded with mold and mildew. The only solution, and we tried everything else, was to bust that zipper and replace the foam. since then there is no musty smell, the cushions are more comfortable and my wife is a lot happier about the whole thing. We replaced the zippers with velcro, same for the old snaps on the back of the cushions.

 

[jrowan]

All foam that age breaks down with age, regardless of how well it was maintained, and is loaded with mold and mildew. The only solution, and we tried everything else, was to bust that zipper and replace the foam. since then there is no musty smell, the cushions are more comfortable and my wife is a lot happier about the whole thing. We replaced the zippers with velcro, same for the old snaps on the back of the cushions.

I wish I could get Velcro to work to hold my back rest cushions up.
It won't stick to Sunbrella very well.

 

[hvbaker]

I wish I could get Velcro to work to hold my back rest cushions up.
It won't stick to Sunbrella very well.

Velcro strip needs to be sewn on the cushion.

 

[Joel H.]

To the OP, try spraying the zippers with Dupont teflon/wax spray. If you get the covers off wash them. Then get some THIN large trash can liners and pull them over each end of the dried foam inserts using wide blue masking tape to join them in the middle (except for a strip on the bottom side for pressure relief), thereby neerly incapsulating them. Then recover. Which will be easy with the slippery plastic on them.

 

[onecoolair]

chemical residue

Hello All,
I just bought a 1978 Catalina 25, swing keel. The cushions are temporarily housed in the living room of my apartment, while the boat is getting its bottom painted etc in the boatyard. The cushions are fabric on one side and vinyl on the other. The former owner has kept them clean, dry, and looking fine. But I think they are the originals..They totally make me sneeze- a lot. I'm allergic to dust and I think they are really dusty. I can't get the covers off. The zippers are no longer functional- if they ever were. Any suggestions on how I can clean them or try to get the dust out? I'm thinking of vacuuming them and putting them in the sun. If it was cheap or easy, I'd just find new cushions, but it seems to be pretty expensive to do that.

Thanks for any suggestions!
Kate

Was the previous owner a smoker? Your allergic reaction could be from the Nicotine/Ammonia chemical residue.

 

[Dave Groshong]

Could be anything really, smoke, mildew, mold, but if you buy the quality of closed cell foam you want, cut them to shape and take them to a local upholsterer, you can save about 75%.

 

[Holly Smith]

I would mention that Curtains Made Simple custom makes box cushions to customers own sizes using fabrics suitable for boats. You also have the option of supplying your own fabric if you want.