Trained upholsterers, not just cleaners. We collect your sofa, deep clean it at our Bolton workshop, fix anything broken while it's there, and bring it back. Free loan sofa while you wait. From £120.
Standard Suite
Collection & delivery included
Not Mobile
Proper deep clean possible
Included Free
Minor fixes as we clean
Free Sofa
While yours is in the workshop
Turnaround
Collection to return
Most sofa cleaning services in the area are essentially carpet cleaners with a wand attachment. They turn up, spray, suck, leave. Whatever's wrong with the frame, springs, padding or structural fabric is still wrong when they go.
Alec's is different because we've been building, repairing and selling sofas in Bolton since 1983. Our cleaning service runs out of the same workshop. When your sofa comes in, it gets properly assessed — frame, joints, springs, padding, covers — then cleaned with the right approach for what's actually wrong. Minor repairs are included in the cleaning price. Bigger jobs are quoted upfront before we touch them.
And because we have 500+ sofas on the warehouse floor at any time, we can lend you a free temporary sofa while yours is with us. No sitting on a dining chair for three days.
If you're choosing between a typical mobile sofa cleaner and us, here's the honest difference. Both will clean your sofa. Only one of us can also fix what's actually wrong with it.
Sofas come in for different reasons. Here are the four service tiers we offer, what they include, and what they typically cost.
Tier 1
£80 upwards
For sofas that look fine but smell tired. Surface clean, deodorise, condition the fabric or leather. No structural work.
Tier 2 · Most popular
£120 to £150
The everyday choice. Full extraction clean, deep into the cushions and seat. Minor repairs included free. Standard suite (3+2 or three-piece).
Tier 3
£180 upwards
Deep clean plus bigger fixes. Sagging seats re-padded, broken springs replaced, frame joints re-glued and re-screwed.
Tier 4
Quote on visit
When the frame is sound but everything else needs replacing. New fabric or leather, new foam, new padding. Suited to expensive originals worth saving.
Prices are guides for standard suites. Larger corner sofas, recliners and specialist materials may vary. We give you a firm price before any work starts.
Because we sell sofas as well as clean them, we'll tell you when it doesn't make sense to clean. If your sofa is structurally tired, the frame is going, or the foam has collapsed, a £150 clean isn't going to save it. We'll say so up front rather than take the money.
When that's the case, we can offer a part-exchange against a cleaned and refurbished pre-loved sofa from the warehouse floor. Often the total cost is comparable to a full clean of a tired sofa, but you end up with a sofa that'll last another decade rather than one that limps along for another year.
You don't have to take that offer. We just think it's worth knowing the option exists.
Five steps from your front door to a deep-cleaned sofa back in your living room. No surprises along the way.
Ring or email with rough details of the sofa and what's wrong. We agree a price guide, then book a collection date that suits you.
Our driver and assistant collect from your house. If you've requested a loan sofa, they bring one with them to swap over on the spot.
At the workshop, the upholsterer removes the base covering and clears out the inevitable haul: coins, food, lost remotes, kids' toys. Frame and springs checked.
Industrial extraction clean, material-appropriate chemistry. Minor repairs done as we go. Bigger jobs flagged and quoted before we proceed.
24-48 hours drying in our controlled workshop. We ring to book the return delivery. The loan sofa goes back with us. Typical total turnaround: 2-4 days.
Different fabrics and leathers need different cleaning approaches. The wrong chemistry on the wrong material is how sofas get permanently damaged. Here's the honest version.
Hot water extraction with pH-neutral solution. Stain pre-treatment by type. Most household fabric sofas. Always check the manufacturer's care label first.
Lower-moisture extraction and specialist brushes to lift the pile back up. Wrong treatment leaves microfibre patchy and matted. Care label code is usually 'W' or 'S'.
Leather cleaner first, then conditioning to replace the natural oils. Skipping the conditioner is why some leather sofas crack on the seating panels after cleaning. We don't skip it.
The trickiest. No water, no aggressive chemistry. Specialist products only. Honest answer: not every cleaner should attempt these. We will when the material allows, decline if it doesn't.
Enzymatic pre-treatment to break down the urea, then deep extraction. If it's gone into the foam, we may need to lift the seat to treat from underneath. Don't bother trying baking soda first, it locks the smell in.
Pre-treated with appropriate solvent (tannin spotter for the dark drinks), then extracted. Faster you bring it in after the spill, the more chance of complete removal. Old stains can usually be reduced but not always fully removed.
Solvent-based pre-treatment, dab not rub. Most kids' biro marks come out completely. Permanent marker on leather is the worst case, sometimes we can lift it, sometimes the leather has absorbed it permanently.
Deep extraction plus ozone treatment in the workshop to break down the smoke molecules. Standard cleaning alone won't shift heavy smoke smell. We can usually get smoking-household sofas back to neutral.
Either re-padding the existing foam if it's just compressed, or replacing with new foam if the core has collapsed. Spring sag is a separate repair. Both included in Tier 3 if needed.
Surprisingly common. Cheap cleaning products leave a soap residue that attracts dirt and feels sticky. Proper extraction with clean water re-rinses and removes it. Often the sofa looks dirty again within weeks of a previous clean — this is usually why.
Our collection & return service covers all of Greater Manchester and most of Lancashire from the Bolton workshop. Further afield by arrangement.
Outside these areas? Ring us with your postcode and we'll see what we can do. For full coverage see our delivery areas page.
Real customers across the North West. Read what people say about our workshop, our delivery and our cleaning team.
Read on Google
The workshop is part of the main warehouse. Drop in to see the operation, ask about specific repairs, or get an in-person quote on a tricky job. No appointment needed.
The questions people ask before booking professional sofa cleaning.
At Alec's, a refresh and deodorise starts from £80. A standard deep clean of a typical suite (3+2 or three-piece) is £120 to £150 and includes collection, deep extraction clean, minor repairs, drying, and return delivery. Clean plus structural repairs (re-padding, spring fixes) starts from £180. Full re-upholstery is quoted individually. Larger corner sofas and specialist materials may cost more, but we always give a firm price before any work starts.
Usually yes for sofas in reasonable condition that need a refresh, but it depends on the sofa. A £150 deep clean on a structurally sound £800 sofa makes obvious sense — extends the life by years. The same £150 on a tired sofa with a sagging frame and collapsed foam doesn't. We'll tell you honestly which category your sofa is in, because we sell sofas too and would rather not take the cleaning money on something that won't survive it.
Typical turnaround is 2-4 days from collection to return. The cleaning itself is around half a day, plus 24-48 hours drying time in our controlled workshop. We don't return sofas damp, so the drying step isn't negotiable. Faster turnaround is sometimes possible for urgent jobs, ring us to discuss.
Yes, free of charge. Just mention it when you book and our driver brings a loan sofa with them at collection, swaps it for yours, and takes both back when your cleaned sofa returns. We can offer this because we hold over 500 sofas in stock as a furniture retailer. Most mobile sofa cleaners can't, because they don't have any spare sofas.
In most cases yes. We use enzymatic pre-treatment to break down the urea (which is what causes the lingering smell), then deep extraction. If the urine has soaked into the foam underneath, we may need to lift the seat to treat from below. Light cases come back smelling completely neutral. Heavy or repeated cases may need a second pass, which we'll discuss before doing extra work.
Often yes, especially on fabric. Stains brought in quickly after the spill come out completely most of the time. Old stains that have been sat for months are harder — usually we can reduce them significantly but not always remove them entirely. We use tannin-specific spotters for wine, coffee and tea; solvent pre-treatment for ink and biro. Permanent marker on leather is the hardest case and we won't promise miracles on that one.
Yes, on pigmented and semi-aniline leather (the most common types in UK households). We use proper leather cleaner followed by conditioning to replace the natural oils that get lost over time. Skipping the conditioning step is why some leather sofas crack on the seating panels after cleaning — we don't skip it. Pure aniline and nubuck leather are the trickiest and we'll assess case-by-case before agreeing to work on them.
Yes, this is one of the main differences between us and most local sofa cleaners. Our staff are trained upholsterers, so minor repairs (loose stitching, small tears, sagging seats, button replacement) are included free as part of the standard cleaning. Larger structural repairs (broken springs, frame joint failure, foam replacement) are quoted upfront, usually starting at £180 on top of the clean. Full re-upholstery on quality frames is also available.
Yes, included in the price. Our own driver and assistant collect from your house and return the sofa when it's done. We cover all of Greater Manchester and most of Lancashire from the Bolton workshop. Further afield is by arrangement, ring us with your postcode to confirm.
For most households, every 18-24 months keeps the sofa in good shape and prevents long-term build-up that's harder to remove later. Households with pets or young children often want it annually. Heavy-use family sofas in busy living rooms might benefit from a clean every 12 months. The honest test: if you can see grime on the arms where hands rest, or it smells off when you sit down, it's time.
You can attempt surface cleaning yourself with a fabric or leather cleaner, but a couple of things to know. First, household cleaners often leave a soap residue that attracts dirt and feels sticky within weeks. Second, you can't extract the deeper soiling from inside the cushions or under the seat. Third, getting the chemistry wrong on certain materials (especially microfibre, velvet and aniline leather) causes permanent damage. For light maintenance between professional cleans, DIY is fine. For an actual deep clean, professional is genuinely better value.
We tell you before doing the work. If we strip your sofa down and find a cracked frame, broken springs, or foam that's failing, we ring you with a quote for the repair before going any further. You can approve the repair, decline it (in which case we clean what we can and return the sofa), or decide it's not worth repairing. In the last case, we can offer a part-exchange against a refurbished sofa from the warehouse, but only if it makes financial sense for you.
Trained upholsterers, full extraction equipment, minor repairs included. From £120 for a standard suite. Collection across Greater Manchester. Opening at 9am today.
Page last updated 10 June 2026. Open status updates automatically.