The Upholstery Forum

I have to recover a tattoo artists table and have had bad luck with the vinyl cracking after only a few months of service. The artist complains that the vinyl always gets hard and cracks after only a few months of service. They use a disinfectant called Cavicide and apparently it is on the harsher side for vinyl. Does anybody have any experience with vinyl life and disinfectants?

wow a few months. That seems pretty excessive even if they were using the worst bargain vinyl you can buy. Ive noticed a lot of vinyls will specifically say they can be used for health care. I believe this is also referred to as contract grade vinyl. Check out the Naugahyde Spirit Millennium fabric in about 100 colors and says this in the description.

"Spirit Millennium is a contract grade vinyl from Naugahyde with over 80 colors to choose from. It features Naugahyde's Advanced BeautyGuard® protection which provides outstanding protection in difficult medical and healthcare environments. Most Naugahyde® products contain an agent effective against bacterial and fungal microorganisms."

https://www.albrightssupply.com/Spirit- ... Click=3957

Question like this would be great for Torrie from Albrights. I'm gonna see if I can get her to join the forum.

I am game on giving this vinyl a try and this table undergoes commercial use 05 days a week so it would be a really good test for the vinyl and provide information for all of us here that are looking to recover tables that the disinfectant is used constantly on. The vinyl used on that table was Extreme stretch Vinyl did not hold up at all but the finished product was beautiful!

Thanks! that's great to know about the Extreme stretch Vinyl. Let us know how it works out with the new vinyl.

Hey John,

You are welcome! The table was done by an auto trimmer and it looked fantastic! Clearly healthcare facility need to have specific Upholstery fabrics as this case shows.

I will be putting my novice Upholstery skills to the test on this one Yikes!

Hey BigRig. I'm a firefighter by profession, and we use cavacide to disinfect the seats in our aid cars (i.e. ambulance), and they're vinyl and they last forever. I'm not sure what grade vinyl it is, so I'm probably not much help, but at least I know it can be done.

Are you guys using Cavi spray or the wipes? This is actually a good start up on the life of "OIL" and vinyl. Maybe it is the oil from the skin that degrades this vinyl or possibly the dermis (skin) contacting the vinyl pulling the moisture out of the vinyl.

I know most of the guys intrested in me doing a seat at some point are more intrested in the cosmetic side but we have a load of commercial veichles out there being put through their pace every day. I am always in awe when I see forklift seats that have seen a lot of service they are as dirty as you can get and ripped to shreds.

Maybe the mnanufactures need to do oil testing, after all the vinyl is a petroleum product.

We use both the spray and the wipes.

Ok good to know, apparently it is the harshest on vinyl and if your seats are surviving that is great!

Spirit Millenium is a amazing looking Vinyl. How can you beat down a 37oz 1,500,000 double rub coated vinyl? Most vinyls I see are 250,000 double rubs. Are there any other vinyls comparable to this Spirit Millenium?

I personally haven't done any comparison tests but that stuff is really nice. I have used it on some booth seating for bars and clubs. But there is nothing that can stand up to the abuse of bars and clubs. People standing on the seats with high heals, drinks being spilled all night and the occasional guy with a pocket knife. Non of it ever lasts long enough for the double rubs to matter Haha...
I guess you will be the one to let us know how long it lasts @BigRig

I think in this case we should be looking at penetration tests. I have seen a brand new recovered therapy tables get sliced open with the swipe of a buckle!

There are vinyls made for this type of application, one of my customers has a gym and another is our local hospital and clinic. The vinyls gets wiped down often with a harsh chemical, my supplier sold me gym and hospital rated vinyl.

Spirit Millenium is recommended a lot.