How to Get Expanding Foam Off Clothes

Can You Remove Expanding Foam from Clothes?

Whether or not you can remove expanding foam from clothes depends on the following:

How much expanding foam have you dropped onto your clothes?

If you’ve dropped a small blob of expanding foam onto your item, you can grab a teaspoon and lift the foam off the surface. You can then treat the patch.

If you’ve got a massive stretch of expanding foam on your item, it’ll be hard to remove, and you might not be able to remove the entire blemish.

Has the expanding foam chemically bound itself to the fibres of your clothes?

If the expanding foam has sunk into the material and bound itself to the fibres, you probably won’t get all the expanding foam off, and you may always be left with a stain.

How quickly you react

If you react quickly, there’s a fair chance that you’ll be able to remove the expanding foam from your item of clothing.

On the other hand, if you allow the expanding foam to cure onto your outfit, it’ll become tough to remove.

In this case, even if you can get the large chunks of foam off your clothing, you may still be left with a discoloured/stained patch.

It is, however, worth preparing yourself for the worst case. Some of your clothes will end up permanently tainted with expanding foam.

Even if you can remove the bigger bits of foam from them, the material may always have a slight discolouration.

How to Remove Expanding Foam from Clothes

Note: If you use chemicals to remove the expanding foam from clothes, accept that the solution may discolour/damage your items. 

Getting rid of fresh expanding foam

Tip: Make sure you don’t spread or apply pressure to wet expanding foam – this will spread and force the foam between the fibres, thus making it much harder to remove.  

Steps to follow:

1. Put your protective gear on (gloves and eyewear).
2. Grab a spatula/teaspoon and try to lift the excess expanding foam from your item of clothing. You may be able to pick it off in clumps at this point.
3. Grab some acetone (commonly known as nail varnish remover) and do a quick patch test on a discreet section of material. If there are no adverse effects, continue using the solution.
4. Blot the acetone into the expanding foam blemish.
5. Continue to blot the stain until it disappears.
6. Wash the item as usual. Use hot water (as long as it’s safe for the material) and detergent.

Note: This method is not suitable for delicate materials like silk. The acetone will damage and discolour the fabric. If you get expanding foam on a delicate material, take your garment to a dry cleaning store and ask them for advice.

Additional steps

Here are a few extra steps you could take:

• To aid the cleaning process, coat the treated area(s) in liquid laundry detergent before you clean the item in a washing machine.
• You could use a multipurpose stain removal treatment on the treated areas. However, they may have limited success in removing the remaining blemishes from the surface. So, keep this in mind.

Getting rid of hard/set expanding foam

Steps to follow:

1. Put your protective gear on (gloves and eyewear).
2. Rub the hardened expanding foam off the item using a sharp/stiff tool like a razor blade, nail cleaning brush, pumice stone, or nail filer. Be careful not to press too hard because you could damage the material.
3. Now, hold the treated patch between your fingers and scrunch the piece up over and over again to loosen and break up the remaining thin layer of hardened expanding foam. Fine dust will float off the material, and this is a sign that the action you’re taking is working.
4. Do this for about three minutes.
5. Run cold water through the back of the stain to remove the broken-up particulate.
6. If need be, clean any remaining blemishes off the surface using acetone. Follow the steps above under ‘Getting rid of fresh expanding foam’.
7. Launder your garment in hot water and with detergent.

Alternatives – to be used with caution!

There are some alternatives you can try. However, these alternatives involve using strong chemicals to remove the expanding foam from your item of clothing.

They often get mixed results, must be used with care, and can cause irreparable damage to your garments (discolour, weaken or even dissolve them).

For these reasons, you use these alternatives as a last resort and at your own risk. 

If you don’t feel comfortable using these alternative treatments, skip them!

• Use an official foam remover, like Everbuild’s Foam Cleaner, to remove the stain from your item. Foam removers like the one mentioned are designed to clean the guns that you use to apply the expanding foam to a surface in the first place. They’re not supposed to be used on textiles and soft furnishings because they’re incredibly strong and will likely cause irreparable damage to the material’s fibres. So, if you try this method, this is at your own risk.
• Dip a neutral-coloured cloth into some mineral spirit and dab it into the back of the expanding foam stain. The mineral spirit may soften or weaken the bond between the foam and the fibres. Consequently, you’ll be able to remove the stain a little easier using a scraping tool.
• Dab some polyurethane cleaner into the back of the expanding foam stain. The solution may weaken the bond between the fibres and the foam. In turn, removing the stain with a tool, like a pumice stone, might be a little simpler for you.

Note: You do not mix any of the chemicals noted above together. If you combine the chemicals, you’ll trigger a chemical reaction.

Ask a professional cleaner for help

If you’re still in a foamy pickle after treating your garment, you could take it to a dry cleaning store to get their take on the matter. The solvents they have access to may be able to lift the blemish off the surface without causing damage.

A reputable dry cleaner can be found by doing an online search. Just choose a company/person with good reviews and, ideally, someone with experience handling an expanding foam type of stain.

What to Do If You Can’t Remove Expanding Foam from Your Clothes

Depending on what chemicals are in the expanding foam and what material you’ve got the foam on, you may not be able to remove it from the surface.

In this case, you could:

• Repurpose your outfit and make something new out of it. For example, cut a pair of shorts from some stained jeans.
• Keep your stained clothes as ‘working clothes’.
• Try to dye the patches that have been stained by expanding foam.
• Do a patch repair. Cut off the damaged pieces and replace them with a new square(s) of fabric.

Tips for the Future

Prevention is paramount when it comes to keeping your clothes free from expanding foam. Here are a few points to keep in mind:

• Wear old clothes when using expanding foam.
• Don’t go near the area you’ve treated with expanding foam until it dries properly.
• Keep kids and pets away from expanding foam and any surface you pop it on.
• Ensure you cover the surfaces around the area you’re working in – carpets and laminates.
• Cover up your clothes with some disposable coveralls from B&Q.