Any one have smoke clean up experience?

Tom Williams

Member
Messages
57
Location
Grove City, Ohio
I have to clean up some smoke residue from burning candles in the living room. I purchased some dry sponges which have been working great, but they are now black. Does anyone here know if they can be cleaned, or do you just throw them away? I am 2 sponges into the project and can see the need for many more. By the way, those smell good decorative candles do not burn clean at all.
 
Go to Walmart & get some Super Clean in the automotive section. A resident here at the apartment complex that is very heavy smoker use this product & it clean the wall very well. It has a break down on the back of the bottle for different application.
 
I had a really crappy job cleaning houses with smoke and furnace puff back damage. We used the dry sponges on every square inch of the walls. First was 1 pass horizontal then 1 vertical then repeat. We never reused the sponges but maybe you can. After the 4 passes we would clean the wall with a mild soap and water solution. Pretty much dish soap and towel dry. This is assuming latex.
You should never use a wet cleaner first because they told us you never get the soot off of the paint if you did.
 
Thanks for the advice. I am using a diluted mean green, which is very similar to super clean, on the trim after a wipe with the dry sponge. I have only used the sponge on the ceiling and wall paint, and it appears that the ceiling is going to have to be repainted.
How black can the dry sponges get before they have to be replaced?
 
Careful as Super Clean will remove paint, even cured automotive type paints very easily full strength. It will also burn the you-know-what out of your skin. I cleaned the underside of a car I was building with it one time and learned both. In my case the prior was a good thing, but the later is NEVER good.
 
I have to clean up some smoke residue from burning candles in the living room. I purchased some dry sponges which have been working great, but they are now black. Does anyone here know if they can be cleaned, or do you just throw them away? I am 2 sponges into the project and can see the need for many more. By the way, those smell good decorative candles do not burn clean at all.

On the same note, how about cleanup from a fire? My S-I-L manafged to set his garage on fire.... Luckly he was able to put it out but not till afte distroying 5 sheets of OSB on the wall and T12 on the outside, pluse 7 sheets of OSB on the ceiling and a lot of expensive tools. Not to mention the Foam insulation. Every time the humidity gets up, It stinks of Burnt wood.
 
On the same note, how about cleanup from a fire? My S-I-L manafged to set his garage on fire.... Luckly he was able to put it out but not till afte distroying 5 sheets of OSB on the wall and T12 on the outside, pluse 7 sheets of OSB on the ceiling and a lot of expensive tools. Not to mention the Foam insulation. Every time the humidity gets up, It stinks of Burnt wood.

Bill, I would remove any of the flame damaged material and any insulation or soft type of material that was smoked damaged. Then clean up the remaining wood and seal everything with Kilz or BIN primer.
 
When the house across the street largely burned down quite a few years ago, the "official" solution was to seal all the burned and smoke damaged material with aluminum paint. Don't know the theory why, but that is what the contractor used (and was approved by the insurance company), and after the rebuild, not the slightest hint of smoke at all.
 
smoke damage

My house got smoke damage real bad from some kerosene lamps that got left on and turned up to high during a ice storm, like the ones we get once in awhile here in South Arkansas. The Restoration company used a chemical treated sponge to wipe everything down with and then painted everything with Kilz paint. Things were so bad that everything in the cabinets had to be wiped down with the chemical sponges. Everything came out OK though. But it sure took awhile. Good luck. Jack
 
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