Clean Soot Stains from Walls

Soot is a carbon residue in the form of a black powder that’s created when organic matter doesn’t burn completely. Sources of soot include candles, fires, matches, and other burning materials. Soot stains on walls are unsightly and difficult to deal with, but it is possible to remove soot from walls, and all you need is some basic cleaning tools and a special kind of sponge.

Steps

Taking Safety Precautions

1. Open the windows. Soot can irritate your lungs and cause lung disease if you inhale too much of it, so it’s important to open the windows in the room before you start working. Open windows will provide fresh air, decreasing the amount of soot you inhale.
   • Open windows will also help air out the room, and allow soot particles to escape outside, rather than settling on your carpets or furniture.
2. Turn on fans and open vents. Ventilation is also important when you're cleaning soot, because it will provide a constant supply of fresh air, and circulate fresh air throughout the room. Turn on ceiling fans, set up a standing fan, and turn on any nearby vents or fans in places like the laundry room, bathroom, and kitchen.
3. Wear personal protective gear. To protect your eyes, skin, and lungs from soot particles, you should wear a full array of personal protective equipment when you're cleaning soot from a wall. Safety equipment you should consider includes:
   • Safety glasses
   • Rubber or latex gloves
   • Mask or respirator
   • Long-sleeved shirt
   • Thick apron
4. Empty the room. As you clean soot from the walls, particles will float around the room and settle on furniture, decorations, and anything else that’s in the room. To protect your personal belongings, remove everything from the room that you can. This will also remove clutter, making it easier to move around and clean. Remove items like:
   • Furniture
   • Carpets and rugs
   • Paintings and pictures
   • Plants
   • Drapes and curtains
   • Personal belongings
5. Protect the floor. Once everything is out of the room, cover the entire floor with a plastic drop sheet, canvas, or newspaper. The soot will float around on the air, so cover the whole floor, and not just the section near where you'll be cleaning. Position the drop sheet so it comes up and over the baseboards too, and tape the sheet in place so it doesn’t move around.
   • If there are any items left in the room, such as furniture that was too large to move, cover it with a drop sheet as well.

Removing Soot

1. Use a dry cleaning sponge. Dry cleaning sponges are specifically designed to absorb residue, which makes them perfect for cleaning soot. Soot is easy to smear, so if you use a regular sponge, you risk pushing the soot farther into the wall and causing a permanent stain.
   • Dry cleaning sponges are also called chemical sponges, but they don’t contain any chemicals. Instead, they're made from vulcanized rubber.
   • Dry cleaning sponges are available from building stores, hardware stores, cleaning supply stores, and online.
2. Wipe the wall with downward and overlapping strokes. Start at the top left edge of the soot stain. Press the sponge firmly against the wall and wipe downward in a vertical line. Then, go back to the top. Move over one section, overlapping the first stroke by an inch or two (2.5 to 5 cm), and wipe again.
   • Repeat until you get to the bottom right edge of the stain and have wiped the entire surface.
   • The key to cleaning soot off walls is to wipe, not scrub, because scrubbing can move the soot around and cause the stain to spread.
3. Switch to a fresh section of sponge as necessary. After each stroke, check the sponge to see how saturated it is with soot. When the sponge becomes clogged and full of soot, flip it over and use the clean side. Repeat with all four sides until the upper layer of the sponge is clogged with soot.
   • Do not rinse the sponge with water to clean it, or it will become unusable for cleaning soot.
4. Cut off the layers of sponge that are clogged with soot. Place the sponge on a flat surface. Hold the sponge in place with one hand, and use a utility knife, retractable razor knife, or razor blade to slice off the dirty outer layer of the sponge. Turn the sponge over and repeat until you’ve sliced off all the clogged sections.
   • When the sponge is clean again, you can continue using it to remove soot.
5. Continue until the wall is clean. Repeat wiping the wall with the downward, vertical, and overlapping strokes until the sponge comes away clean. Once the sponge has absorbed all the soot it can, you can remove any remaining stain with a regular sponge and a degreasing cleaner.

Cleaning Residual Wall Stains

1. Make a degreasing cleaning solution. Once the soot is gone from the wall, you can treat the remaining stain with a degreaser, such as denatured alcohol, sugar soap, ammonia-based cleaners, trisodium phosphate, degreasing dish detergent, or a citrus cleaner. Mix your cleaning solution in a bucket:
   • To make a cleaning solution with sugar soap, mix 3 tablespoons of sugar soap with ½ gallon (1.9 L) of water.
   • To make a cleaning solution with TSP, mix ½ cup (4 ounces) of trisodium phosphate with ½ gallon (1.9 L) of water.
   • To make a cleaning solution with degreasing dish detergent, mix 2 tablespoons of liquid detergent with ½ gallon (1.9 L) of water.
2. Clean the wall with a degreasing cleaner. Soak a sponge in the solution and wring out the excess. Wipe the wall with the damp sponge to remove soot residue. As the sponge gets dirty, rinse it in the cleaning solution and wring it out again before continuing.
   • Because the majority of the soot is gone and you're just cleaning the residue, you don’t have to use a special technique to clean the wall.
3. Rinse the area with water. When you’ve finished cleaning the wall with a degreaser, dump the cleaning solution, rinse the bucket, and fill it with plain water. Rinse out your sponge or grab a fresh one, dampen the sponge, and wipe away excess cleaner and soot with the wet sponge.
4. Dry the wall. When the wall is clean, use a towel or rag to dry the surface. Depending on the size of the soot stain you had to remove, you may need more than one towel. When you’ve removed as much water as you can, let the wall air dry for several hours.
5. Remove the cover from the floor. Once the wall is clean, you can remove the protective cover you had over the floor. Peel the tape from the wall or baseboards at a 45-degree angle. Starting at the edges, fold the drop sheet over on itself toward the center to avoid throwing soot everywhere.
   • Discard newspapers and plastic drop sheets to avoid spreading soot around.
   • If you used a canvas drop sheet, take it outside and bang it out to remove excess soot before laundering it.
6. Vacuum everything thoroughly. In case any soot did manage to settle on the contents of the room, vacuum the floors, carpets, baseboards, and furniture that was left in the room when you were cleaning the wall. Use the long nozzle attachment to vacuum.
   • When you vacuum, avoid pressing the vacuum directly against the surface you're cleaning, as this can push soot particles deeper into the surface. Instead, hold the nozzle about an inch (2.5 cm) from the surface as you vacuum.
   • When the walls and floors are clean, you can return carpets, rugs, furniture, decorations, and personal items to their original places in the room.

Warnings

• Avoid vacuuming the walls before removing the soot, as this can lead to the soot being smudged, spread, and pushed deeper into the wall.

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