Hi there, Chimneysweeps. So, if you’ve ever had a mishap with a grill, a poorly installed chimney or maybe you just live in a smoky ol’ town, you’ve likely had problems with smoke soot on your siding. Actually, I’ve had a similar problem with cheap candles leaving soot stain my walls. As I found out, there is a wrong way and a right way for soot stain removal from siding and walls. Today, we’ll only be talking about the correct way to remove soot from a wall or vinyl siding.

Number One Rule for Removing Soot From Walls:

Remove dry soot without liquids first .

Why? Soot is basically nothing but black carbon. And do you know what black carbon is when you add water? Permanent ink. So, unless you want your house to look like it should’ve been wearing a pocket protector, follow these steps first.

What you’ll want to do to remove soot stains from your siding is get yourself a couple dry cleaning sponges. Sometimes these are called soot sponges, and they are cheap. Now, to properly use a soot sponge, do the following:

1. Begin from the top and wipe downwards in a straight line. When you clean the walls, the debris will fall downwards. Don’t think of it as wiping the soot up as much as it is like sweeping the soot. You gotta move your pile with you. Also, overlap your strokes a bit.
2. When your sponge gets all filled with soot do not wring it out or wash it with water. The sponge is chemically treated and wringing it or soaking it will remove these chemicals.
3. Instead, carefully shave off the dirty surface with a razor blade. It’s like cutting a block of cheese. This will expose a brand new cleaning surface, ready to go.

If the soot coverage isn’t awful, you can probably just pop up there with a brush (like the kind the umpire uses to sweep the home plate) or a vacuum. Once you remove the dry material, then you can use a liquid cleaner.

The best cleaners to use are citrus based cleaners. Just mix up a big bucket and get a longhandled brush and go at it.  Just like when you wash your car, do it in sections. Rinse the cleaner off with a garden hose so it doesn’t dry and get scummy. Then move on. If you’re doing a small area, you can just use a dish sponge.

And there, you’re hose no longer looks like a fireman’s face. Splendid.

P.S. Some people like to use a pressure washer – I would advise against this, as it can force water beneath the siding. Which means mold and rot!

Photo by Editor B