How to Clean Smoke Off Walls

Views: 14287 | Last Update: 2009-03-27
How to Clean Smoke Off Walls - Provided by eHow
Cleaning smoke off the walls is done using a vinegar and water mixture or a bleach and water mixture to disinfect the walls, but repainting the area is usually needed. Clean smoke off the walls, which causes yellowing and staining, with information from... View Video Transcript

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Rachel Yatuzis

Video Transcript

Hi, I'm Rachel Yatuzis and I'm going to show you how to clean smoke off of your walls. If you've got, you know, candle; maybe there sleet on your walls from the smoke or maybe you bought a house and the previous owners were smokers and you got a good deal on it because the walls were yellowed; it's not going to be an easy process and unfortunately, from my experience and from what I've heard from other people; you can't just clean the smoke off the walls. You're going to have to wipe the walls down and disinfect them first and then repaint them. The way that you're going to disinfect them is, get a bucket; I use vinegar, a splash of vinegar. If you want to use bleach, just use about a tablespoon of bleach for every gallon of water. So vinegar and water or bleach water. Grab a sponge or cleaning rug and a mop. If you're short like me, see you can actually reach all the way up to the ceiling. So you just want to have your bucket and I would start out the top and work your way down obviously 'cause if you start at the bottom and then you clean at the top, all that residue is just going to run down to the part that you just clean. So start at the top with your mop and just clean it. You're going to have to go through all; you know, every space on the wall. If you have a house that was previously smoked in or have major smoke damage; but it's easier to do it with the broom and you just want to go over the wall. This is going to disinfect it really well. When you're done doing that, this may remove some of the paint; if you have certain spots that are dirtier than others, you may have to get on them with a sponge like this; you know, a little more detailing and like I said, it will probably remove some paints. So you want to have some primer and another bucket of paint ready so when the walls dry you can go back and repaint them and they'll look brand new. Just want to make sure to remove the stain as much as possible because once you apply the primer and the new paint, it may make the new paint a different color if you don't have the smoke totally removed; or you may have to put two coats of the primer to make sure that the color of the smoke doesn't show through and change the color of the paint that you're trying to put back on the walls. I'm Rachel Yatuzis and that is how you clean smoke from walls.