Soot leaves an oily residue on every surface it comes in contact with.
Soot typically accompanies fire and is the result of incomplete combustion. Fireplaces, heaters and even candles can produce the black, oily residue. Soot coats surfaces -- such as walls and ceilings -- and creates a difficult to remove mess that will stain the item and fill the area with an unpleasant odor. Typically, you cannot remove soot with normal cleaning solutions and you must wait until the soot has dried for 24 hours before beginning the cleaning process.
Instructions
1. Remove items from the room. Take down curtains and wall decorations and place them in a safe location. Cover objects too heavy to move with a plastic dropcloth or tarp. Lay a dropcloth over the floor to protect it from the cleaning mixture.
2. Fill a bucket with 1 gallon of . Add 6 tbsp. of trisodium phosphate -- also known as TSP -- and 1 cup of bleach to the water. Mix the contents together with a wooden spoon. Fill a second bucket with cool water only.
3. Dip a sponge mop in the mixture. Wring the sponge mop to remove the excess liquid. Scrub the ceiling in a back-and-forth motion.
4. Saturate the sponge mop in the bucket filled with water when it becomes soiled to rinse the mop clean. Dip the sponge mop back into the cleaning mixture and continue scrubbing the ceiling.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until you have removed the soot from the ceiling.
6. Fill a clean bucket with cool water. Dampen a cloth in the water and wring out the excess liquid. Rinse the mixture off the ceiling by wiping it with the damp cloth. Allow the ceiling to air dry.
Tags: bucket with, cool water, bucket with cool, cleaning mixture, excess liquid, oily residue, with cool