Advice on cleaning soot from stone fireplace surround
Advice on cleaning soot from stone fireplace surround
We've got a small log burner with a light grey stone surround.
Every time I open the door to poke the logs, bits of soot fall out and mark the stone when I brush them up.
I'm getting a little worried as the house is rented, so I want to leave it in good condition.
I've tried washing liquid and cream cleaner but they just don't shift the stains.
Does anyone have any good tips that might help. I'm in UK, so products I can get my hands on here would help.
Many thanks.
Oh you want this stuff by a brand called Hagesan Blue, sometimes listed as "HG". It'll be obvious which of their products to get though if I recall a few are suitablr.
Ryman's used to sell it.
I have this very same issue, and I found that Scrubbing Bubbles worked well. You just need something below to catch the filth that will run off. The bubbles penetrate the porous surface and draw out the soot.
If you can't get scrubbing bubbles, then baking soda and vinegar would create the same kind of bubbling action but you'll need the right proportions so as not to leave a baking soda residue.
Seconding oxyclean or a similar surfactant for the cleanup.
Second piece of (possibly unwarranted) advice: Do your best to load the box in such a way as to minimize fiddling during active burn times. We have a small fire box so for us it's usually a sort of Z pattern with two parallel logs and a cross piece. Play around with a few configurations to figure out the best layout for yours - the manufacturer may have suggestions. The goal is to set them up in such a way that the bottom logs collapse and let the top ones come down into the renewed coals, then turn to coals themselves. That's the optimal time to insert fresh logs to minimize ash and smoke escaping into your residence.
Thaks for the oxyclear tip and yeah, loading the fire up initially is something I struggle with - it stays in our it goes out. I'll try that loading fashion - cheers.
We used to have the problem of smoke, etc, escaping in to the room. We changed how and when we opened the door, and how we loaded it up.
Now we use the top down method to start a fire, it produces less smoke.
We use just kindling to start, which is best for my burner.
And we leave the air controls open for all of the first burn of the day.When the first load is down to embers -btw, embers don't smoke- we leave the air controls open.
Get the next logs ready.
Open the door slowly.
Then load up again quickly, but without just chucking the logs in.
We leave the air controls open until the new load is burning nice then shut them as needed.On the next load we do the same routine.
Now we only ever get smoke escaping in to the room if we have to open the door during the first part of a fresh load of logs, such as if the logs fall incorrectly and touch the glass.