Title: How to Clean Soot Off a Painted Wall | Hunker
Headings: How to Clean Soot Off a Painted Wall
How to Clean Soot Off a Painted Wall
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Corey M. Mackenzie

Content: Doing so will embed the soot into the wall’s painted surface, making it more difficult to remove. Soot may contain many harmful chemicals and heavy metals, such as lead. Use safety glasses and protective gloves and masks. After cleaning soot from walls, wash your clothes and shower to remove residual soot on your skin. Alternatively, wear a Tyvek protective suit over your clothing. During and after a smoky fire, soot settles on every surface, including walls. Your first impulse may be to clean this off just as you would dirt or dust—with a damp cloth or sponge. However, using an ordinary sponge first will only smear the soot and add to the cleanup process. Special sponges, available at many hardware stores, are made for cleaning soot off walls and most other surfaces. They are used dry and will remove much of the surface smoke damage before you use a liquid cleaning solution.