How Painters Remove Stains from your Walls

Painters Tricks on Removing Stains

At Qpaint we have been painting homes in Brisbane for 40 years and in that time we have learnt many tricks on how to remove stains from walls. Clean walls are a must before any paint can be applied so it’s vital to get rid of wall-stains. So whether you are prepping your wall for painting or just want to remove a stain read on for our tips and tricks.

Common stains on walls are fingerprints, water stains, grime, and dust. It’s all about the right tools and the right application to remove them. Water stains or excessive grime such as exterior grime may be better to have a professional painter come in and remove. As often this damage requires painting to restore the walls (interior or exterior). But for smaller stains, it’s mostly about the right tool combined with some knowhow.

What you need

These items should be in your arsenal ready to deploy;

  • Natural sponge (no colour as the colour transfers to the wall)
  • Clean water
  • Brush
  • Cloth
  • White cleaning cloths
  • Vacuum with broom attachment
  • 2 or more buckets
  • Lambswool duster
  • Rubber gloves
  • Step ladder

What type of stain is it?

Before you attempt to clean the stain you need to understand what type of stain it is as there are different cleaning processes for them.

  • Dirt and grime
  • Water-based stains (coffee, wine, sauce etc)
  • Oil-based stains (cooking oil, grease, crayons etc)
  • Permanent marker/Ink
  • Mould & mildew

Cleaning method

1. Use a DIY magic eraser when cleaning your wall

DIY magic erasers are the best wall cleaner for drawing marks like ink, pencil and crayons. They are also great for furniture scuff marks. But you do not have to go out of your way to buy a magic eraser as they can be DIY.

How to make your own DIY magic eraser

1/2 a teaspoon of Borax

One teaspoon of baking soda

1/2 a cup of warm water

One rag or sponge

Mix all the borax and baking soda with warm water and dip the rag or sponge in and away you go.

2. Removing oil-based stains

We recommend an all-purpose cleaner to remove heavy oil stains. Again we have our own recipe for a DIY all-purpose cleaner. It’s also best for oil-based painted walls.

One teaspoon of dishwashing liquid

1/4 teaspoon of white vinegar

One litre of warm water

Stir the dishwashing liquid into warm water and add the white vinegar.

Make sure you allow at 10 minutes for the all-purpose cleaner to sit on the stain before drying. 

3. Removing stains from a water-based painted wall
This is the most simple of all walls to clean in terms of what to use. Simply mix half a cup of vinegar and 1/4 cup of baking soda into 2 litres of warm water. Then dip a clean sponge in, wring it out and gently rub onto the stain to remove. This is great for cleaning fingerprint marks around light switches and door handles plus other general dirt and grime.
4. Cleaning Wallpaper stains

Depending on the type of wallpaper you have there are different ways to go about cleaning the marks. There are commercial wallpaper cleaning products to purchase if you want but also some good old tricks to deploy. For example, an art gum eraser can remove finger marks and smudges from wallpaper. Coated wallpaper is easier to clean as it is covered with vinyl or acrylic, simply use a small amount of dishwashing liquid mixed with warm water. Take a natural sponge and dip in the solution and gently rub directly onto the area. Non-coated wallpaper needs a dry sponge to get at the stains, gently rub onto the stain.

Before cleaning any type of wallpaper use a lambswool duster to clean the area. Do not try any abrasive cleaners or sponges on wallpaper as they will damage it.

Contact us

Wall cleaning goes hand in hand with painting, and we are the best Brisbane painters for the job. If you want to get professionals in to clean and paint your walls give us a call.

Toll-Free: 1300 772 468

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