Best Products To Clean Your Old Fireplace Before Painting
Do I have tips? I've got plenty. After my journey cleaning my fireplace, I honestly started to consider a career in cleaning chimneys and cleaning fireplaces. Let's get started.
First we're going to talk about the products I used.
Second we're going to talk about the different tools and I'm going to link everything here on this blog post.
My fireplace in my living room was a coal burning fireplace back in the late 50s. And I don't know the last time it was used but it is now closed off. I don't think it's ever been cleaned since then, 70 plus years later.
Instructions:
Vacuum your fireplace area with a shop vacuum.
Start off with warm bucket/bowl of water to dip your Scrub Daddy sponge & drill brush-head attachment into.
Spray down your fireplace with Dawn dish soap spray or if you don’t have the spray version you can just add regular style dish soap to the bowl of warm water and make a mixture of warm soapy water.
Additionally, you can make a paste mixture using Borax, LA’s Totally Awesome Cleaning Vinegar & warm water and apply to the brick with your Scrub Daddy sponge.
Spray a couple of layers of Easy-Off Oven Cleaner and or rotating with an all purpose cleaner such as Simple Green on the brick as well so that the chemicals can help to lift up some of the dirt, debris, and soot.
One of the products that I had the best results from was Hydrogen Peroxide. I will note that this was after implementing step 5 so I can’t say if it was 100% the work of the Hydrogen Peroxide or a combo of it + Easy-Off Oven Cleaner + Simple Green.
Lastly, after applying product (Borax mixture, Simple Green All Purpose Cleaner, Easy-Off Oven Cleaner, or Hydrogen Peroxide) to the fireplace I recommend going in small sections with the Bissell SteamShot and spray the section with the steam then take your Scrub Daddy or the drill brush head attachments and really work in the cleaning products and scrub your heart out.
Before After
Before deep cleaning & scrubbing my 1950’s old coal burning fireplace and before starting the paint makeover/transformation process. This fireplace hadn’t been cleaned since the last time it burned coal (most likely 70+ years ago) and it needed a good scrubbing before I could begin to even think about painting.
This is my freshly painted fireplace (after 1 coat). The most important step before painting was PREP by deep cleaning & scrubbing the brick. Even with a dark color such as black, any imperfections would be noticeable up close, thus the importance of a good prep before picking up a paint brush.