White spirit all round?

bertietheblue

Should I use white spirit or sugar soap to clean walls before putting more paint on (I put a coat on a while back but they've been getting dirty since whilst I've been sanding the floors/doors)?

And can I use white spirit to clean waxed doors before I put another coat of wax on?

Also, is white spirit the best thing for cleaning varnished pine floors?

I'm a bit concerned I might start using white spirit for just about everything unless I'm set straight on its uses!

:think:
Bertie

ormus

best to use sugar soap for nearly everything.
off hand, i cant think of cleaning anything, with white spirit.

jrrowleyws

White spirit can be good for removing grease... but I'd agree with ormus. Use sugarsoap.

White spirit would make you high as a kite!

keystone

Sugar soap for the walls.

If you want to strip the old wax off completely first use white spirit then clean the door again afterwards with meths and very fine wire wool. Then you can rewax.

White spirit will take the gloss off varnish. Use a damp cloth to clean or if its really dirty then yes use some sugar soap in the water.

Cheers

bertietheblue

Thanks for the replies. Guess I should lay off the white spirit. One thing I did use it to clean was doors I sanded before I waxed them. I was told that sugar soap would raise the grain.

Should I use sugar soap to clean any paint - whether it's gloss or matt?

And my question about cleaning waxed doors was, how do I clean a waxed door before I put another layer of beeswax on (I put a layer on a few weeks ago so they're no longer completely clean, especially when you have small kids!)?

Thanks all
Bertie

keith969

bertietheblue wrote: »

And my question about cleaning waxed doors was, how do I clean a waxed door before I put another layer of beeswax on (I put a layer on a few weeks ago so they're no longer completely clean, especially when you have small kids!)?

Get some Colron wax remover and some steel wool, it will remove the old wax / gunk.

Tia_24

Hi

I was going to going to start a new thread but as my question is similar to Bertietheblue's I thought I'd tag it on the end of his! ( Hope Bertie doesnt mind!)

My OH was cleaning the fireplace in the living room the other night, we've just moved into the house and havent used the fire yet, and a lot of black dust ended up on the floorboards. We've tried sweeping it up and rubbing with a damp cloth but there's still a darkish mark where the dust was. I remember reading something once about using white spirit to clean up floorboards after they've been sanded and wondered if we could use white spirt to clean up the marks? Has anyone tried this before or does anyone have a better tip?

Thanks.

bertietheblue

Feel free, Tia

I'm not the most confident DIYer myself but I think I'm right in this:

you can use white spirit if your floorboards are bare, unvarnished wood - if you use sugar soap you will raise the grain in the wood a little, which means ideally you would sand again lightly before varnishing - but then if the floorboards aren't treated yet why not simply sand with very fine paper if there's no other way of getting the marks off?

If the floorboards are varnished I imagine you could use a scrubbing brush and soapy water - the varnish is pretty hardy as long as you don't use anything really abrasive.

Congratulations on your move!
Bertie

Tia_24

Thanks Bertie

The floorboards are bare and unvarnished at the moment so I think I will give it a go later today. If it doesnt work I'll have a go at sanding them lightly.

bertietheblue

Or since you're going to have to sand the whole floor anyway - that is if you're planning to varnish it - you can use a coarser sandpaper. I mean, unless the floor is super smooth already, you'll probably be using coarse sand paper when you sand the whole floor anyway, before you move on to sanding with fine 120G paper. When I sanded my floors i moved from 40 to 80 to 120G although if your floorboards are old and quite dark/marked and you want very light floorboards you might need to start with an industrial sander which has very coarse sanding paper, but that's another matter.

Good luck!
Bertie