Cleaning smoke damaged kitchen

Savvy_Sue

Tomorrow morning I am going round to a friend's house, where it appears her DH has set fire to something, and left the kitchen covered in soot. My friend is away, due back tomorrow evening, and while I'm 100% sure she'll find out what's happened (I'll tell her if he doesn't!), I'd like for her not to have to clean the kitchen.

I have depressed myself reading this older thread, and I have packed a bucket containing

Fairy washing up liquid (must have been on special offer)
Fairy Power Cleaner (that spray the boxer advertises)
Stardrops
several tired lemons
a vinegar spray
sugar soap
a special solution which comes with the Karcher window cleaner I bought the other day
said Karcher window cleaner
gloves, cloths, brushes and scrubbers

suggestions for anything else I should take welcome ...

CurlyTop

Aren't you a good friend. I think you've covered most tings. Only thing I'd add is a bottle of bleach JUST incase there is a stubborn stain that won't shift. Plenty of elbow grease needed here, hope the hubby is going to help you also.

Best of luck.

pigpen

You don't need most of that... sugar soap is all you'll need (the soot sticks to the grease so you need to shift that too and sugar soap is the only thing will cut it.) Kitchen walls have a layer of grease from cooking etc and soot is also sticky so sticks to the none greasy bits.

LOADS and LOADS of the larger kitchen sponges with the abrasive side..

and lots of time!!!!

Then He will need to repaint.

We had a fire a few years ago and nothing but the sugar soap shifted the soot. though the sugar soap removed patches of paint too so we needed to redecorate once it was clean. It also took me 3 days to clean it all.

It is possible everything inside the wall units will need to be taken out, washed and put back too! Blinds and windows will also need doing.

Savvy_Sue

Well, I've made a start, unfortunately their kitchen opens onto their lounge and in some ways that smells worse to me.

Someone else had done a 'first swipe' last night and I think I'm just going to do a 'second swipe'. Have washed net curtain from kitchen, put a few things out to air, and hoping we don't get the promised thunderstorms.

I don't think we will manage to take everything off all the shelves / out of all the cupboards, superficial will have to do for now.

Her husband has 'gone out', mine has been helping, home for a quick lunch ...

Savvy_Sue

Oh, and I can't use bleach, can't stand the smell. But I might just go and find the Febreze for their lounge carpet. I know it's not going to completely do the trick, but it can't do any harm ...

zippychick

Savvy, you're a great friend!

We will merge this with the older thread later on

Zip

Valli

am fascinated as to why YOU are doing all this and the perpetrator has left you to it...

and as for your friend finding out - I think she will know something has happened within minutes of her return;)

Seakay

halves of onion in dishes of water take smell out of freshly painted rooms, might work for smoke

Get husband (the one who created all the mess!) to wash everything from the cupboards outdoors in a bowl of water with a squirt of w'up liquid and a dash of ammonia to get all the grease and dirt off. Outdoors to keep the ammonia fumes out of the house. Rinse in plain water and allow to dry. Meanwhile someone else (probably you!) has space to clean the actual cupboards using sugar soap

Savvy_Sue

Valli wrote: »

am fascinated as to why YOU are doing all this and the perpetrator has left you to it...

and as for your friend finding out - I think she will know something has happened within minutes of her return;)

I'm not going to go into details. I'm doing it because she is my friend, and I don't want her to come back to a completely unusable kitchen.

She's already been told what's happened. A couple of our other friends have taken over. I've given most of the kitchen a first or second swipe (depending on whether or not it had already had a first swipe). I've made some of it look better, and some of it worse (like the external door frames). But there are clean mugs, and some clean surfaces. Inside the cupboards may have to wait.

BTW, DH and I are in disagreement over whether or not we should have taken the electric fan in the lounge to bits and cleaned it: I say we should because it is black and therefore just blowing the smell of smoke around, he says it's way down the list of priorities. Opinions?

Oh, and advice for others in this sorry situation:

Fairy Powerspray has done an awesome job on the hob (although it may have been left more than 30 minutes!)

Dettox Scrub wipes (may be called something else) are fairly awesome too!

Sugar soap spray is pretty good but difficult not to leave smears

Valli

well Savvy Sue - you are a top friend.

Mands

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

Oh, and advice for others in this sorry situation:

Fairy Powerspray has done an awesome job on the hob (although it may have been left more than 30 minutes!)

Dettox Scrub wipes (may be called something else) are fairly awesome too!

Sugar soap spray is pretty good but difficult not to leave smears

A few years ago we bought a house from someone fairly eccentric. The living room had a gorgeous open fireplace which didn't draw properly so the entire room, plus the open plan dining room, was sooty. Sooty walls, sooty ceiling, sooty windows.

The husband and I de-sooted the place before we painted. It took two of us two entire days ... and I've never been so filthy and tired in all my life.

We used sugar soap, sponges and buckets of water. As you've found it smears; it's as if the sugar soap dissolves the soot but then moves it along where it resets. What we found worked was one up a ladder soaping and one on the ground managing the sponges. So: bucket of sugar soap water, bucket of clean water, half a dozen sponges. Sponges start in the sugar soap bucket, are wrung out, used for a couple of passes across the ceiling, then returned to the clean water bucket. Replace with fresh sponge and start again. Once all the sponges were filthy then empty the buckets, wash everything out, refill, take a break, then start again.

For two entire days. It's only now that I remember quite how horrible it was

If there's a scent of burning in the air then simmering vinegar on the hob will help. That too smells awful but it leeches the smell from the air and its smell with go overnight, or faster if the windows are left open and there's a breeze.

You are a super friend
Mands