How do you get the black crud off of fire place walls? Do you use a certin cleaner or what?

First you would scrub the walls with a stiff dry brush. Wear a mask and vacuum up the black dust (carbon) which comes off.

(This is important because some of the hydrocarbons that are mixed with the loose carbon are carcinogens. You don't want to breathe them in. One fireplace cleaning is the equivalent of smoking 500 packs of cigarettes. )

Then scrub with an ordinary de-greaser cleaner, and rinse and dry.

Then you could use a special product used to take the same kind of black crud off stove windows (the glass windows which some stoves have which make the flames visible as the fire burns). This product is for sale wherever glass-doored stoves are for sale.

This will not completely remove the crud, because the masonry surface of the inside of the firewell is rough, so will never come as clean as the glass in a stove door. But it will almost remove it.

Or just remove the loose dirt and learn to love the look of the 'patina' you find underneath it.

quote:

---

Originally posted by babthrower:
(This is important because some of the hydrocarbons that are mixed with the loose carbon are carcinogens. You don't want to breathe them in. One fireplace cleaning is the equivalent of smoking 500 packs of cigarettes. )

---

So is what you're saying going to be the next TV service announcement?
"Just say no to chores!"

Hey, sounds logical enough to me.