According to Mark Roemer Oakland, fireplaces add warmth and light to your home and also act as focal points to control the mood and ambiance of the room. You need to keep it clean to maintain its appearance and safety. Let’s check out how you can clean a fireplace in your apartment.
The Details
1. Pre-cleaning prep – Allow the ashes and embers to cool down completely and spread an old rug over the firebox to contain spills. Next, use a trowel or shovel to scoop out ashes into a metal box and dispose of everything in a metal trash can. You can also add these ashes to the soil to enrich it.
Next, use a vacuum to suck away stray ashes around the fireplace and the mantel. Before you start cleaning the fireplace, make sure to equip yourself with the best safety gear. Wear safety goggles, masks, thick rubber gloves, and thick boots. You don’t want to breathe in nasty particles or get injured.
2. Clean the fireplace with salt, vinegar, soap, and water – Fill up one gallon of warm water in two buckets and fill up a spray bottle with cold water. Add two tablespoons of dishwashing liquid that is effective at cutting grease. Add white vinegar to the second bucket. Spray a small area of the firebox with cool water. Next, dip a stiff-bristled brush in the bucket with dish soap and then sprinkle some table salt on it. Now, brush the firebox with the salt acting as an abrasive.
The salt will loosen the soot and help get it off the surface. Next, dip a second sponge in the vinegar solution and use it to scrub and rinse the same area. The vinegar should help cut through residues and should also tame the smoky odors. Keep scrubbing and rinsing out the firebox till you clean all the surfaces. If your fireplace is large enough, you may need to mix up a second batch for the same.
3. Clean the fireplace with soap, ammonia, water, and pumice – If vinegar and salt aren’t cleaning your fireplace, you may use this method. However, you’ll need to be extra careful and equip yourself with specialized breathing equipment since you’ll handle ammonia. Also, make sure that the room is well-ventilated.
Similar to the above method, keep two buckets of warm water and a spray bottle with cold water. Add dishwashing liquid and household ammonia to one bucket and white vinegar to the other one. Dip a stiff-bristled brush in the ammonia bucket and sprinkle finely-ground pumice on it. Next, repeat the same process as the above method and use the vinegar solution for rinsing.
Conclusion
Mark Roemer Oakland suggests that you use the above-mentioned tips to clean your fireplace and keep it soot free. Make sure that you wear all the necessary safety gear since you don’t want to breathe in any of the toxic substances in the fireplace and on the chimney walls.