If you have flat painted walls in your home, you already know that cleaning can be a tough job. However, when done gently and in the right way, there is a chance that you can keep your wall looking radiant without needing a house painting job to clear the dirt.
One of the biggest factors homeowners often skip when choosing paint for their walls is how easy it is to maintain it. Some paints are very easy to maintain, while others are downright difficult. One of those difficult options, as you may have guessed, is flat paint. Cleaning your flat paint wall requires you to be in the right frame of mind. To ensure that you get the best out of the overall cleaning process, follow the simple steps discussed below.
What You Should Know
Flat paints may be difficult to clean, but they can also be fragile. That said, you should take care to avoid scrubbing too hard when cleaning this kind of paint. You should also do away with a scrubbing brush to avoid damaging the paint job.
Why Flat Paints?
Asides from the high maintenance requirement and the difficulty of cleaning, flat paints offer several advantages to the interior space. If you do not plan on layering a fresh coat of paint on your existing flat paint, cleaning it is the only option to keep your indoor space looking great and friendly. Flat paints offer a wide range of advantages, including:
- Perfect for hiding imperfections on the walls. With flat paint, you get a chance to hide chips and other kinds of imperfections that may have been pronounced if other paint types had been used.
- Flat paints offer a finer finish. Choosing flat paint for your interior walls guarantees an overall uniform appearance. This contributes to the décor of your interior space.
- Walls with nicks, scratches and other imperfections are hardly visible. With flat paints, such imperfections tend to blend in.
Cleaning Your Flat Paint
If you have seen flat paint on indoor walls and have consulted with your painting contractor to determine it as the right choice for you, knowing how to maintain it is important. Flat paints offer a porous texture that makes cleaning it a little more difficult than usual. Cleaning your flat painted walls as soon as you find dirt or stains on them is essential as it can only get worse over time. To make the process easier, below are some of the things you need.
Supplies
Similar to any cleaning job, you need the right supplies to get the job started. You need water, a soft sponge, cleaning rags, buckets, spray foam cleanser, and laundry detergent for a flat painted wall or surface.
Step-By-Step Guide to Cleaning
When approaching this cleaning task, you need time on your hands. You do not want to mess your wall up by aggressively scrubbing on the stained surface. You should instead gently clean the surface using the gentlest cleaning solution available on the market. If you can’t find a gentle enough cleaning solution, you may overdilute your washing detergent for the cleaning task.
- Apply the cleaning solution into warm water and dip your soft sponge or rag into the mixture. Wring the water out and ensure that the rag or foam is damp before wiping the stained surfaces. You may need to repeat the gentle cleaning process more than once for the stain to be totally removed. Each time you’re repeating the process, determine whether you need more or less water in the soft sponge or rag.
- If the above process does not eliminate the stain, you can opt for melamine-foam-based white sponges. These cleaning agents are less likely to destroy the look and integrity of the paint and may deliver the much-needed result. To get the best outcome, you may need to follow the application with an adsorbent white towel to clean the white residue they leave.
- If you have determined that the above cleaning method has failed to get the stain out of your wall, now is the time to get more serious with your search for a solution. The next step will be to try a foam cleanser. Foam cleansers are great for getting stains out of painted surfaces, but you want to ensure that it isn’t too concentrated for your flat painted wall. You should first apply the foam cleanser to a small area of the wall to determine whether it is too harsh or not. Be sure to follow the instructions contained in the bottle to get the best results. Optimal results will require you to follow the specified time on the bottle before it is wiped off from the wall surface.
- If the foam cleanser has failed to do the job, the next step is to use laundry soap. Laundry soaps are usually harsher than all the other options you have tried in the past. Select the choice detergent to be used, get warm water, and mix the detergent in water – 1 tablespoon is recommended. Test the mixture on the area and increase the concentration of the detergent as needed to get the best result. Please note that adding too much detergent may damage your flat paint. If the detergent fails at cleaning the stain, you can either live with it or repaint your wall.
Understandably, you may feel a little upset and frustrated after trying all of these options with no solution; however, do not be tempted to scrub the stained surface aggressively. It is also recommended that you avoid using harsher chemicals like bleach for the cleaning task, especially if you do not plan on repainting your wall. Make sure that all cleaning is done using a soft sponge or cloth and in a circular motion.
If all possible options have been explored with no positive results, contact a local painting contractor for recommendations. If you wish to learn more about how to maintain flat paints and other types of indoor and outdoor paints, visit http://surepaint.com.au/
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