Soot sprinkles

September 25, 2005 6:42 AM

SootFilter: A friend of mine's building cleaned its chimney and a lot of the soot got in her window. There is a fine layer all over her hardwood floor and all of her belongings. How can she clean it off?

Most of the info. we've found has been about cleaning up after a fire and is therefore pretty drastic, but this is more like it's been sprinkled all over the place. Cleaning attempts so far have just smeared the stuff. Thank you!

posted by walla to home & garden (6 comments total)

Ouch. Cleanup is going to be quite difficult and expensive. Dry-cleaning for clothes, curtains, etc. Carpet cleaning with a wet-dry vac. Scrubbing. Your computers may well be ruined - soot is electrically conductive, and a bit of it connecting two circuits which ought not be connected or getting into a hard drive will trash your PC. Similar for other electronics.

Um, was there warning that this would happen? I would absolutely seek recompense from the building owner. They have done you serious economic harm due to their negligence (unless, perhaps, they repeatedly warned you to seal and ducttape your windows, and you did not). Take pictures of the apartment...
posted by jellicle at 7:03 AM on September 25, 2005

Yes, seriously...what jellicle said. The landlord should be the one hiring an army of cleaners to come into the apartment to get this straightened out.
posted by Kickstart70 at 10:07 AM on September 25, 2005

IIRC, soot contains not only plain carbon, but also something sorta petroleum-related, so it sticks to everything really badly. Whoever did the damage should be paying for the cleanup, in one way or another. (Insurance, etc.)
posted by unrepentanthippie at 12:21 PM on September 25, 2005

I asked a friend who's a chimney sweep about this. This is what he said.

"argggh! oooh that's a bad.. We have a company here called Service Master that meticulously cleans soot from walls and rooms, usually taking days on end when it's a bad dusting of it. I think they use hand cloths and just take their time.. maybe a mild detergent soap of some sort"

He also sent me this link.

Hope this helps. As others have said, it sounds as if it's the landlord's or contractor's responsibility.
posted by essexjan at 1:17 PM on September 25, 2005

Smearing is the number one issue you'll have with cleaning up the soot, especially from more porous surfaces. I cleaned up after a minor fire recently and found that what worked best was a pretty strong mix of bleach and hot water. But even that didn't work extremely well. I'd second the recommendation to have ServiceMaster come and clean -- it's just not worth doing yourself.
posted by HiddenInput at 1:54 PM on September 25, 2005

I want hire a professional, someone like ServiceMaster, that specializes in cleaning up after fires, murders, etc, and send the bill to the landlord. Soot is awful to get out, and you'll just end up ruining everything if you try to do it yourself.
posted by alms at 7:57 PM on September 25, 2005