Fireplaces - cleaning off old soot stains

[WendyG]

Please, please, can anyone make useful suggestions as to how to minimise brown soot staining etc from years of open fires on the white stone at the rear of an old fireplace which we have just opened up again, revealing the original bread oven.

So far we have tried scraping, produced some results in places, an acid type cleaner - this seemed to spread the discolouration.  Wire brushing and a brush "thingy" on the end of a drill - this latter seems the most successful so far.

Someone, somewhere must have come up against the same problem!

The fireplace had been built over some many years ago leaving just a front register plate for a woodburner so the soot etc residue has been on the chalk/limestone blocks for many a long year without exposure to light and air.

Obviously I do not want it to "look like new" but it would be nice to get rid of the worst of the blackening - it is not the usual black "paint" which disfigures so many old fireplaces, just residue of years of open fires.

Many thanks for any help.

[Chrissie]

Have you tried scrubbing with a very hot water and vinegar mix?

Chrissie (81)

[WendyG]

Thanks Chrissie - sounds like a brilliant idea - white vinegar is useful for so many cleaning jobs.

 

[Wozza]

You could try sandblasting! Quite expensive and very messy, but removes most things from stone. We hired a sandblaster to clean our beams - it didn't do that good a job of the beams but cleaned all sorts off the stones around the doors and windows, leaving them looking great.

Let us know how the vinegar trick works, it sounds well worth a try before sandblasting!

Warren

[Rob Roy]

My OH used a rotary wire brush fitting on the electric drill. Hard work and lots of elbow grease, but it did the job and got rid of many years of soot at the back of the chimney breast.

[WendyG]

Thanks to everyone for their helpful suggestions.  I will try them all, except maybe the sandblasting!

Will post results in due course.