Since it is cold, we are getting to a point with our new home construction that we feel the need to get the dust, pitch, bird droppings, and fingerprints off our smooth planed doug fir frame. It was previously finished with a citrus base finish (Landark), but but since that time, the frame has seen a little rain, avian visitors who had eaten some red berries, and some dust and hand prints from someone's black glove before it was fully enclosed. What is the best way to clean the timbers? We have waited till now when it is below freezing to scrape the pitch, but it is turning into a huge elbow grease issue. There must be a better way...or product one of you experts might recommend.
What say you? Thanks in advance-Patty
what are you using to clean at present? I would suggest hot water and detergent, with various scouring pads. a wire brush with brass bristles might be useful on the stubborn stuff. It is always hard to replace elbow grease
Thank you for the advice. Hot water is a little hard to come by at the site, and wouldn't stay hot for long-but I will try it. So far, we have tried everything from Murphy's Oil Soap, solvents such as turpentine, more Landark finish, pads such as Magic Eraser and brillo pads, brass brushes, and Simple Green. We have not tried hot water and detergent (that I know of.) I will take up a bucket of hot water and liquid Dawn and see what happens. The car deck ceiling has water spots here and there from the rain, as do some streaks down some beams. Maybe the detergent will help there, if not, I am going to try some Tide next or some cleanser unless someone tells me that is a bad idea.
Patty
Posted By: Dan F
Re: Cleaning up - 12/20/05 11:51 PM
Originally posted by Dan F:
Originally posted by Patty & Craig:
[b]Thank you for the advice. Hot water is a little hard to come by at the site, and wouldn't stay hot for long-but I will try it. So far, we have tried everything from Murphy's Oil Soap, solvents such as turpentine, more Landark finish, pads such as Magic Eraser and brillo pads, brass brushes, and Simple Green. We have not tried hot water and detergent (that I know of.) I will take up a bucket of hot water and liquid Dawn and see what happens. The car deck ceiling has water spots here and there from the rain, as do some streaks down some beams. Maybe the detergent will help there, if not, I am going to try some Tide next or some cleanser unless someone tells me that is a bad idea.
Patty
I'd try 120 grit paper on a R/O sander, then re-apply Landark. It's worked very well for me.
I'm a fan of scraping (plus the added benefit of keeping you warm!)instead of sanding, either a Stanley #80 type or a well sharpened paint type. Oxalic acid, often sold as a deck cleaner, will usually remove any black marks from bleeding iron hardware or fasteners.
Thanks guys,
at the moment, we are scraping with a furniture scraper to get the pitchy spots off. It is looking much better. When that is done, we will try the cleaning tips you have given us and let you know which worked best for us. Lucky for us, we don't have any iron or fastener stains. Mostly just natural (birds/dust/inky glove prints & some drips of hydraulic fluid) spots. -Patty