Freshly painted or wallpapered walls give rooms a neat and pleasant look. Over time, unsightly signs of wear and tear can occur because of environmental influences but also intensive use of living spaces.
The residents then often feel the desire to clean the walls without having to start again with the time-consuming painting work.
But how can a painted wall be cleaned so that the wall coating or the wall with wallpaper is not damaged and everything is sparkling clean again?
With our collection of tips and tricks, you will clean the wall. Give your walls a new shine and create new moments of well-being in your home or office.
Clean Walls – Check-up before cleaning
Before you, clean painted walls, first, check the wall coating carefully. Which color was processed? Is it lime and distemper paint, emulsion paint, or structural paint? Were the walls painted or glazed? Is it a wall with wallpaper?
Important note: Before cleaning, carefully examine the base with which the walls have been painted or treated. This is the only way you can carry out cleaning measures that are optimally tailored to the respective materials.
Properly clean wall coating made of paint and glaze
Cleaning a painted wall that has been painted with a paint color is easy. A soap-free cleaner and warm water will do the trick here. An important tip to achieve an even result: Carry out the wiping movements from top to bottom. In this way, you prevent unsightly water runs from affecting the result.
Glazed walls can be cleaned just as easily, but only if they have been painted over with a clear varnish.
Wall cleaning for dispersion and structural paints
We speak of emulsion paints when the viscous to thin coating comprises a dispersion of filler, binding and solvent elements or pigments and other substances.
For stubborn dirt, for example, on surfaces around light switches, a very fine-grain scouring agent can be used carefully. However, a special cleaning solution or simple soapy water suffices to remove dirt.
For heavy soiling, which often occurs in kitchens or bathrooms, we can also use a plastic scouring pad for cleaning. Combine this with soapy water and a dash of ammonia water, which is also commonly referred to as liquid ammonia.
If your wall coating comprises textured paints, then you can also use soapy water for efficient cleaning, but not with added ammonia, but better with borax. You can find suitable cleaners that contain sodium borate on the market.
Properly clean walls with whitewash from lime and distemper paints
Whitewashed walls were usually treated with lime paint based on mineral paints or painted with distempers using glue as a binding agent and water as a solvent.
Unfortunately, this form of wall paint cannot be easily washed off. Because here the paint would come off the wall and light spots and shades could remain on the areas to be cleaned. Here it only helps to brush off the paint and then apply to selected areas or the entire area.
Remove dirt from the wall with wallpaper
Dirty wallpaper leaves a lasting impression. Unfortunately, no positives. However, if your wallpaper is dirty, you do not have to replace it immediately. First, remove loose dirt and dust with a broom or vacuum cleaner.
You can then smear the contaminated areas with a mixture of water and commercially available baking powder. Let the substance soak in for a few minutes and then remove it with clear water.
A clean tea towel or paper towels are suitable for drying.
When cleaning, it is best to proceed systematically from top to bottom in order to achieve a good result on the wall with wallpaper.
cleaning rough plastered walls
If the level of dirt is low, you can clean the wall simply by using a soft sponge, a soft-bristled brush, and water.
Our tip: To treat grease stains, which occur more frequently in the kitchen, for example, there is special degreaser cleaning agents in spray bottles on the market. After a short exposure time, we can remove the greasy soiling with a sponge or cloth.
If the soiling is extensive or intensive, think about repainting the wall surface. It is crucial that the new color has a high opacity, otherwise, the time-consuming work is often in vain. Because if a paint with poor opacity dries, strong stains will come through quickly and remain visible even after repainting.
Creative children and the wall pollution with a felt-tip pen
Many parents know the problem with creative little ones. Especially when children are still tiny and making their first experiences with felt-tip pens, it happens in high spirits that a work of art suddenly finds itself on a wall that was not planned there.
Even if it might annoy you at first, you can also tackle felt-tip pen drawings without having to repaint the walls.
Use baking soda and mix it with a little water to make a paste. Then dip a white cloth tip into the mixture and gently rub over the felt-tip pen drawing on the wall.
Using a damp, clean cloth, wipe away the residue. Most times, dirt from felt-tip pens can be removed efficiently in this way.
SOS tip for cleaning the wall
Do you want to quickly remove minor dirt or marks on the wall? Are you short on time and looking for a quick cleaning solution? Try our tip below.
Regardless of the wall color, you can often remove dark lines on walls with a dirt eraser. You can get this in drugstores and supermarkets.
But be careful: Please check in advance on an invisible part of the wall, for example behind a piece of furniture, how the color reacts to treatment with the dirt eraser. Then you can carefully devote yourself to black lines with the slightly moistened eraser.
This small effort often brings great effects. Especially when there is only minor soiling or marks on the walls, caused, for example, by street shoes or pieces of furniture.
Clean painted walls? With our tips, we guarantee you to succeed in solid wall cleaning. Cleaning a painted wall – often the effort is comparatively small and the effects afterward absolutely convincing. Enjoy freshly cleaned walls, most times without having to reach for the paintbrush.