Question about that soot stain on my white ceiling I found after a 3AM chimney fire in Portland last winter

Was brushing the flue with my standard wire brush when the soot blew back into the room and left a perfect black circle on the plaster above the fireplace, and now I'm wondering if anyone else has had to deal with that kind of stain on a textured ceiling where paint alone won't cut it?

2 comments

2 Comments

rosebennett4h ago

Well aren't you the lucky one, getting a free art installation from your chimney. A perfect black circle sounds almost artistic if it wasn't from a soot explosion at 3 in the morning. For textured ceilings, you might try a dry cleaning sponge first, those things work wonders on soot without smearing it around. If that fails, a bit of diluted dish soap on a rag dabbed gently should lift it, but whatever you do don't scrub or you'll just push it deeper into the texture.

jordanm192h ago

Had a similar mess a few years back when my wood stove decided to belch a cloud of smoke right onto my living room ceiling. Spent a whole weekend scrubbing with a dry sponge and ended up just painting over the whole thing. Sometimes you gotta accept that the black ring becomes part of the decor.