Does anyone have tips for removing “temporary” blue chalk? My neighbor installed T-111 siding as an interior wall surface in a sunroom, and marked his lines with blue chalk. His wife wants to stain the wall, but cannot remove the chalk. Other than telling her that blue is considered to be the easiest color to remove, I don’t know what to advise her to do to remove it.
Thanks!
Sue
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Replies
Brass wire brush?
They've tried a toothbrush without any luck...I can suggest a wire brush. Keep the ideas coming! Sue
I have never tried to remove blue chalk from a rough wood surface like T-111. Comes right off of painted surfaces.
Try the toothbrush with a little water on a scrap - blue lines seem to vanish when outdoors (where you want it to stay!) as soon as more than 4 drops of rain fall.
I suspect you will need to blot the water/chalk solution away as the chalk dust will just be suspended in the water. Not really gone - just spread out.
Another thought - blast it off with compressed air through one of those blow gun thingys hooked to a compressor - I'd try about 90 psi, blow with the grain. Better than water - no raising the grain, spreading the chalk around, etc.
Good luck!
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Yeah, air sounds like the ticket. If you don't have a compressor handy you can buy "canned air" at a computer store.Water likely just "sets" the marks.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin
I thought of trying my air compressor, but was afraid I might "push" the chalk deeper into the wood.....? Sue
Snapping the line probably pushed it as far as it will go.
Spritz with bleach, brush, and blow. Would get ya closer maybe. Try an out of the way spot, first.
I don't know about the bleach, on wood that's going to get stained...?Sue
Once dry it is inert to oil based colorants. Should be fine.
Don't SOAK it, just spritz.
The bleach might be inert once dried, but the effect it hadd in lightening th wood will not be so the stained wood will be disoloured also, unless it iss a very dark solid colour stain.I have never tried this - but in theoiry it will work better than the bleach - A chalk is a base mineral and it binds to the surface with a weak ionic bond just like mineral deposits left by water.The presence of water in trying to loosen that bond can deepen it in some instances. but by counteracting it with the opposite, a white vinegr for the acidic reaction, the chemical bond can be broken and the chaulk cleaned off.
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Could be a solution.
T-111 here is SYP, pretty dense, and light to begin with. Depends, like you note, on the stain color as well.
I MADE water based stains from concentrate, and Pthalo Blue was used in "walnut" color stain. So it may be a moot point.
Ammonia is also an option, it was added as a surfactant, and anti-foaming agent, totally compatible with stain and top coats.
While discussing chemistry, milk makes and excellent emulsifier, for blending oils and water in a solution, so it too has a place in the woodfinishers arsenal.
Here, the standard T1-11 is fir, but I can get pine or cedar just almost as easy, so I wouldn't make any assu,mptions on wood species there.experiementing in a small spot is the best advice.
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Regarding ammonia -- that's basic, and the previous suggestion was to use a mild acid. This seems to get more and more complicated! Sue
That happens here..LOL
If I had a chance today, I'd test a few hunks of roughsawn and blue chalk, but I gotta zip out the door for a while.
What kind of stain are talking about? ( PLEASE let it NOT be Minwax Polyshades, please).
I don't know that they've gotten far enough to pick out a stain yet, but I suspect they can be talked into about anything at this point. They're almost convinced they'll have to paint the wall BLUE instead of stain it! BTW -- We have the same birthday (NOT year, of course!).Sue
Great! We need more super-critical Virgos here. LOL
I meet a lot of folks with the same BD or a day or two close to it. I 'm a damm triple Virgo, Sun, Moon, and rising..and every planet in Virgo..or somesuch thing.
explains my eccentricity, or so I am told.
I figured air might help and most likely "do no harm".
I like the chemical analysis of operative bonding forces offered by Piffin.
I would have a tendency to try just about anything within reason on scraps and see what worked the best at removal and then try staining it before employing any technique on the entire project.
Hopefully, Sue will find a solution to the problem and then pass it on to the rest of us.
Jim
Never underestimate the value of a sharp pencil or good light.
Edited 7/19/2007 8:45 pm ET by JTC1
I dunno, but bleach might work.
My first thought was a strong vacuum with a brush attachment.
Water could make things worse...buic
I was able to do a quickie test.
Vinegar worked and so did peroxide.
I was going to suggest vinegar because it would attack the chalk and cause a reaction (turn it to salt) which may make it easier to remove. Looks like Sphere beat me to it. (Okay, should have posted this to OP, but what the heck!)
I can't imagine this is an actual problem.
when we snap blue chalk lines in the morning on felt-----after lunch we often have to re -snap them--they have already faded that bad.
and if we snap 'em on shingles-----for example to trim a valley-----chalks gon after the first rain---often overnight.
you must have some POWERFULL chalk for certain
Stephen
It's some sort of corolary to Murphy's Law.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin