How to Clean a Stone Fireplace
How to Clean Your Home’s Stone Fireplace
Stone fireplaces are a beautiful way to elevate your home. After a few seasons of use though, any stone fireplace will need cleaning to restore its natural beauty and remove any layers of dust, dirt, and grime. Luckily, restoring your fireplace to one that sparkles and shines isn’t a job that requires a professional, and you can definitely do it on your own! Here’s how to clean a stone fireplace.
Avoid Harsh Chemical Cleaners
First and foremost, be sure to avoid harsh chemical cleaners. Chemical cleaners can be bad for stone fireplaces, as their acidity ruins the natural composition of stone and deteriorates it. Stay away from any cleaning agents not meant specifically for stone, and specifically avoid any cleaners made with citrus components, which are naturally acidic. Additionally, some chemical cleaners may end up leaving behind a thin film of residue which contains flammable components — certainly not something you want around your fireplace!
Use a Homemade Cleaning Recipe
One way to truly avoid harsh chemical cleaners is by creating your own. A popular mixture involves mixing one gallon of hot water with ½ to 1 cup of trisodium phosphate. There are also many other cleaning recipes available online, and a quick search on any search engine will yield some specific to your stone or cleaning needs. If making your own homemade cleaning agent doesn’t feel like something you’d like to do, you can always buy an enzyme cleaner specific to stone!
Prep Your Home
Cleaning your fireplace can get messy, and you definitely don’t want dirty water splattering onto surrounding surfaces or furniture. Prepare your home by moving any nearby pieces of furniture, and lay down a tarp. You may find it useful to use painter’s tape to secure any plastic tarping and prevent leaks.
Gather Your Cleaning Materials
The next step is to gather your cleaning materials. You’ll need a bucket for water, a cleaning solution, some cleaning rags, and a sponge or other soft cleaning tool. You’ll want to avoid cleaning tools with harsh bristles to avoid creating microscopic etches in your stone. You may also find it helpful to have cleaning protection like rubber gloves and eyewear such as goggles. They prevent soot, dust, and dirt from irritating your body, and keep cleaning agents off of your skin! You should also crack a window or ensure ventilation of some kind; cleaning agents can be noxious or cause headaches.
Scrub and Rinse
To clean your fireplace, begin by creating a soapy solution of warm water and your cleaning agent in the bucket. You may need to add more cleaning solution if your fireplace is notably dirty. Using your tool, scrub the stone of your fireplace with the soapy solution. When you’re done scrubbing off all of the mess, replace the dirty water in the bucket with clean, warm water and rinse off any suds. From there, you’ll want to gently wipe down your stone so there’s no standing water, and allow it to air dry from there.
Do Deeper Cleans Occasionally
While this cleaning regime is helpful for those lighter cleans, you’ll want to perform deeper cleans on your fireplace stone occasionally. How often they’re necessary varies; it truly depends on how often you use your fireplace and to what extent it seems to gather soot.
Choose Fireplace Stone From Impression
If you don’t yet have a fireplace and were simply reading to get a feel for stone fireplace maintenance, then contact the professionals at Impression today to get started on a stone fireplace of your own! As you can see, the maintenance is minimal — and that’s just one of the benefits of having a stone fireplace. Our team of craftsmen is experienced and knowledgeable, ready to help pick out the best stone for your dream fireplace design. Learn more about our stone fireplaces, the stone materials we use, and projects we’ve done in the past by exploring our website!
