John Grabowski wrote:
OK, I thought this would be easy. There was some black soot near a
ceiling register from an oil furnace. So, I got on a ladder with a damp
sponge, thinking I could just wipe it off.

Well, it didn¹t quite work our that way. The ceiling is smooth painted
sheetrock, and trying to wipe off the soot just spread it out and made
it worse. I then tried cleaners like Fantastic, they didn¹t do much.
So now I have an area with waves of grey in an otherwise white ceiling.

So, does anyone have any ideas of how to clean up this mess, short of
repainting the ceiling?


*There is a product out by Mr Clean called the "Magic Eraser". It is a
chemically treated sponge. I carry one on my truck and have always had
good results. Many grocery stores and Wal Mart sells them.

I didn't know the magic eraser had any chemicals to clean with. It does
have a fine abrasive, and automotive polishing compound seems to do the
same job, at about 1/100 of the price.