Washing Walls?

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Do any of you do it, and how?
I've just decorated two rooms and it's made the rest of the house seem so grubby.

It's all slightly off white emulsion, with wallpepered chimney breasts. Can I wash them, or do I need to repaint everywhere?

[VictorianSqualor]

Try washing with sugar soap first.

[AbbaFan]

I made DH buy that really expensive hard wearing paint that you can wash - havn't done it once in about 18 months!

Depending on the paint you may find it starts wearing away if you scrub too hard.

I would lightly wash with soapy water and see how you go.

[DontNeedAnything]

Is it matt or satin paint?

I don't think you can do much with Matt finishes as it pulls off the paint.

Satin I just wash down grubby patches with a baby wipe. Never done a full wall with a bucket of water and a cloth type thing.

[Overmydeadbody]

I wash my walls every now and then, it is just regular old matt finish paint and I give them a good wipe down with a soft sponge (not a scourer) and ciff or soda crystals. Gets the wall looking nice and clean again and doesn't take the paint off.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

It needs a light wash, just grubby finger prints really. i was thinking about trying with a soft sponge and hot water and washing up liquid, do you think it would work?

[Overmydeadbody]

yep that would work tdwp, or if you can get some soda crystals that will work too. I have done it before with washing powder disolved in hot water and that also works very well.

[TheDevilWearsPrimark]

Thanks OMDB, I've just tried in my hall with some ecover in hot water, it came up brilliantly.

I think I'll sit down with a pot of tea now after all that hard work, haha.

[southeastastra]

on how clean is my house last night, she just used normal white soap

[DontNeedAnything]

SEA I think she did plain white soap (dove if my observation powers didn't deceive), but then she dipped it in a plate of bicarb like you would dip a chicken breast in breadcrumbs. She was doing this on gloss paint though.

It it is greasy finger prints a "biological" washing powder should work very well though.