Narrow road on my way home blocked by a huge low loader articulated truck. Not everyday you see an aircraft tug on the side of the road 30+ miles from the nearest airport. 

Any tips for removing a grease stain that's appeared through fresh matt emulsion?  No idea what it is.  Thought it was just a water splash but it's never dried out since.  I did wipe the wall down first but obviously not well enough!

Don't really want to rub fresh paint.  Wondering whether I can try and 'dab' some washing up liquid or vinegar window cleaner on.  Would that pull grease out of paint?  Main concern is that both of those have colouring in, and I don't want that to dye the paint.

Grease needs a solvent or a detergent to remove it.Vinegar won't do it. If the stain is under fresh matt emulsion, I would be considering reapplying once the stain has gone so I would start with Washing powder in hot water to dilute it. If that didn't work then lighter fluid but I expect it will have to come off and then soak it out with a solvent. What is the substrate?

5 hours ago, anon said:

Grease needs a solvent or a detergent to remove it.Vinegar won't do it. If the stain is under fresh matt emulsion, I would be considering reapplying once the stain has gone so I would start with Washing powder in hot water to dilute it. If that didn't work then lighter fluid but I expect it will have to come off and then soak it out with a solvent. What is the substrate?

Thanks.  I thought vinegar was a degreaser, albeit a fairly weak one?  I did try it earlier but it didn't make a difference.  Haven't tried washing up liquid yet, that does cut through grease, although I'm unsure whether it can 'pull' it out of paint.

Don't have any washing powder or lighter fluid to try unfortunately.  

It's just a plasterboard wall near a sink.  It does get splashed a lot (area would be tiled if I owned the property) however the grease has only appeared on one very specific place, and wasn't visible in the old matt emulsion, so I have no idea what's caused it.

Near a sink. Kitchen or bathroom then  Grease could be cooking oil in one case or face cream in the other. Both are a problem in plasterboard as you will be lucky to remove all traces without damaging the paper covering. I certainly wouldn't use anything aqueous and would be thinking in terms of acetone or similar.

Some people also have sinks in a bedroom...  Perhaps it's better to use some sort of primer to seal the grease and then paint over that.

The picture on this one suggests it works amazingly well...

51 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Some people also have sinks in a bedroom...  Perhaps it's better to use some sort of primer to seal the grease and then paint over that.

The picture on this one suggests it works amazingly well...

It does Tom and I was going to suggest it but from memory it stinks and was quite expensive.

I've used this. It seems to work well and not too expensive.

3 hours ago, Tizer said:

It does Tom and I was going to suggest it but from memory it stinks and was quite expensive.

Thanks.  Are you sure it was this one?  This is the cheapest I could find per can as it's available in 250ml.  It is expensive per litre though.  Also says low odour on the front but I know that could be subjective.

 

1 hour ago, mjt said:

I've used this. It seems to work well and not too expensive.

Thanks.  That's about the same price although a larger capacity.  Should do what it says on the tin at least!  

1 minute ago, TomsFocus said:

Thanks.  Are you sure it was this one?  This is the cheapest I could find per can as it's available in 250ml.  It is expensive per litre though.  Also says low odour on the front but I know that could be subjective.

I must be getting it mixed up with another one I used before if it says low odour. These things do work well though but it is a pity you need to buy a whole tin if you only want a tiny bit.

Diluted PVA may also work bit I've never tried it for a spot repair, only to seal whole walls.

There is another wall I haven't done yet which might go the same way.  (Can see a sweaty/greasy mark on that one where it gets touched regularly).  So might be best just to wait and see whether I can clean that one effectively first.  If not, then at least I can get more used out of one of those primers.

Good call Tizer.  PVA, thinned 1 part PVA to 20 Water. Allow  to dry then repeat. That will do it.

In the past I have done it using gloss paint, oil-based not water-based, and that seemed to work well on stains that came through the plaster from water ingress. I don't know how well it would work on a grease stain though.

Or if emulsion would go over it. I would stick (sorry) to the PVA. 

I did try washing up liquid earlier and that does appear to have made a difference.  Will check in full daylight tomorrow to make sure it's not just an illusion.

The washing up liquid does seem to have worked.  No longer looks 'damp'.  Just a slight shadow left.  Turns out that some more work needs to be done in that area, so will wait for the next lot of damage to be caused before painting over it again, but good to know that washing up liquid works well for future use. 

 

On a completely different note, has anyone ever seen a retractable self-supporting extension lead?  I'm thinking something like a retractable washing line, but with cable wrapped around it.  That way I could get power from an upstairs window to charge the car batteries without risking idiots cutting it with a lawnmower or any chance of people tripping on it.  Only needs to be low power.  Thought there'd be more of a market for something like this but can't find any at all so far.

I already have a heavy duty cable reel, but can't see how I'd 'attach' that to a cheap retractable washing line once it passes about 6ft high, and it's too thick to shut in the PVC window for overnight use.  Not too bothered about the cost, replacing the battery would be around £100, and obviously that would be constantly draining without use, so rather spend a bit on a charging solution instead for now.

25 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

On a completely different note, has anyone ever seen...

Tom, I use to think that my life was full of minutiae, oddities, and strange requests. Compared to you buddy, I'm a rank amateur... 🤣

17 minutes ago, StephenFord said:

Tom, I use to think that my life was full of minutiae, oddities, and strange requests. Compared to you buddy, I'm a rank amateur... 🤣

Fingers in many pies at the moment!  

Update on the paint situation...  The washing up liquid didn't work.  Added another coat yesterday and it came through again.  So will need something to seal it first.  But still have many bigger faults to deal with at the moment.

12 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Update on the paint situation...  The washing up liquid didn't work.  Added another coat yesterday and it came through again.  So will need something to seal it first.  But still have many bigger faults to deal with at the moment.

Just come across your post.

A few years ago my wife and I moved into a house which was occupied by a family of smokers. Every room had brown stains in the emulsioned walls and ceilings. And grease patches in the kitchen. I thoroughly sugar soaped the lot and applied new good quality matt emulsion. Stains still came through. Then second and third coats, and the it was all still coming through. 🤨. I was then thinking I may have to have the whole place skimmed with new plaster. Just as well I didn't as I was subsequently told it would probably come through that as well!

Anyway a visit to the Dulux Decorator Centre who gave me great advice and recommended this product :

https://www.duluxdecoratorcentre.co.uk/dulux-trade-stain-block-matt

One coat of that and then emulsion gave perfect results!  Plus it sealed in the horrible musty smell.

Wish I'd used it in the first place!  It was expensive but certainly solved the problem. The rooms still look good years later.

 

 

Something for our older readers that regularly take medication (that includes me!)

My prescription for two regular tablets are 20mg, and 25mg, ie milligram.  So why does the Boots sticky label on the box say MG, possibly interpreted as Mega gram ?  The manufacturers have it right - mg or does upper case G mean 10^-9 ???

Got to pick up my meds from boots later. Will check the MG mg on mine. 

My Tesco label says mg/ml.  Is the other writing on the Boots label all in capitals?

No, just the name of the drug and it's details. Other text like my details in correct Upper/lower case.  I know I fall into the category of "Grumpy Old Man", but I see it as another example of falling standards ?

Ignorance and incompetence seem to be the norm nowadays.  I could fill a page of this thread with the cacophony of errors that have occurred here in the past 3 months.