How to properly clean plastic window sills from dirt

The window sill very often serves us as another surface for storing things or for installing pots with flowers. Therefore, it gets dirty quite often too.

The good news is that PVC, of which the window sill board consists, is unpretentious in care.  And the main rule of window sill cleaning is that the sooner you remove the contamination, the easier it will be to do it.

Regular maintenance of the window sill surface

It is not necessary to scrub and polish the window sills in the house every day. It is enough only to periodically wash off dust and other small impurities from it. Any sponge or soft cloth cloth soaked in water is suitable for this.

For monthly, "general cleaning", you can add detergent. The cleaning algorithm is as follows:

1. We dilute dishwashing detergent or washing powder in warm water (do not use aggressive detergents or products with abrasive particles for routine cleaning!)
2. Wipe the surface with a sponge with the resulting foam. The sponge should also not be too hard, so as not to leave scratches on the surface of the window sill.
3. We wash off the remnants of detergent with a cloth soaked in clean water and wipe the window sill dry. It is necessary to rinse and wipe, otherwise there will be stains on the surface. In addition, dust sticks to the detergent residues very quickly.

Such cleaning once a month is enough to keep the windowsill clean.

Fight against persistent stains

If you neglect the described procedure and do not remove fresh stains from the surface, then very soon persistent dirt may appear on the windowsill. They can no longer be handled with water and a soft sponge.

Let's analyze the ways of fighting, based on the nature of the spots:

• Traces of pots of flowers and cups of drinks can be removed with the help of pharmacy hydrogen peroxide. Apply a 3% solution to the stain and leave for a couple of minutes. As soon as the contamination begins to peel off, wash off the stain. The main thing is not to overdo the peroxide on the windowsill, because then you will have to remove traces of peroxide, which is much more difficult.
• Traces of children's creativity (markers, pencils, markers) are easily removed with a melamine sponge. Very fresh drawings will be brought out by an ordinary alcohol napkin.
• Small greasy spots can be wiped off with a toothbrush and a special cleaning gel or paste. There are a number of cleaning products designed specifically for window sills. They are not aggressive to PVC and therefore do not leave traces even on a glossy polished surface.

Very often, owners of budget windows are upset that the window sills turn yellow over time. It is not always possible to return the original color in this case. The pigment that is used in production absorbs fat over time and during cleaning it is necessary to extract this fat as much as possible.

To do this, you can take a laundry soap and apply its concentrated solution (up to soap gruel) to the yellowed parts. Leave the product on for a quarter of an hour and then rinse with plenty of clean water.

The use of other detergents and especially industrial solvents can negatively affect the windowsill itself, and the pollution will go away along with the top layer of PVC.

At the end, regardless of the type of detergent, be sure to wipe the windowsill with a sponge with clean water and dry again after that. Small spots can be removed this way, but keep in mind — cheap window sills made of low-quality PVC will turn yellow over time anyway.

If you have a glossy window sill, you can purchase compositions for polishing window sills. They will add extra shine, and the surface will repel dust for a while. But the protective coating based on wax or paraffin, which is applied to the surface at the same time, will have to be updated periodically.

We will focus separately on construction pollution:

• Wipe off foam, mortar, paint immediately upon contact. As soon as they dry up, polymerize – it will be much more difficult to remove the stain.
• If the construction stain has dried, treat it locally with the appropriate solvent. Try not to spill the solvent on the clean part of the windowsill and remove the contamination as soon as the foam or paint begins to soften.

Frequent mistakes in the process of window sill care

We have already described some caveats above, so let's summarize and add to the list of the most common mistakes.

1. Do not leave contamination for a long time. Try to remove the stain immediately after appearance. This will significantly save time and money, because later the dirt will be absorbed into the surface of the window sill and may not be removed
2. Use liquid or gel-like cleaning agents, because powders or cleaning agents with abrasive elements will damage the surface and scratches will appear

Even the highest-quality window sills made of scratch-resistant materials may not tolerate the simultaneous effects of aggressive cleaning agents and hard brushes. This will spoil the material of the window sill itself and it will be impossible to restore it. That's why you should always start with a milder cleaning option — and only if it did not bring results, move on to more effective (but also more risky) measures.

As you can see, it is not difficult to keep the window sills perfectly clean, the main thing is to react promptly to any contamination and avoid common mistakes.

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