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Clean the outdoor furniture with soap.
Sara Idenfors
When the wonderful season when you can actually drink your coffee outdoors begins, the garden furniture deserves a little care.
Here we will give you some tips for both plastic and wooden furniture. These wooden garden furniture pieces have been left outdoors over the winter. They have therefore turned gray and been affected by mold. The furniture is made of a harder type of wood (it is somewhat unclear exactly which one), but of the kind typically used for garden furniture sold in furniture stores.
Since they have been through a difficult time, they have nevertheless dried out and begun to develop small cracks.
This is what they looked like before we started. See the before picture below.
Here, we must start by removing the black mold infestation.
We do this using lukewarm water, solid soap, and a stiff scrubbing brush with plenty of scrubbing power. We use plenty of soap and scrub along the grain of the wood, never across it.
We scrub the entire piece of furniture, paying extra attention where we can see that the wood is affected and has black stains.
Where there are no black patches, we use a softer brushe and solid soap. We then wipe off the soap and foam. Once we have done that, we take a compostable cloth, cool water, and plenty of liquid soap. We wipe the tabletop twice with soap and only a small amount of water.
Here you can clearly see how the superfatting soap penetrates the wood and replenishes its oils. See the pictures: before, after cleaning, and after we wiped it with cold water and liquid soap to restore its oils. Clean, attractive, and now the owners simply have to choose whether to continue scrubbing the furniture with soap or oil it. If you choose to use soap, it should be wiped with the superfatting soap and cold water a couple more times during the summer. If you oil it … well, that is a completely different story, and the jar explains how to do it.
NOTE: The solid soap now comes in new packaging. It is available in a cardboard tub or a glass jar, but it is the same solid soap as before.
How to save your plastic furniture with soap
No stiff brush is needed for the plastic furniture; here, we are simply cleaning a glossy plastic surface. We choose an Ecofiber cloth, warm water and soap. This is quick and easy, and all the black spots come off the surface easily. We wipe it down and, just like that, it's done! Mould and algae do not like the alkaline soap, and if you are a little “careless” about wiping off all the soap, it does not matter much; it will simply help prevent mould and algae from taking hold again.
If the mould or algae infestation is very severe, several soap scrubbings may be needed to get rid of it, but persistence pays off, and the soap creates an environment that is hostile to mould and algae.
Perhaps you have heard that roof tiles used to be treated with soap; this was done for precisely this reason.