Avoid These Common Mistakes When Cleaning Metal Surfaces

The good, the bad, and the ugly. As a company that offers both residential and commercial cleaning in Fort Wayne, IN, our team has seen it all. But that’s what we’re here for¾to make the world a cleaner place. Sometimes that means digging in and getting our hands dirty, and other times it means answering our customers’ questions about the small things they can do every day to keep their homes and their office spaces clean.

One of the things that we often talk about with our customers is how to clean metal surfaces. From sinks to refrigerators, a lot of kitchen surfaces these days are stainless steel or some other type of metal. Cleaning these metal surfaces regularly and correctly is essential to their upkeep.

If you have metal surfaces in your kitchen and you want to keep them looking their best, here are a few common mistakes you should avoid.

Not Wiping with the Grain

You’ve probably heard to “wipe with the grain” when talking about cleaning stone or even wood surfaces, and the same applies for cleaning metal surfaces as well. Wiping with the grain of the metal allows you to clean microscopic grooves in the surface of the metal where dirt and grime can hide. Wiping in the direction of the grain will also help keep your metal surface bright, so you can avoid a dull or streaked look.

Using Abrasive Cleaners

Baking soda may be a great cleaning agent, but not for your metal surfaces. Metal surfaces, particularly stainless steel, can be easily scratched. An abrasive cleaner will scratch and damage the grain of the metal surface and leave it looking aged and dull.

Using Bleach

To be perfectly honest, there are very few cleaning jobs in your home that should be tackled with bleach. While bleach is a great cleaning agent and can remove almost anything, this is due to the fact that it contains harsh chemicals. These harsh chemicals can cause pitting on metal surfaces, which will then trap grime and dirt. Using bleach to clean metal, in the long run, will actually make it look dirtier and even discolor and remove the protective layer of the surface.

Using Abrasive Brushes and Cleaning Pads

Steel wool, steel brushes, and other highly abrasive cleaning pads should never be used on metal surfaces. Similar to an abrasive cleaner, these types of brushes can scratch metal surfaces and make them appear dull. Certain metal cleaning pads may even break apart and leave behind small carbon particles in the surface of stainless steels surfaces, and over time these particles can rust and make your metal surface appear to be rusting.

If you avoid these common mistakes when cleaning your metal surfaces, they will look clean, bright, and beautiful for many years to come. For more tips like these or to schedule a professional residential or commercial cleaning in Fort Wayne, IN, just call Pro Clean Building Services, Inc., your local cleaning specialists!

Categorised in: Commercial Cleaning

This post was written by Writer