How to clean the ceiling in my RV

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Ms. Kristy

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2011
Posts
21
The entire ceiling in my RV is covered in some type of carpet. Does anyone have any idea how I can clean this material? It does not like to get wet, I tried and it turned a brownish color. Please help me......Ms. Kristy
 
You can use a spot remover/carpet cleaner in a spray bottle but DO NOT soak it. The brown colour likely comes from getting the luan plywood backing very wet, a very common occurrence when the RV seams/roofs develop a leak.

Spot Shot spray has worked well for me, removing the brown stain and cleaning. Spray on, let soak a bit, blot off using a paper towel or a small carpet cleaner with suction.

Heh heh, this roof material is often referred to as "mouse fur"!!!
 
I think it comes in both varieties, a foam in a pressure can and a liquid spray in a bottle sprayer. 

Difficult?? Apart from the height of  my 5th wheel ceilings, it is not difficult, labour intensive maybe, but not difficult.  If it is just dusty, a vacuum cleaner works fine. I guess it depends on how it got that "dirty". Those water stains are not easily removed and require a delicate touch, a few light applications, light rubbing in using towelling, then  blotting and drying in between applications.
 
Treat the cleaning process like any other carpet cleaning job.  Rent a commercial carpet cleaner with hose attachment.  Use it to clean the ceiling as you would any home carpet. If you have stains, then spray them with a mixture of Oxyclean and water solution then vacuum.  I have been using this process once a year for 7 years on my MH.  It works.
 
    We've used spray carpet cleaner quite effectively, and the last time I did the floor carpet with our Little Green Machine, I tried it on the ceiling with great results.  The only extra step I did was the same as I always do with floor carpet , is to rinse it with plain water to remove the soapy residue.  A light brushing with a plastic/nylon brush will remove most spots that the pass with the soap hasn't removed.

Ed
 
Our motorhome is a 1991 and we had the same problem or even worse as for water stains also....We used pet stain and oder remover with esimes spelled that wrong.....Spray it on heavy let set and rag it off with a wet cloth,,,,looks like NEW Grime, stains and smoke all gone....
 
Hfx_Cdn said:
    We've used spray carpet cleaner quite effectively, and the last time I did the floor carpet with our Little Green Machine, I tried it on the ceiling with great results.  The only extra step I did was the same as I always do with floor carpet , is to rinse it with plain water to remove the soapy residue.  A light brushing with a plastic/nylon brush will remove most spots that the pass with the soap hasn't removed.

Ed
Here's a tip on carpet cleaning. I manage a 40-unit apt building. All of them 2 & 3 B/R apts. They used to be carpeted until we switched to H/W floors. Anyway, we learned not to use any kind of soap for cleaning carpets. 1 cup of ammonia to 1 gallon of HOT water does a better job and leaves no residue. The problem with carpet cleaners is that they all leave a soap residue behind. That soap residue is continually cleaning the bottom of your shoes onto the carpet each time you walk on it. That's why spots seem to "Re-appear" after shampooing. Great for keeping the soles of your shoes clean but not much good for the carpets. You won't get that with ammonia.
 
:) One more ? for those that posted that they have used a machine to clean their ceiling.I noticed that if this material got too wet, the backing would bleed through and create a brown spot, how did you avoid this from happening?  I know those machines have a tendancy to put out quite a bit of water, even the hand held device. I really don't want it to look any worse than it already does.
 
Ms. Kristy said:
:) One more ? for those that posted that they have used a machine to clean their ceiling.I noticed that if this material got too wet, the backing would bleed through and create a brown spot, how did you avoid this from happening?  I know those machines have a tendancy to put out quite a bit of water, even the hand held device. I really don't want it to look any worse than it already does.
On our steam cleaner, the operator controls the amount of chemical spray with a trigger on the hand held upholstery cleaner. Just short spurts of chemical and the machine sucks out the chemical as fast as it sprays on.

If a person doesn't have a steam cleaner, I think the same thing could be accomplished with a spray bottle and a shop-vac. Just spray the chemical directly in front of the nozzle on the shop-vac and suck up the chemical as it hits the fabric.

I felt our ceiling as we were doing ours and it never felt wet.
 
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