Cleaning/painting plastic garden furniture

I decided it was time that I cleaned various garden plastic chairs, etc. Some are quite old.

The Karcher has brought off 95% of the muck and grime, but there are still some stains and ingrained marks.

Before I start 'experimenting', can any members advise me on successful cleaning products/techniques, please?

Failing success that way, have any members effectively managed to paint plastic of this sort?

Help will be greatly appreciated.

 

Washing up liquid in warm water and a good sponge and elbow grease, so times plastic will be scratched and will not clean up at all

I've never got on with painting plastic, it never looks nice when i do it, may be it's the paint i use

 

Thanks. Sadly, washing up liquid doesn't really do anything. I suspect that if the high power Karcher won't bring it off, simple household washing-up liquid will struggle. I've tried something called Elbow Grease. Very cheap - £1 on the market. That does have some effect, but I would like more!

 

Get the finest wire wool you can get use it with soapy water and it will come up like new.

 

Many thanks for that advice: I don't know why I didn't think of it myself! I kept a pack of fine wire wool on the garage shelf for years, but, when I inspected it recently, it had disintegrated. I will buy some more.

Thanks again.

 

I don't think painting plastic furniture will be successful . Possibly there is now a wonderful ( and expensive ) paint for this application . I would use the fine wire wool or my preference would be Scotchbrite , or a used dish cleaner which has a Scotchbrite pad. Keep it wet with warm soapy water.

 

WD40 for cleaning
...and if you wish to spray paint after that then Rustoleum or Plasticote do an extensive range

 

Thanks for that. Liberon (via Amazon) do very fine wire wool - I've sent for some. I'll see how I get on with that.

I'll report back in due course.

 

Soap pads work ok but a bit on the aggressive side, ive used them on plastic satellite dishes when a few scratches doesn't matter.

Amazon.com: S.O.S. Steel Wool Soap Pads, 18 Count: Home & Kitchen

Yes please keep us informed, one tip clean as you go dont let it dry out without washing the clean area down.

 

Thanks. The link is to the USA site, but there it is also shown in the UK one - except out of stock. There are similar ones though.

 

PVCU solvent cleaner works, but don`t go sniffing it too much in case it sends you diddle oh
Wire wool will leave scratch marks

 

Thanks. I've looked at PVCU cleaner: I'll see how I get on before moving in that direction. The finest wire wool doesn't leave scratch marks. It is used for some quite delicate work. Course stuff certainly will!

 

Best thing to use after is nail varnish remover acetone, fine wire wool wont scratch you can buff it @Tetters you can bring car paint up with it.

 

My wife buys these from Morrison's i think.

 

I shall check to see whether I still have any acetone in the shed. I know there's about 4 litres of alcohol there! I've bought all sorts of such things over the years, usually in fair quantities.

I've now had several 'cures' suggested. I am grateful for those. Next week I might have the time to do one chair with one cure, and another chair with another and so on.

Thanks again for the help.