Having a balcony can be a great place to sit outdoors and relax, read a book, enjoy potted plants, or just admire the sunset. However, a balcony can also attract a large amount of dirt, mildew, and bird droppings.
If you are looking for a quick way to clean your balcony for regular cleaning or if you’re going to have friends and family over, this blog will cover a few quick tips that may help.
Sweeping and Mopping
If you have a small balcony with a cement patio, the easiest and quickest way to clean it may very well be to use a broom and mop. By using the broom first, you will remove a lot of large debris such as leaves, twigs, and general dirt build up.
After the balcony has been swept, adding a small amount of water and standard cleaning solution works well with a standard mop. You can also use 9 parts water to 1 part bleach in place of a cleaning solution, especially if you have mildew stains.
Quick Cleaning Tips
Start At The Top
Working from the top down is the quickest way to get your balcony sparkling clean. Start with the railings, move to the windows and door frames, then thoroughly clean the furniture, and finally move on to the flooring.
Use a Multi Purpose Cleaner
While you can use almost any standard cleaner for cleaning your balcony, a multi purpose cleaner is an excellent choice. This cleaner can work for all surfaces including furniture, metal railings, glass windows, vinyl paneling, and more. Just apply as directed and use a sponge or cloth to wipe it off. You can also rinse it off or use the high-pressure setting on your hose to remove grime and caked-on dirt.
While some recommend using white vinegar to clean your deck, it has to be properly diluted and applied for a short span of time. Otherwise there is risk of stripping and discoloration. We also recommend against baking soda, dish soap, laundry detergent, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, chlorine, and most other alternative cleaning products: multipurpose cleaner works just fine, without any of the downsides.
Dry Your Furniture
After you are done cleaning your balcony and the furniture, ensure everything has a short amount of time to dry in the natural sunlight and breeze before placing furniture back down. The biggest reason for this is a wet balcony with metal-footed furniture can cause rust stains in very short order. Be sure to also place any wet upholstery in a location where it can properly dry.
Cleaning Bird Droppings
Bird droppings can be very common on balconies, but if yours heavily attracts birds and is covered in bird droppings, you want to ensure the mess is cleaned up without disturbing it.
While you can simply use a stuff brush and dry-scrub the droppings off, this can cause a lot of dust in the air which can get into your lungs or onto other surfaces causing even more of a mess than when you started.
One of the best ways to clean bird droppings is by wetting them first. Use a mixture of 9 parts water to 1 part bleach and soak the droppings for a few minutes before scrubbing them off. The bleach will help to disinfect any bacteria that may be in the droppings, and by wetting it you will prevent the droppings from spreading.
After the droppings are wet, you can either scrub them with a brush or spray them off with a water hose. In most cases, some droppings may need to be scrubbed in order to completely remove them.
