Well, I know you CAN, but what I mean is, will it hold up?
We have two really nicely designed, simple chaise lounges in the backyard. They were not cheap. Unfortunately, the straps were not high gloss vinyl and now they have a dingy yellowish tint and bleach hasn’t helped, dishwashing soap doesn’t work, so far nothing has worked to clean those straps.
I was wondering if there is a paint I could use that would, uh, stretch after it has dried so the straps won’t look crappy after about three days.
To have them both completely re-strapped will cost almost as much as what they cost new.
Are these made of fabric? You can paint them with regular paint that has a fabric additive added to it. The additive allows the paint to “move” slightly so it doesn’t crack immediately upon stretching. I am not sure how this would hold up to the weather, though.
If they are plastic, you might try washing with a solution that contains powdered water softener. That seems to remove a lot of dirt from a lot of random things.
They are plastic. The straps were not the high gloss plastic, but sort of a rougher texture. They seem to have a bacteria or something as when you put cushions on it, it REALLY turns ugly yellow underneath, but when you take the cushions off, the sun eventually bleaches it somewhat back to the dingy yellow. Someone here at work told me to try Oxymoron (or whatever that stuff is called that they advertise on TV)…I figure a small jar would be worth the investment to see if it works.
Do you think that fabric paint would work on a rougher texture vinyl?
Not sure if paint with the fabric additive would stick well enough to plastic. You can get paint that is made for plastic (Krylon?) but I’m not sure if it “gives” at all.
I would go the cleaning route. I think if you paint them, and there is a bacteria causing the discoloration, the paint isn’t going to cover it up. I would guess it’s a type of mildew and that will eat right through any paint.
Will try cleaning it one more time, then will try the paint approach, and if that doesn’t work, stop by my garage sale next week for a deal on lawn chairs.
The Mr. Clean people have a “Magic Sponge” that’ll clean nearly anything from rough/porous surfaces. I took permanent marker from a satin-finished wall with that thing. Crayon, etc. all just washes away.
It’s a parent’s godsend. If it was made from crushed baby seals, I’d probably still buy it.
Yippee! I will be dashing off to Home Depot tomorrow AM to see what they have…just hate to have to toss these chairs - like I said, great design and the metal part is rust free, is is just the straps that have the cooties.
But I might give that magic sponge a try as well. Thank you all for the great tips!
You might try an auto-parts store first. They have paints and dyes for vinyl that are used for re-coloring vinyl upholstery in old cars. That might work better.
OK - I spent the past weekend cleaning the chairs and here is the results:
The Mr. Clean Magic Erasure…first of all, a bit pricey at $1.00 per sponge. However, it did a decent job, but I needed two sponges just for one chair, and there was more than a bit of elbow grease involved.
I used the little bleach sticks from Chlorox to get rid of the corners stains. I wasn’t very careful so parts are VERY white and other parts are ok.
Because I ran out of supplies, on the second chair I used the Oxywhateverstuff. Mixed a little in some water and got to work. Let it sit for the required half hour and wiped again. Did a very nice job, but not quite as good as the Magiz Erasure, but with less work and certainly far less money.
OK…then I sort of made a blunder that turned out to be a good solution. I took the remaining Oxystuff liquid, and wiped off both chairs, meaing to come back and rinse later. I got sidetracked and didn’t rinse until the next day…well, a fine coat of the Oxystuff, left on the chairs in direct sun, did the trick. They look new!
My only fear now is that with $85 worth of chemicals slathered over all those slats, the first person who sits down is going to find their butt hit concrete as those straps give out and snap like twigs.
But the chairs sure do look clean, white and spiffy!
Thanks one and all for the suggestion - and I still might try painting them later in the summer, or before next spring.