Asked on Sep 15, 2012

How do i get chalk off vinyl siding?

Kathy Bennett
by Kathy Bennett

i have used bleach and a pressure washer and it looks good till it dries. Thanks


  16 answers
  • Try scrubbing with vinegar.
  • Marianne Radley Marianne Radley on Sep 15, 2012
    Sounds crazy but try vegetable oil. It works to get off price stickers so it may neutralize the chalk. Couldn't hurt the siding. Just may want to follow with a mild soap wash to remove oil.
  • WD40 will do same with adhesives, but this is dry chalk ( unless Kathy is mis-spelling Caulk) which is an alkali ( base) so an acid ( vinegar) would neutralize it and break the bond. If it is actually caulk, the answer would depend on what kind it is.
  • Marianne Radley Marianne Radley on Sep 15, 2012
    True Nichter's. And also know all about mis-spells...it's called auto-correct. The bane of technology! ;)
  • Sharron W Sharron W on Sep 15, 2012
    @Marianne...LOL, I spend half my time trying to force my phone to let me spell! Awwww gets "autocorrected" to "sewers"..... and add one w and it gets auto corrected to asses....imagine the responses I get back if I'm trying to oooooh and awwwwww over someone's cute baby and they get back those resopnses instead! ..Yeah it's fun.... @ Kathy B., Nicter's has a good plan for neutralizing the chalk, but in my experience, with sidewalk chalk; after you get it all off it leaves a residue...and for that I use a paste of baking soda mixed in cooking oil until it's like silly putty....after GENTLY rubbing over the area with a soft cloth, use murphy's Oil soap to take off the cooking oil residue....
  • Regina Regina on Jan 14, 2013
    I tried the above suggestions for removing chalk on a corner vinyl piece on my porch that had been there for months. None of those worked. My mother in law came over and used toothpaste and a toothbrush. Voila! It worked!
  • Mike Mike on Jun 24, 2014
    Come on gang....so your telling this poor lady to scrub her entire vinyl home to get the oxidation off? Do you realize how long that would take her and how dangerous that would be on high ladders? Please call a professional and have it done right.
  • Chad Johnson Chad Johnson on Sep 23, 2014
    I'm own a paint company and we clean vinyl a lot. Use 1/2 cup laundry soap( I perfer liquid Tide), 2-3 cups vinger,1/4 gal. Clorox.ln a 5 gal.bucket mix ingredients and top off bucket with water up to around 4 gal. Spray on siding with graden sprayer( from bottom to top). Scrup with soft brush or use pressure washer with light pressure. Do this every spring and will keep you siding in good shape.
  • Most vinyl siding as it ages will begin to chalk. Even after doing a really good cleaning it does not take all that long for the film to develop again. Darker colors tend to show it up more. I have a blue home that I sided about 25 years ago and I power wash it every year and by the end of the summer it looks as though I have not touched it My fix is I have been replacing the siding a few walls at a time. Hopefully by end of year I will have newly sided home.
    • Abbie Abbie on Jun 09, 2020

      Are you replacing the siding because the newer vinyl does not chalk?

  • Shirley Shirley on May 29, 2015
    Clean with muriatic acid full strength and a soft scub brush. It work for me!
  • Shirley Shirley on May 29, 2015
    I did mine on house shutters!
  • Kathy Myatt Kathy Myatt on May 03, 2017

    Totally just worked!!!

  • Denise Holland Denise Holland on May 22, 2017

    cheap white toothpaste(we used Colgate) gets Crayola Chalk off a vinyl fence. You have to scrub it on dry then wash it of. We used old toothbrushes to scrub it off.

  • J. Ray J. Ray on Nov 01, 2020

    I had this same problem, then I went to the auto parts store and bought some meguires hot shine spray. You can spray on (9-12” away from the siding) and leave on a couple minutes and wipe off a small section (side to side)of your siding to see what it looks like, after treating it. Mine was pretty oxidized, so I treated the entire back of my house. It looks brand new. It has lasted many months now through full hot sun and driving rains as well. This is the ONLY thing I have found to work so far. You may find a few places show back through where the coats weren’t as heavy, just spray some on the rag and wipe that section down. I think you will be surprised at how well this works. It also continues to protect the siding from UV rays.

    it worked for me, and it’s way cheaper than residing your house

  • Carl Carl on Dec 16, 2022

    Mean green it's at the dollar general it's a spray cleaner anything else other than dawn and water will dry it out and it will get brittle we install sidding me and my friend and been doing it for 25 yrs