How to Get Paint Drips Off Vinyl Siding

Whether you paid someone to stain your porch or deck or saved money by doing it yourself like I did, you’ll probably have some paint drips and splatters that didn’t get wiped off when they were wet. Once paint drips dry on your vinyl siding, they will no longer wipe off easily. Even an electric power washer won’t help.

Following some online research, I decided on a few common products to try for cleaning the drips from when I repainted my deck and porch. Ideally, you’ll want to clean up drips immediately, but sometimes that isn’t possible or you don’t see the drips right after they happen. Unfortunately, no product I discovered will get paint drips off vinyl siding without a lot of effort, but some options definitely work better than others.

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OxiClean Spray

OxiClean spray makes both a great laundry pre-treatment product and a general household cleaning spray. For my paint drips, I sprayed on Oxiclean and waited for about 15 minutes, then returned and rubbed it with a scrubber sponge.

I had to use significant elbow grease, not to some mention finger nail scraping for some of the larger stains. I did manage to remove enough of the paint to make the stains mostly unnoticeable. You shouldn’t have any trouble finding Oxiclean spray at your local grocery store or Walmart for about $3 to $4 a bottle.

Bar Keepers Friend

Many folks keep Bar Keepers Friend on hand for scouring the sink, cleaning toilets and other tough jobs. After making a paste of Bar Keepers Friend and water, I used my trusty, damp Scotch-Brite scrubber sponge again. I worked on a larger stain this time as well as some smaller ones, and the Bar Keepers Friend took a lot of muscle to remove any paint at all.

It eventually removed most of the paint where I applied it, until I ran out of steam from the hard scrubbing. Some of the new paint also came off the deck where I accidentally got some of the Bar Keepers Friend paste. You can pick up Bar Keepers Friend at most grocery stores for about $2 or less.

Goof Off

Many online posters suggest using Goof Off for paint drips, so I bought a spray bottle for about $7 at Lowes Home Improvement. Nothing in Goof Off’s instructions indicates that it’ll remove paint drips from vinyl siding, and it didn’t remove any for me. Per the product instructions, I sprayed it on, waited a few minutes and wiped it off with a soft cloth, and nothing came off, even when I tried a wet cloth.

All was not lost with the Goof Off, though. I also tried it on some paint splatters on my sliding glass door which I’d been unable to remove with other products. I sprayed it on, waited a couple of minutes and wiped it off with a dry cloth with little effort. Nearly all of the dried paint splatters came off the glass and metal parts of the sliding door, making the Goof Off product well worth the money I spent on it.

How About You?

Did this article help you get paint off your vinyl siding? How do you clean up messes from your DIY projects?

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