When people aren’t quite ready to do a full window replacement yet, they’ll resort to other methods to prevent the cold air from getting in. One of these methods is to apply duct tape to the windows. While duct tape might be a quick and temporary fix, it’s also one that will leave you with a headache to clean up. Tape leaves behind a very sticky residue, and if you don’t know how to clean it up, you could get frustrated fairly quickly. Learning how to remove tape residue from your windows is useful knowledge to have because it will help eliminate your stress from trying various other methods that don’t even work in the first place. Many people have spent hours and hours using trial and error with different scratching and scraping techniques to remove tape residue, only to find that nothing works. Some people might even damage their windows from trying scraping methods.
Most people aren’t familiar with the consequences of applying tape to windows until it’s too late. With the right methods, however, there is always a way to remove the sticky residue that’s attacked your windows. If you’ve ever looked up how to clean the residue off your windows and found one guide telling you to just scrape it off, you should briskly ignore that piece of advice. Using any type of scraping method on vinyl windows will cause damage. Because windows are such an expensive product, you really want to keep them in as good of a condition as you possibly can. Many people will initially resort to using their fingernails to scrape the residue off the windows. Even doing that can cause minor scratches.
How To Remove Tape Residue From Glass
There is always a right way and a wrong way to do something, and the right way just makes things so much easier and convenient.
Learning how to get rid of tape residue consists of a couple of supplies and a few different steps:
- Find a cleaner (you can use a chemical-based cleaner or you can make your own that contains vinegar)
- Get a pair of latex or rubber gloves
- Get a bucket and start filling it with water instead of running to the tap constantly
- Get a mild soap for the cleaning process
- Have some paper towels handy (a soft cloth will work if you don’t have paper towels)
What Are The Steps?
- The first step is to put on your gloves to prevent your hands from getting irritated from the chemical-based wash.
- Start by putting the cleaner that you’re using on your cloth instead of right on the vinyl so that you don’t risk using too much of the cleaner at a time.
- Start wiping the windows to get rid of all the residue.
- If you need to, give the surface a gentle scrub.
- After that, get your soap, water, and cloth and begin wiping away any remnants of the cleaner.
- With the clean water in the bucket, give the windows a good rinse.
- After that, get your paper towels and begin drying the windows.
Note that there isn’t any scraping or scratching the residue in any of these steps listed above. If you follow all of the steps, the stick, annoying residue should start coming off.
